Free Range Friday ~ Culebra Bees, German Public Gardening, and More

Because I've been having connection issues, postings have been a bit - to say the least - sporadic lately. Mea culpa! So today's offering, if I can actually get this done, will be a mix of a few things food and life related. Is that oxymoronic? Do we want to go there? No, we do not.

Have you read lately about rosemary, how sniffing it is supposed to have healing properties? The aspect that stood out for me was that it supposedly can help increase memory ability. I can't remember why I thought that was important... but the practice can't hurt; who doesn't love the smell of rosemary? As I was reading about it, one idea is to use rosemary oil. That led me to wonder how one goes about getting rosemary oil beside a trip to the local health food/voodoo store or going online. Apparently, it's not that hard to make it on your own. And it isn't that hard to grow your own either. If we can grow it here, it seems it would grow just about anywhere!

Yes, you might run the risk of being called, soto voiced, a rosemary sniffer, but I can think of worse things. Oh yes I can.

According to Amy Stafford on A Healthy Life for Me, "All you need is Rosemary, Mason Jars, and bottles to hold oil." Ok, I'll say, jars of any sort will work - unless you've tried to find Mason/Ball type jars around here, you wouldn't know why I'll suggest saving jars on your own. There is no instant gratification here, it will take about a month before it is steeped, but after that you can use it in all sorts of things - Amy suggests everything from adding it to your body lotions to flavoring foods. A goodly range that will have you mentally alert and face happy too. I'm in!

I've heard a lot of talk over the years about having a community garden here on Culebra. Carmen Rosa and I even started, with a team effort, a garden over at the daycare by the playground, some raised bed gardens, years ago, but it didn't quite catch on, though we grew tomatoes, melons, spinach, kidney beans and yuca, to name a few things. From The Shelter Blog comes the story of one city that has given itself free range as to community growing. Way over there, in Andernach, Germany, the idea is a reality and flourishing. If they can do it, so can we. Really. You can see more of their garden photos here. So, you talkers, start the walk! Yes, there is land to use. Yes, water can be an issue. No, that is no reason not to go for it.

photo credit: unknown

As mentioned before, we're lucky here on Culebra to have plenty of honeybees who are, well, busy as bees, being bees. Without bees, we have no food (no sane food anyway), ultimately, so bees are a very good thing. Here are some that I saw yesterday.

I love this bee! 

Full of pollen!

What is the best thing I tasted this week? Red Head Anita's salsa. I was just leaving Cheli's market when she came by, a plastic container in hand. "You want to taste this and see what you think?" she asked. Hell yeah! Fresh peppers, fresh tomatoes, I'm not sure what else but I'll try to find out. The taste was alive alive-o!, the heat slowly built to an agreeable level, not too little, not too much. She was taking it to Dale at Dinghy Dock; apparently they trade peppers and goodies. Lucky Dale! I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of it, beautiful red living food!

Speaking of Alive AliveO! Playing for Change put out a new video yesterday. Savor this!

Have a feast not famine Friday. Do something forwardly.