Busy Few Days Ahead!

Hi everyone!

The next three days are going to be busy but lots of fun!

Tomorrow is the October classes at MSU Extension!

 http://msue.anr.msu.edu/county/info/macomb

Friday:

Oct. 11 classes are:

1-2:30 "The Herbal First Aid kit" (beginner), 

3:00-4:30 is "Tinctures & Tisanes" (Advanced)

6-7:30 is "The Herbal First Aid Kit" again! It's not to late to call and reserve your seat!

Saturday:

October 12 from 10-6:00 we will be at the Gibraltar Fall Festival! It is going to be a blast! There will be crafters, food, music, hay rides and lots of fun family entertainment! The weather looks like it will be a beautiful day as well!

Sunday:

October 13 10-3:00 is the last Farmer’s Market at the Marquee in Redford!

It is going to be a blast! There will be all the wonderful vendors, food and music!

That’s right! There is going to be a Chili Cook-off!

We will have our Herbed Chili Seasoning available and we will have delicious samples available! Oh, just in time for this fun event we will have our Herbed Cornbread mixes available AND we will be selling individual servings of the cornbread already made up! Can’t have chili without the cornbread!!

So, you don’t want to miss the last day at Redford this Sunday! Lots of fun and yumminess happening!!

Let the Pumpkin Seed Harvest Begin!

Hi everyone!

We have our first patch of herbed pumpkin seeds ready for sale!

Yes that would be a trailer loaded with a bunch of pumpkins!

Since we are not pumpkin farmers, we put out the word to all our friends, family and associates that we needed pumpkin seeds!

We are fortunate to have made so many friends from the different farmer’s markets, Troy came home with all these pumpkins Sunday evening!

When Troy was at the Redford Farmer’s Market, he spread the word around regarding the need for pumpkins. Melinda, one of the most amazing Farmer Market managers, told Troy they had a bunch that were part of a pumpkin painting event and that he was welcome to them! Woohoo!

Monday was spent gutting, cleaning and roasting pumpkin seeds!

Once seasoned with our herbs and roasted, I had to snitch some for home!

So all you good folks at Wyandotte Farmer’s Market, we will have the herbed pumpkins seeds available! And this Thursday is the last Farmer’s Market in Wyandotte! So, make sure to stop by and stock up on your favorite DTL Herb products!

Coming Soon! Herbed Pumpkin Seeds!

Hi everyone!

It is officially Fall and we are working on our seasonal products.

One of the popular items we carried last year was our herbed pumpkin seeds. We sell them in a little bag designed to munch on while you walk around and visit other vendors.

We hope to have the first patch ready in the next two weeks.

Did you know that pumpkin seeds have a lot of healthy properties to them?

 

Pumpkin seeds or pepitas, also contain a number of a vitamins and minerals, including manganese, magnesium and iron, and have a variety of health benefits, from protecting bones to treating arthritis. Studies have also shown that pumpkin seed oil can reduce symptoms of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), or enlarged prostate.
Read more: http://www.motherearthliving.com/natural-health/5-health-benefits-of-pumpkins.aspx#ixzz2g72HMT66

Well who knew?!

Just another good reason to snatch up some of our yummy herbed pumpkin seeds when you can. They are seasonal only and quantities will be limited!

MSU Extension Fall Classes are Starting!

Hi everyone!

We are so excited about the new Fall Class Schedule at MSU Extension office will be starting tomorrow! Woohoo!

We have so many wonderful friends up in the Macomb area and we have missed them over the summer months!

Here are the details for tomorrow’s classes!

1:00 pm – 2:30 & 6:00 – 7:30 – “Putting Your Garden to Bed”

3:00 – 4:30 – “Indoor Herb Garden Techniques”

Place:   MSU Extension, VerKuilen Building

             21885 Dunham Rd., Clinton Twp., 48036

Cost:    $7.00 per person per class or $25.00 for a series of 4 classes.  Please register in advance by calling 586-469-6440. 

It’s not too late to give the extension office a call and let them know what class you will be attending!

Here is all the info for the classes we will be offering from now until the new year.

MSU Extension is offering a series of classes on herbs for the home garden.  This series will be held the second Friday of the month, September through December.  Choose the classes you would like to attend or attend them all!

