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There are creative cooks who pair fresh herbs with their produce and other dishes and then there’s me who needs all the inspiration I can get to up my game in the kitchen. I have the basic herbs growing - Italian parsley, rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano - but I want to learn more uses for common herbs. I have used Italian parsley for lemon butter to drizzle on rosemary chicken. The oregano and basil goes well on a stuffed baked potatoes and poached salmon with mushrooms, marjoram, lemon thyme and a touch of mint is delicious, too. I forgot, I have lemon verbena which goes well with carrots, beets, corn, tomatoes and all types of fruit. I need to get some sage. It would pair well with beans, apples, tomatoes, cauliflower or potatoes. Other herbs that I need to add are cilantro, summer savory and tarragon. When shopping for herbs it's a good idea to snip a leaf and crush it between your fingers. Smell the essential oil. You'd be amazed how different herbs can smell and taste depending on the source of the plant. Thyme can smell like caraway, pine, camphor, lavender or turpentine. Rosemary plants can vary widely in taste depending on the source of the stock. You don't want to ruin chicken dinner by using the crushed leaves of one that tastes of pine or turpentine. Trim your herbs often to keep them bushy and productive. Fresh herbs are at their finest in summer as they peak in flavor and essential oils. Most herb stems can be cut and kept in a jar of water, out of direct sunlight, for a few days of use. I've even had basil send out roots in water.  Nearly all herbs are perennial and can be grown from seed. Anise, coriander (also known as cilantro), dill and fennel should be sown directly in the garden as they do not transplant well. Parsley lives for 2 years then flowers and goes to seed. The flowers attract beneficial insects to your garden so leave them to do their work and start new plants to eat. The herbs that are annuals and need to be planted from starts or seed every year include basil, coriander, dill and summer savory.  Although rust infects mints, very few diseases or insects attack herbs. Occasionally, spider mites may be found on low growing herb plants in hot, dry weather and aphids may attack anise, caraway, dill and fennel. Washing the foliage off early in the day helps in controlling mites and aphids. Here are some growing tips:Most herbs like 6-8 hours of full sun. Well drained soil is essential. If drainage is poor, work in plenty of organic matter or grow in raised beds or containers. Water regularly until the plants are growing steadily. Then most will need only occasional watering. Exceptions are basil, chives, mint and parsley which prefer evenly moist soil. Many herbs attract beneficial insects if they are allowed to flower.   Fresh herbs are the most flavorful. The stuff in spice jars that you get in the store is often tasteless when compared to the real thing. When cooking with herbs, there is a general rule of thumb to keep in mind regarding the ratio of fresh to dry. Because  dried herbs are often more potent and concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less. That means the correct ratio is one tablespoon of fresh herbs to one teaspoon of dried. Herb plants make beautiful ornamental additions to perennial beds and borders, too. Next week I’ll talk about how to harvest, dry and preserve herbs.   

For years I dreaded cooking rice and when Uncle Ben produced instant rice in a plastic pouch, I was elated.  And then I met Maroque.

Listen to Think Local First Radio's Show on August 1st, to hear a little about the current COVID state of the Press Banner from our Managing Editor Cherie La France-Anderson.  Here's the link: http://zbsradio.com/play-episode/id/16181/play-time/0.  Cherie's interview begins at 20:00.

Dear SLV Family and Friends, Greetings to all and I hope this finds you well. As we approach the opening of the 20-21 school year, I continue to hear from many of you with questions and concerns about the coming school year. There are so many unknowns for all of us that it continually causes feelings of anxiety, stress, and fear in everyone. Please rest assured that the SLVUSD staff is committed to taking care of every student. This year, the theme of Mission Possible, means that we will do everything possible to help students be successful. It is a year of PATIENCE, CARING and FLEXIBILITY.  We are committed to building resilience, confidence, and courage in students and staff.  One size does NOT fit all, we understand that and will make every effort to provide students and parents what they need. We are teachers, and before anything else, we teach children, not subjects or grade levels. We do not have all the answers and often do not even understand the questions that are constantly changing. Please give us a chance to begin the August Schedule, which allows for Parent & Student Orientation, these information sessions will help build a common understanding of conditions and requirements as it relates to school. Each school will also have Q & A Sessions to help parents and students navigate during the school year. Training and assistance with technology and online systems will be available to parents and students. Parent conferences will allow parents to meet their child's teacher. Please feel free to set up additional phone conferences, or zoom sessions with the teacher as needed.  

 The soil is made of butterfly wings, dinosaur teeth, pumpkin seeds, lizard skins, and fallen leaves.  Put your hands in the soil and touch yesterday, and all that will be left of tomorrow shall return so that new life can celebrate this day." -Betty Peck Soil is a wonderful thing. It grows our food, anchors our trees and provides a foundation under our feet. But it sure can be hard to work with when it's not the soft, crumbly loam that many plants prefer. It's amazing that anything grows in some of the soils here in the Santa Cruz mountains. Some folks near Quail Hollow garden in an ancient sea bed of sand and there are others who have such heavy clay in their gardens that you wonder how anything survives. I used to live up under the trees in Felton where the soil was heavy clay. Now in Bonny Doon, I garden in gritty soil. Both soils have their challenges, but I think clay soil is the hardest to deal with. Soil that doesn’t drain quickly during the winter is especially challenging. Where’s that perfect loam when you need it?  Some soils in Boulder Creek requires a pickax to break up enough to plant. Sound familiar? Although rich in nutrients, clay soil requires compost to provide the environment necessary for beneficial microbes, worms and other critters could do their work and aerate the soil. A thick layer of mulch spread over the soil helps to preserve soil structure and prevent it from packing down again. There are plants that are tolerant of clay soils but California native plants won’t tolerate standing water for any length of time. They’ll die from either root rot or suffocation as saturated soils prevent oxygen from getting to plant roots. You can plant on a slope where the water is unlikely to saturate the ground around the plant. Search for native plants that will survive slow draining soils at Calscape -  https://calscape.org. Using the Advanced Search Tool you can see which plants tolerate different conditions. Enter your address to find plants for all kinds of sun, moisture and drainage situations. I found 48 plants native to Boulder Creek that tolerate slow drainage on the website. From ceanothus to manzanita to California fuchsia to Douglas iris you’re sure to find plants that look great and perform well.  There are plants from similar environments in other parts of the world that would also do well if you garden in heavy soil. One of my favorite trees for these conditions is the strawberry tree. Also hackberry, ash, gingko and paperbark trees work well also. Shrubs to try to include; flowering quince, bottlebrush, Australian fuchsia, smoke tree, escallonia, pineapple guava, mahonia, osmanthus, Italian buckthorn, elderberry and vitex. Easy perennials for clay soils are yarrow, bergenia, carex grasses, fortnight lily, coreopsis, echinacea, nepeta, salvia, teucrium and verbena to name just a few. If you're not familiar with some of these plants, it's easy to see what they look like by Googling images. It's what I do to see a plant full grown and not just a line drawing or a close-up of the flower.  So you see, there are plants that will be successful even in heavy, clay soil, you just have to pick the right ones.     

Every week, on Sunday morning, I kiss a black man’s hand in front of several hundred people. And I’ve been doing that for twenty years. It happens in the middle of our Sunday service at a moment called the ‘Kiss of Peace’. We do this because, in Eastern Orthodoxy, it’s considered a deep hypocrisy to worship together while claiming to be ‘perfectly united, with no divisions’ (1 Cor. 1:10) while being upset with someone or holding a grudge.