Bit by the gardening bug and hope it doesn't fade.Something clicked in the brain this past week and said, pick up those starts of those gooseberry, strawberry, lettuce, cabbage, rosemary, thyme, rhubarb, tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplant; and while you are at it, start 90 petunias, sunflowers, bachelor buttons from seed.
These starts have partially and will continue to go out in the planting areas with the Valentine's azalea which needs transplanted and the three palm figs I started from CA fig farm seeds a year ago.
The easy and pretty inexpensive result is, looks like somebody lives here changes in the back living area. The plantings were laid primarily by the master gardener-better half; he in fact, has done most of the planting. But it will be glorious once we have more regular sun to go with the months of water, rain, gloom and wind.
Mastic Resin. I got hooked on the sound of the it and then read, this:
Gum Mastic resin - Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia - imported directly from Chios, Greece - No. 1 grade small tears.
Gum Mastic is a transparent, lemon-white coloured, tear-shaped natural resin from the mastic tree, which grows on the southern part of the island of Chios, Greece and nowhere else in the world.
Egypt imported this popular incense from Chios. It was a key ingredient in their ancient "Kyphi" recipes.
Mastic creates a light, balsamlike, fresh, lemony, gentle fragrance. It is cleansing, clarifying and mentally refreshing. In ancient Egypt, mastic was also called "the fragrance that pleases the gods." People in North Africa use mastic for incense burning as a tonic for exhaustion.
Mastic works well for meditation and reflection, its bright radiant energy is helpful when you need clarity.
It's also used as a natural and hygienic chewing gum; excellent for teeth cleaning and as a medicine for stomachache, stomach ulcer, diabetes, cholesterol, etc.
The mastic tree is an evergreen bush that grows up to 20 ft (6m) high. The tree lives about a hundred years and is fully grown after about 40-50 years. It starts giving its resin (mastic) when it is 5-6 years old. After about 15 years, it produces from 60 to 400 grams of mastic per year.
Since ancient times, mastic has been used as a natural medicine. A leaf fossil from a mastic tree has been found dating back six million years. Mastic oil and other sub products are produced from mastic and are used widely in medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, dentistry, and industry in general. A recent research of the University of Athens / Department of Pharmacy proved that Mastic and Mastic oil have remarkable antibacterial and fungicidal properties.
In the USA and Japan they produce medicine from mastic to treat stomach ulcers and help relieve stomach aches. Traditionally mastic is taken as a medicine to drop the sugar levels of the blood (diabetes) and to improve cholesterol
Followed by this food blog: http://www.honest-food.net
I also got hooked on learning more about cooking with ingredients other than what we buy in the store. The funniest part of all, is I am no cook! TTFN!
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