Homemade Lemon Balm Salve Really Works - Greeneville, TN

I went through a ton of websites and researched various ways to make lemon balm salve. This way worked best for me but there are various ways....

First you take a whole whole bunch of lemon balm leaves. I'm talking as much as you can fit in a medium sized pot (I used a double boiler). Throw in a cup of olive oil and cook for 2-3 hours. This infuses the oil with the necessary elements from the leaves. So you want a nice sloooooow cooking of oil and leaves. Next, you have to drain the oil from the leaves. You can use a strainer first to remove the leaves and then you need a finer filter. I just used a coffee filter right on top of the mason jar with a rubber band holder the filter in place. So below you will see the oil drained and placed back in the double boiler. The chunky stuff is beeswax...

Note that I did not use a full cup of olive oil on my first batch as I was experimenting. So you reheat the oil and the wax until its liquid. You want a consistency that is thicker than a lotion but not as hard as wax of course. Take a spoon and remove some of the liquid from the pot, let it cool and test the consistency...

If its too runny add more beeswax. Too thick more olive oil....That's it! Let it cool and cover.

I tested it out on poison ivy (of course) and some other skin abrasions and it works really good. Since we have so much lemon balm growing here at Nolichuckey Bluffs I finished making an entire jar of this healing salve - great for your skin!

Too Much Basil is a Good Thing - Organic Herbs Greeneville, TN

Our sweet basil seeds took off. I pruned them dilligently and let them get bushy, I transplanted some that came up from last year where they didn't belong and they just grow and grow and grow. I haven't dealt with basil a lot and its been fun to make fresh pesto and bruchetta.

Now we are experimenting with various ways to dry the basil and freeze pesto. The above picture is only one of about four batches of the equivalent size since we began to harvest. In the back of the photo is a cool dark basil and recently I just found a couple plants that are lemon basil. Oh yeah, here's some updated photos of the herb/flower garden - its coming along nicely...

Zinnias and bottom picture is a huge fennel plant and big oregano and time plants...

The Day the Tiller Won - Greeneville, TN Organic Farm

I'm from the flatlands and don't have a ton of gardening experience - probably more from books than practice - so my first experience with a tiller was a memorable one....

As you can see we are using a pretty standard tiller - you know, the kind I've seen sweet old ladies using in their beautiful garden patch with no weeds unlike the garden above. I cranked the tiller up and when I set it down on the hard clay it shot off pulling me behind it. I held on for dear life to slow it down and actually til the land (and weeds). After three rows I was completely exhausted.

I called up my co-worker Debra - she's also a local. She came out to the garden and I asked "Am I doing this right?" I cranked it up and showed her a row. "Yes" was the deadpan reply as I dripped sweat and breathed hard. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I told you it would work you hard" she said. I thought maybe it would be easier to pull the weeds by hand!

Well, I've used the machine a few more times since then and had much better success even though it still works me hard. Seems that first time no one told me that if it hadn't rained in three weeks the clay may not be receptive to the tiller. And no one told me to maybe water some the night or morning before I planned on using it. Debra still gets a big ol' laugh out of me calling her to see if I was using it right.

Best Bakery in Greeneville, TN

Okay so I'm biased but look as this will ya...

That's called a Funky Monkey Pie. My Dad, who has the worst sweet tooth I've ever seen (he used to put ice cream on his cereal instead of milk, no lie) said that this was the best pie he'd ever eaten. High praise! It's a homemade deep dish crust with bananas on the bottom, chocolate peanut butter mix layer, then a vanilla pudding layer, whipped cream, chopped peanuts and chocolate shavings.
Our Bakery At the Bluffs is fairly young. We decided to start small with items we knew were good, family recipes handed down over the years. I love to make desserts - it runs in my blood. So I'm more than happy to come in from pulling weeds or hauling logs to bake some pies.

We all combined our talents in the kitchen at our bakery to provide breads (yeast rolls made from scratch above), pies and specialty desserts such as peanut butter balls and chocolate covered caramels from scratch.
Its been interesting so far. We have a lot to learn but if we ever mess up than its more than easy to eat whatever we messed up on:)
If you're ever in the area, stop by for a slice!

Almost forgot about our Organic Farm in East Tennesee

So not only did Brooke and Pat let us work an herb garden but they also allowed us to share a huge outdoor veggie plot with them and Debra. In theory this was great, we'd all pitch in and have tons of food and learn how to can it and on and on....but reality has been a lot of learning from us Floridians. We lost some crops to the infamous potato beetle, I've almost been stuck overnight in the Tennessee clay and learning on the fly with a garden this size has been interesting...

But overall its been a blast - we'll put up some pictures of everything about halfway through the season if we can muster up the courage to show you all our weeds too.

How novices learn to garden - Tennessee Organic Herb Gardening

Michelle and I were real intersted in learning a lot about gardening from veggies to herbs to flowers. The owners here mentioned that farming was part of our work. But early spring they sprung upon us an unbelievable opportunity - complete design and control of the herb/flower garden near the main store! The picture above shows this wonderful spot - those are 5' X 5' squares and there are 12 of them. That's pretty huge for begginers like us. Those big piles on the left are just SOME of the weeds we cleared out. The forefront shows off some of the herbs coming back from last year - oregano and a fennel plant which you'll see later becomes huge.

There are a few traditional veggie plants like tomato and green pepper in this garden but overall we wanted it to be unique. We also wanted everything in the garden to be edible - flowers and herbs.  Most plants come from seed straight to the ground while some others were donated by some master gardeners. We'll keep you updated!

Michelle the weed queen

Arrival to Smoky Mountains

This view was a far cry from our flatland upbringings! Our family arrived to Nolichuckey Bluffs in April after meeting the owners briefly and exhanging a few emails. This view helped ease our nerves for such a big move. We started out thinking we'd be part of an organic farm and possibly clean some cabins. We have learned and experienced so much more since our arrival. Thanks for reading.....Sumner, Michelle, Amaya and Phoenix