Please tell me just who, among people over the age of four, actually believes campaign promises? The only sensible thing from my point of view is to take a look at the candidates’ voting records and the stands (if any) they have taken on matters that are important to you before the Presidential Olympics began. Then pick the lesser of two evils.

1 1/4 lbs large sea scallops (if the ligament is still attached, remove and discard it)
4 T. butter, cut in 1 T chunks
2 T. finely chopped shallots
1/4 c. dry white wine
1/4 c. white wine vinegar (I realized mid-recipe that I didn’t have any, so substituted natural rice vinegar. If you use rice vinegar, make sure that it is natural, not seasoned)
1 T. finely chopped French tarragon

Pat scallops dry and season with a little salt and pepper.
Heat large cast iron skillet over medium-high flame. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil, or enough to coat the bottom of pan. Sear scallops, turning once, until golden brown and just cooked through, about 5 minutes total.
Transfer scallops to a platter. Add shallots, wine, and vinegar to skillet and boil, scraping up any browned bits, until reduced to about two tablespoonsful. Add juices from platter. Reduce heat to low and add two tablespoons of butter, stirring until almost melted. Add remaining butter and swirl until mixed. Stir in tarragon and salt (if needed). Pour sauce over scallops and serve.

Enjoy!

Last week I received another gift that I certainly never expected. A long-time customer and his wife came into my store and handed me a box containing a lighted OPEN sign. They called it a “belated house-warming” (or store-warming) gift as I had moved my business about a year ago. I can’t even begin to tell you just how good that made me feel! It felt as though the smile on my face was filling up my body from head to toe. I have always tried to do my best for my customers since that’s the first rule of a successful business, but I never dreamed that any of them would ever choose such a concrete way to let me know that they appreciated it and me.

So if you are one of those who don’t think that any gift short of a diamond or a Jaguar can have a major impact —– think again! Of course, when you find yourself looking for that “just because” gift or a gift for any reason, I hope that you will check out our unique handmade gifts and gift baskets.

It took about 4 bags of topsoil (which unfortunately seemed to come with a few of its own small rocks!) half a bale of peat moss, and half a bag of composted manure to fill the box. I’ve had mixed luck with it — the bell peppers that I planted there the first year were quite happy and produced well, but the cauliflower plants didn’t quite make it to maturity the following year.

It is very noticeable that although the crabgrass constantly threatens to take over my regular veggie garden, the raised bed is almost weed free. This is a huge help in itself, as my time in the garden is very limited since I have both a brick and mortar store and a web store to manage and must also find time to make the handcrafted items that I sell.

This year I noticed that the soil level had dropped considerably, so I filled the remaining space with compost from the pile in the corner of my yard. I’ve planted several eggplant plants in the raised bed and several more in the regular garden area and it is now obvious that the ones in the raised bed are growing at almost twice the rate of the ones in the garden. I think that it’s a combination of the warmer soil in the raised bed and the compost. Now if I could just convince my garden helper cat that it really isn’t an extra large kitty litter box…..

Now I just have to control myself so that I don’t break the budget (especially since I’m planning on ordering a greenhouse kit to replace the one that was murdered by a falling tree earlier this year).

I was given an apology about the missing coupons as well and told that they would be posted to me ASAP! If the company follows through with these promises, I’ll be much more than pleased. I sure hope that the follow-through is as good as the telephone contact because I can see lots of uses for this unit. I’m hoping to use it to get a head start on some of my seeds in the Springtime and also for cloning plants from cuttings.

If anyone reading this is interested in gardening, I hope that you will check back to see how it all turns out! Also, you might want to take a look at http://davesgarden.com/ This is a gardening forum where I spend most of what little free time I have.

I live in an area with quite cold Winters (zone 5a) and the poor light levels inside make it nearly impossible to grow anything but the few houseplants that require very little light. During the warm weather, I normally grow a small organic vegetable garden and a separate area for herbs. The Aero-garden looked like a possible solution to provide fresh culinary herbs during the winter season.