Topics and dates:

       Beginner Level classes:

Date:    September 13 – Putting Your Garden to Bed

            October 11 – The Herbal “First Aid Kit”

            November 14 – Introduction to Cooking With Herbs

            December 13 – Simple Holiday Herb Projects

Time:   1:00 – 2:30pm class or 6:00-7:30pm class

       Advanced Level Classes:

            Date:    September 13 – Indoor Herb Garden Techniques

                        October 11 – Tinctures and Tisanes

                        November 14 – Holiday Herb Décor

                        December 13 – Make & Take Holiday Project

            Time:   3:00 – 4:30pm

Place:   MSU Extension, VerKuilen Building

             21885 Dunham Rd., Clinton Twp., 48036

Cost:    $7.00 per person per class or $25.00 for a series of 4 classes.  Please register in advance by calling 586-469-6440.  

Join us for this series with Troy Huffaker of DTL Herbs Ltd.   Troy has been growing herbs for over 25 years.  In 2010, he and his wife Diann started their business, DTL Herbs Ltd.  They sell herbs and herbal products at farmers markets and craft shows and in the off season they teach people how to plant, care for and use their own herbs.

Herbs provide beauty and fragrance in the garden, and can enhance the flavor and quality of our foods, provide a healthy alternative to salt, and have traditionally been used for medicinal purposes.  Many herbs can be easily grown in the home garden or in pots in the kitchen helping to stretch our food dollars.

Michigan State Fair

Hi everyone!

Wow, it has been a crazy busy past week for us! On very short notice we decided to be part of the Michigan State Fair this past weekend. This was the first time they invited vendors from the Farmer Markets to participate. So, we raced like crazy to gear up for the event!

We introduced a couple of new products just for this weekend. We hope to continue to carry them to some regular farmer’s markets as well.

We had our latest product, Sun Dried Tomato & Basil Spread available in both dry packet form and ready to eat containers.

We finally got our Finishing salt to where we like it. This will probably be a regular item of ours. People have asked for it and we now have it available.

We enjoyed the Michigan State Fair and had a successful 4 days! Now we are wiped out and need a  little down time!

C.O.R.N. Pasta Salad

Hi everyone!

Nope, this pasta salad has nothing to do with “corn”. It is:

C. = Clean

O. = Out

R. = Refrigerator

N. = Night

Pasta salad is one of those dishes that is very forgiving. You can just gather little bits and pieces of different leftovers, chop them up and add them to cooked pasta.

I decided to cook up this box of “Trio Italiano’ pasta for our salad tonight.

I had several different color bell peppers that were needed to be used up so, they got chopped and into the bowl they went.

I had a handful of black olives in the fridge, 3 pickled banana peppers in a jar, half of a purple onion, some tomatoes that had some bruised spots. a dab of feta cheese and some leftover ham. So, that is what was chopped and added to the mix.

Any fresh veggies will do in a pasta salad. Along with meats such as pepperoni, salami or ham. Bits and pieces of cheese is great in this type of salad as well.

Besides the pasta, the other key ingredient is, of course……

DTL Herbs Italian Dressing & Marinade!

The bottle above is the bottle we sell at the market. The bottle below is what we have on hand all the time at home. Which is about twice the size! LOL

We use this dressing all the time for different recipes!

Once you have coated all of the salad, put in the fridge for a couple of hours so all the flavors will combine. At that point you will want to add more dressing because the pasta will have soaked up quite a bit.

Now you have a quick meal or side dish all ready.

Redford IART Festival

Hi everyone!

Last weekend we were part of a 3 day weekend festival. We had our DTL Herb booth set up and we were also selling Kettle Corn both outside and in the Marquee. It was a very busy weekend for us.

I thought I would share a few pictures of some of the things that were going on around us.

Some of the vendors inside the Marquee. This is where the Farmer’s Market is held each Sunday so, a lot of the farmer market vendors joined in on the fun for the weekend.

They had a line up of entertainment inside the Marquee as well. There was music, dancing, magic, fencing, karate, painting and a lot more.

Lots of activities were planned both inside and out.

Lots of outside vendors.

Fun activities for the kids.

Outside entertainment all weekend long.

There was even a bra auction! Say what? People decorated bras and they went up on a silent auction. Ours is the top center picture (a pink bra with an herb planter inside it). All the proceeds went to benefit the Redford Parks and Art Conservancy and Gilda's Club.

It was one long hot busy weekend but, it was also a lot of fun!

Redford Farmer’s Market Planter

Hi everyone!

