The weekend is my prime time to harvest and process food from my garden. Here’s part of what I harvested today:
I also harvested Basil. I made this from the Basil:
We’ll be having this for dinner tonight, served on zucchini noodles. I’ll post a recipe later this week for the pesto, and the meal I’ll be making from it. I had enough basil to process 5 batches of pesto. I’ll show you how I preserve and use the extra in the recipe post.
The Lemon Balm and Lemon Verbena were loaded into the dehydrator to be dried for tea. In a few days when they are done, I’ll show you the results.
Later today, I will engage in battle with the ants that are herding aphids on my precious artichoke plants. My plan of attack is to wait until dusk and then hose the plants down, washing as many of the aphids and ants off as I can. I will then release ladybugs under all the artichoke plants. The nursery told me they won’t fly away if I release them at dusk. They’ll wake up and see all the yummy aphids.
The second phase of my attack is to mix some Borax and peanut butter for the little devil ants to take back to their nests. Do not try this in areas where small children or pets have access. Queen Bartifah and Muffie Stuffie Sucker do not access the front yard where the artichokes are.
If anyone else has any other organic/non-toxic suggestions for dealing with the ant/aphid issue, please comment.