Its compact size and built-in grow lights certainly appealed to me, and I was curious about hydroponics as I’d never tried it before. The price was a bit high for us, but I finally decided to ask for one for Christmas as I thought that it made more sense than having my husband spend money on things that I neither wanted or needed. He made quite an effort to find one for me, but it was apparently a popular gift and all the stores around us were sold out. In the end, this worked out for the best as one of my brothers gave me a wine refrigerator and we already had one. We were able to return it and (with the help of a coupon) only paid about $16.00 extra to purchase my Aero-garden.

Here’s the first tip I can give you —- look at the instructions before you start taking the little plastic containers out of the box! They are supposed to be put into the unit in the same positions as they were in the box. (Of course, by the time I read those instructions I had no idea which herb had been in which position and just hoped for the best with the placement I’d done.)

Here are a couple of pictures of the plants as they first started to sprout and as they filled out the unit later on.

On the positive side, the unit worked as advertised and it was amazing to see how fast the plants grew. Of course there were no weeds and no bugs to deal with and we actually had trouble keeping up with the production of fresh herbs. (Now, if you want to make pesto, you would need to opt for the version with all basil, as there wouldn’t be enough basil available otherwise.)

Now we come to the “dark side”. The literature that was provided stated that the lights should be replaced at 6 months. It stated that although people might not be able to tell the difference in the level of light provided by the bulbs, the plants would suffer from lessened light. I, of course, intended to test that out; however, in practice, one of my bulbs apparently just burnt out and it’s barely been THREE months since I turned the machine on! My second criticism has to do with the offer of $50.00 worth of coupons that was included as an incentive for purchasers to “register” their Aero-gardens. I duly sent mine in, but chose to check the opt-out box that stated that I was NOT interested in receiving advertisements from them. I’ve been waiting quite a long time and no coupons have arrived. Could it be that I won’t receive them because I don’t want to be bombarded with more ads? The registration form certainly did not state that this would be the case (otherwise I certainly wouldn’t have bothered sending the form in in the first place!) I have been to their website today and copied their Customer Service e-mail and phone number, so will soon find out what their answers are to both of the above problems.

In case you’d like to see their offerings, the website address is
www.aerogardenonlinestore.com/

Part of the veggie/wildflower garden has been raked but not yet tilled, so we probably won’t get any peas this year unless I try for a Fall crop. Since the snowy Winter was quite hard on our chicken wire fence, there’s not much left for peas to climb on anyway.

This is the first year that I’ve tried Winter sowing and I’ve been checking the four water jugs that are sitting near the garden. So far it looks like just one calendula and perhaps a marigold plant have decided to sprout. Maybe they know better than the humans just what the weather is likely to be.

If you haven’t heard about Winter sowing, here’s a link to an excellent site that will tell you all you need to know to give it a shot on your own. Wintersown

A couple of weeks ago we were awakened by a big BOOOMMmmmm and couldn’t figure out what had happened until we came downstairs and glanced out the window. This was the sorry sight that met our eyes.

Now that the snow has melted we are about to attempt to cut up the tree that fell on it and salvage what we can. At least our home owner’s insurance has contributed something to the cause and I may be able to buy another kit. I very much doubt that it will happen in time to help me grow my own tomato, pepper, and eggplants, but only time will tell.

Although I have a page on my business website called Valentine gift for him, it just so happens that I have a husband who simply does not like gift baskets or anything on that idea (although he says that he thinks that mine are better than most that he’s seen).

I’m planning on giving him some dark chocolate which he definitely does like, but wanted to make it more of a gift than just that. I finally solved my dilemma by searching for a special tee shirt for him. The one that I ordered says

Cleverly Disguised As An Adult

Please don’t think that I’m picking on my husband! You see, he often tells people that he decided long ago never to grow up. It appeared to him to be too boring.

Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that it gets here in time since Valentine’s Day is only four days away!