One of the farmer’s Markets that we sell at is the Redford market. This is such an awesome market! Our customers are wonderful, the market manager is amazing and all the other vendors are fun to be around.

And the venue is such a fantastic place! it is a round brick pavilion with large open windows. So, when it rains, we can still have the market. And no setting up the tent!

Melinda, our wonderful market manager at Redford asked a couple of vendors if they would like to donate and create a planter box for the Marquee.

So, of course ours is not filled with flowers but, instead they are filled with yummy herbs!

This planter is going to fill in beautifully in a couple of weeks.

Let’s see, we have……

• Purple Basil
• Sweet Basil
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Cuban oregano
• Rosemary
• Chives
• Sage
• Thyme

Have you ever thought to plant a herb container garden? This planter is so pretty and it is edible. Keep snipping and using the herbs and the planter will stay full and lush all season!

We also create customized herb planter for a local businesses. This is one at a pizzeria that is filled with Italian cooking herbs.

Also posting at The Thrifty Groove

Ham and Pasta Salad

Hi everyone!

One of the things I try to always have in the fridge during this time of the year is some kind of cold salad.

Here is a quick and easy cold salad recipe.

Vegi Dip Pasta & Ham Salad 

Ingredients:

• 1 package of DTL Herb Chive and Dill Vegi Dip
• 3/4 – 1 cup of Mayo
• 3/4 - cup of sour cream
• 1/4 cup of chopped green onions
• 1 cup of chopped ham
• 1 box of pasta (your choice)

Directions:

Mix Chive and Dill Vegi dip with mayo and sour cream. Boil noodles. Once noodles are cooked, rinse in cold water. Toss in green onions and ham. Stir in Vegi dip. Put in fridge for at least an hour. Serve cold.

You can chop up some fresh chives or dill to garnish.

I made this salad three times last week because I kept forgetting to take a picture. This is when I would remember to take the picture:

This really is a yummy variation of a cold creamy pasta salad. You are going to love it!

Chive Blossom Vinegar is Back!

Hi everyone!

We have had one good size harvest of chive blossoms this year. And the vinegars are finally ready!

All of our vinegars are bottle with the plastic pour insert.

We will have available these NEW flavors of vinegar:

• Chive blossom
• Oregano
• Savory
• Tarragon
• Cilantro

All of our Herbed Vinegars are made from 100% naturally grown herbs!

And if you have seen other flavored vinegars at the markets, you know that our bottle is larger than the others and our price is lower. And quite honestly, ours are the BEST!

Indoor Gardening Expo

Hi everyone!

A couple of weeks ago Troy and I along with a couple of friends went to the “Maximum Yield” Indoor Garden Expo. We were invited to attend the Industry day (the first day of the expo for businesses in the field).

The first two hours were seminars and presentations from various professionals in the gardening world. They offered coffee and refreshments and there was a lot of Q & A. They talked about how to build your business and the pitfalls to avoid.

The place was cram packed full of garden related vendors. All the latest and greatest products were being represented.

For a small business like ours (and our friends) this is a huge event for us. All the different vendors offer all kinds of free items to try.

Troy and I had commitments later in the day so, we were only there for about 3 hours while the vendors booths were open. We probably only got to about 1/3 of the vendors before we had to leave.

The above picture is all the products we were given. Rough estimate, there is about $1,000 – 1,500 worth of gardening products. Like I said, we didn’t even get to half of the vendors. Our friends, well let’s just say they have at least triple what you see above!

This gives us the opportunity to try different products that normally we wouldn’t or couldn’t (due to cost). Since we grow completely naturally, we had to go through all of our loot and carefully pull out any products that weren’t 100% natural. Those will get donated or shared with friends/family.

We get asked a lot about what we use on our herbs and how we grow them. This gives us a chance to try some of the products without committing to a company. If we like them, we will recommend them.

We met some wonderful company representatives at the expo. A lot of them were impressed and happy to see how we are growing our herbs (being Urban Farmers) and the fact that we do a lot of community service. We have already had several companies send us boxes of products for free to help us out in our community projects.

Since the herbs that we grow at home are strictly for our testing and experiments, we have already begun to test out some of these products. I am excited to see the different results.

The second day of the expo was open to the public. Our friends went back that day (with other friends) and the vendors were still handing out lots of free gardening goodies. So, check out your local Expo centers and think about attending some of the shows that interest you!

Also being posted at The Thrifty Groove