Your Garden ~ How does your garden grow?

 

No matter if you have a small space or a large space let’s talk about how you can grow a garden to help feed your family, and possibly your neighbors. One of my favorite gardening methods is square foot gardening. Basically, you take a square foot of space in your garden bed and maximize it to produce multiple items, grow more food with less space. Square foot gardening can be paired well with companion planting for the best yields. In case you were wondering, there is a book you can purchase as well as take a course to learn more, check out the following website: https://squarefootgardening.org

What if you live in an apartment or condo with just a balcony. No worries you can grow your favorites in containers. Make your outdoor space look amazing with beautiful containers and fresh produce. The drawback might be that you are limited to what you can grow but again companion planting can help add variety within your small space. You might have to water more as well since raised beds and containers tend to dry out faster.

For larger space you can utilize direct sow or raised beds. We always liked raised beds for their function and ability to reduce the amount of bending over we have to do when working the garden. Either way I think that making sure your paths are well tended helps to keep your weed pulling to a minimum. Rows and rows of beautiful veggies and flowers are the end game no weeds.

Within each type of garden, vertical growing can be utilized. By using cattle panels to create arches for food to grow upwards or to train your tomatoes and peas towards the sun. But did you know there is another type of vertical gardening, tower gardens. These tall towers grow food through a mix of hydroponics and heights. Small cutouts are placed on the side of the large tube where the plants will be placed. Their root system will live in a solution instead of dirt. No weeds should be growing here. Anything you can grow in the ground can grow in these towers. It’s expensive to get started but could be a solution for those who do not have a lot of space or time but still want healthy, homegrown food to eat.

There is so much satisfaction to growing and eating food you put the hard work in to produce. Reward yourself by starting to plan now with your new garden space and start preparing your garden for spring planting.

Hello from The Oaks

 

Welcome to the Oaks Bed and Breakfast in Sulphur Springs, Texas.  We are a family owned and operated slice of comfort in Northeast Texas.  Our family of seven resides at the Bed and Breakfast, and you can often find soccer balls growing in the garden or bicycles laying around, lost without a rider. While our oldest and only girl, Isabelle, is away at college, the four boys are around creating mischief on the property or helping to serve during events.  You can often find us at a sporting event cheering on the boys in their endeavors as High School or club sport athletes.

 

               Both Allison and Ben graduated high school from Sulphur Springs High School and have now come back to help see their community grow and thrive.  While Ben works remotely and travels for his position, Allison holds down the home front, welcoming guests and containing the chaos that is life with four active boys.  We do think it is always nice to run into former classmates who stayed in town or returned just like we did.  We are not sure what the future holds for our children, but we know that Sulphur Springs will always be part of who they are and a welcome stop in their journey through life. 

 

               Ben took a look at 516 Oak Ave, and knew it had amazing potential and wanted to help his sister realize her dreams of having a catering company and possibly a venue to host events.  While she did not capitalize on his idea, we took the plunge and stepped up to help him realize the remodel of this great historic home.  We began our hospitality journey when we purchased the 1937 built home, the last one in the Historic District on Oak Avenue, in the Spring of 2016. Little did we know at the time that we would be moving back to finish the renovations and manage our new enterprise. 

 

               At the time when we moved back our kids were a mix of grade school and preschool age, and at a decent age to make a change and help them navigate a new city and find new friends.  We have been grateful for the move back to Sulphur Springs and feel that our children have done well in school and in the community.  This year our oldest son, Barrett, will graduate and move on to the next chapter in his life.  The remaining boys, Cooper, Decllan and Quintten will be home and keeping us on our toes. 

 

Throughout the remodel process, the younger two boys were active participants in helping to demo, build a deck and learn some general building techniques.  Now if they remember what they learned I would be impressed.  Either way, they took in some life skills that not many people have the opportunity to embrace, at such a young age.  While we worked, members of the community would stop by to see the progress we were making, even when it still looked ugly.  This was a challenge for us, since we wanted people to see the beauty we were creating after completion.  Nine months later, which seemed so much longer, we were finally able to accept our first guests and began hosting events and catering. 

 

               Almost nine years later, we are still hosting events and overnight guests at The Oaks Bed and Breakfast.  Each new guest and returning guests arrive as strangers and leave as friends, which is just how we like it.  We hope that you will stop by for a visit or let us help you host your next event.  Thank you for welcoming us into the community, we hope to stay for a while.

Herb Infused Cocktail ~ Rosemary Smoke

 

With cold weather ahead for our Texas winter and this week being especially chilly, with even a bit of snow in the forecast, we have whipped up a tasty smoky drink for our herb infused cocktail of the month.  What makes the smoky flavor come out in this drink, is actually burning a little bit of rosemary into the glass you plan to serve your drink in.  I'm sure the flavor and strength of the smoke will be different based on how green your rosemary is.  Just use caution and be careful not to light your house on fire when preparing this drink.  Use a surface that is non-flammable and maybe some rosemary that is a little on the green side.  

Since ours was fresh cut, our rosemary proved to be a little difficult to light and gather smoke, but we managed to make it happen.  While you are preparing the drink, start off by capturing the smoke in the glass.  Light your rosemary and place on a non-flammable surface and top with serving glass.  This will hold in the smoke while you prepare your drink.  

Now I like a little tarter in my drink, so I used more lemon juice, so based on your flavor preference feel free to increase or decrease to fit your needs.  Our recipe is a starting point for your enjoyment.  We also used Jack Daniels as our whiskey today, but you could use a rye based, which will make for a different flavor in your drink.  

Rosemary Smoke

1 ounce Whiskey

3/4 ounce lemon juice

1/2 ounce rosemary simple syrup

splash of bubbly drink

Burn a little rosemary and cover with your serving glass.  In a shaker cup combine your whiskey, lemon juice and simple syrup.  Shake until the outside starts to condensate.  Flip your smoky cup oven and add in some ice.  Pour your drink over the ice and give it a little splash of a bubbly drink.  Garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

The bubbly drink you select can be your own as well.  Sweeter maybe go with a ginger beer.  A little drier club soda or tonic water.  We use some sparkling water, mostly because we always have that on hand. Now personally I do not enjoy the smoky smell of the drink when sipping, but the flavors together make for a delish drink of choice.

As a reminder we make our simple syrup from scratch.  This time be sure to add in a few springs of rosemary while cooking. One to one on the water to sugar and you have a great flavored syrup for your drink.

Mix and match to find your favorite way to serve this simple drink.  Enjoy with friends around the fire pit this winter and let us know how you like it.  As always enjoy your drink responsibly and have a designated driver.  Cheers!