It’s a bit late, but better than never! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I hope everyone had a nice celebration. That you had good eating with good company.

This an old postcard of Strawberry Shortcake and her friends (I scanned from my old cards). This is the classic version from the 80’s. Unfortunately I forgot to write down the names of her friends.

It’s neat that her friends are international. There’s the little Dutch friend and her pet duck, cute Chinese friend and her panda, blue hair French girl and poodle, and even Mexican friend with her burro - which is a small donkey.

Anytime of of the year, I never get too old to enjoy seeing Strawberry Shortcake and her friends. They are all so adorable!

Sea buckthorn is also known as Seaberry and Siberian pineapple. I really wanted to start growing my old sea buckthorn plant this year. But it’s a bit too late now, so I’ll have to wait until spring of next year.

Here is a small sea buckthorn plant at the International Fruit Orchard. I think it’s about 2-3 years old. Maybe in a few more years there will be bright berries on them.

I picked a handful of leaves from the bush to make tea. I used the dried leaves and steeped them in hot water for about 5 minutes. It tasted very pleasant, reminded me of raspberry leaves tea. I wouldn’t mind making tea from my own sea buckthorn plant soon enough.

The Republic of Tea has green tea mixed with sea buckthorn berries. Starting at $10 for 3.5 oz tin.

“Sea Buckthorn is native to the shores of the Northern Baltic Sea in Germany where locals consume the berries to ward off cold and flu. Sea Buckthorn berries are mildly tart, like an apricot, and rich in vitamin C and E.”

Not to mention, sea buckthorn is also grown naturally in Siberia and Mongolia.

Sea buckthorn is more popular in Europe, where they make them into fruit drinks and jam. Here in the U.S., they are showing up more in the natural health and beauty department.

Since it’s a very labor intensive harvest, the cost for both oils (berries, leaves, and bark) of this plant is still very expensive.

We don’t get any snow out here, but there is plenty in the mountains. Hopefully this year we’ll make a trip just to play in the snow. In the meantime, I have this poem on my mind today.

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

- Robert Frost

No crows in this photo, but just loved how the photo shows autumn is coming to an end soon enough. This is to remind me to get ready and protect my succulent plants! Photo by MetalSmiths of wunderground.com

Autumn is the one time I like to eat pickled vegetables. I was inspired to make these when I recently had Mexican pickled jars of jalapenos and carrots.

It’s got a good mixture of spice and tang. The mints give it an interesting twist to the pickled carrots. It was initially odd at first, but after several days it only got better.

Ingredients:

10 medium to small size carrots, peeled and cut into thin slices.
1/2 cup of vinegar
2 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 teaspoons of pickling spice
Small bunch of peppermint leaves

The pickling spice I used is from Monterey Spice Company. It includes: Mustard, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, dill seed, cloves, coriander, allspice, chili peppers, and bay leaves.

Directions:

In a pot, bring the water to boil and add the carrots. Let it cook for 2 minutes. Remove and drain under cold water.

In another pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil then pour over the carrots. Then tear up the bunch of peppermint leaves. Add the mints to the mix.

Set aside 2 medium sized jars. Fill it up and keep it refrigerated. You can eat them within 3 days, but they do keep for a while. I’m still eating them 3 weeks later and they are good.

I like eating them on the side with noodles. Also good addition to sandwiches too. It’s best to keep it refrigerated so it stays crisp.

The Chinese Pistache is one of my favorite tree, especially in the autumn with the leaves changing to yellow, orange and then red. These trees are commonly grown in Northern California along city streets and public buildings.

We have two pistache trees. While both were planted at the same time, the one in the front yard is much smaller compare to the backyard tree. In the summertime it provides much needed shade.

The pretty little pink and reddish berries are another wonderful addition to this tree.

Because they are related to the pistachio family, the berries only show up ever other year.

Chinese pistache is native to China, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands. It’s the perfect tree for care free yards with it’s good resistant to pest. It’s also great for hot areas because it’s heat and drought tolerant.

They are part of the sumac family, which includes mango and pistachio. All parts of the this tree is edible, and the the young tender leaves and green berries are good. The scent and taste reminds me of young green mango. It’s a good addition eaten with “larb or laap” the spiced up minced meat common in Lao dishes.

More info about the tree here.

Ever since I heard about the benefits of neem I wanted to make my own neem soap. I’ve tried many other neem soaps made with neem oil, but the scent was just too strong to use on a daily basis.

It’s been known that all parts of the plant has medicinal qualities, I decided to use the more pleasant smelling neem leaf.

My neem soap is made with some really great ingredients. Besides the neem leaf powder, I’ve included licorice powder for it’s skin brightening qualities. Other ingredients include extra virgin coconut oil, which I consider to be the most premium of all vegetable oils. Not only is it a healthy oil, but it’s a great ingredient for skincare, from lotion to soaps.

Even though this soap is unscented, it does have a very herbal and grassy scent.

The white ashy part on top is a natural occurrence of handmade soap. It will just wash off after the first use.

It’s a good size bar weighing about 3.5 to 4 oz bar. The herbal powders provide a mild exfoliation. It would be okay to use daily as body soap but once a week as facial soap.

Pukka Herbs note, “The roots, bark, leaves and seeds all have medicinal properties and are used for a multitude of purposes; in Sanskrit it is known as sarva roga nivarini, which means ‘the curer of all ailments.”

We had one day of rain last weekend in Northern California. The occasional rain is always nice. And these autumn garden flowers are also enjoying it too.

Last year I planted mostly hot pink and white zinnias. But this year I went with these orange petals with pink center. The only thing I didn’t like is how sparse the petals are compared to last year’s version.

Maybe it’s too late in the season to be growing gardenia. Last month when it was still warm, I did get one full bloom. Now the small shrub has some new buds just like this one. Even these are interesting as the spiral from the bud reminds me of a sea shell.

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I’d like to share a few interesting handmade soaps I’ve discovered from various shops. Not only do I make soaps, but I also like to collect other soaps too.

This is one of the first handmade soap I came across from Pier One Imports. It’s made in Thailand by Bath & Bloom.

The dark chocolate soap smells yummy! And the tumeric honey is a neat combination. Except when I think of tumeric, I think of the yellow stains it will leave behind. But this doesn’t do that as it’s blended very well into the soap.

It’s a fairly small square bar that weights close to 3 oz. And cost about $2.50 to $3.00. Pier One has many interesting soaps from around the world. But I don’t think they carry this brand anymore.

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I’ve been eating this new fruit I found at the Asian grocery store. It’s called sourop, but also goes by many other names too.

In Brazil, it’s referred to as Graviola or Brazilian paw paw. And guanábana in many Spanish speaking countries.

Soursop is a cousin of the delicious cherimoya but not as sweet. It looks almost similar except for the spines. The spines on the skin do look scary for a really healthy fruit. Photo collage above from Wikipedia.

Not only do they have the frozen soursop at the market, but they also have soursop drink. The drink is way too sweet and I find it to be too mushy to drink up. So it was better eaten with a spoon.

The frozen soursop is not as sweet, but still sweeten with syrup. The fruit taste both tangy and sweet. It’s difficult to describe, more like ripe pear, hint of mangosteen and of pineapple. On some occasion, the frozen fruit pulp had lots of fiber, so it was very tough and chewy.

More info about graviola or soursop:

Graviola is native to tropical South America. They mainly use it to make shakes and sorbets (sherbet), but it is also enjoyed fresh when ripe.

This plant can also be grown successfully in Florida. But it is commonly grown in South America as well as in Asia.

It is a small, evergreen tree, with large, glossy, dark green leaves. The fruits are heart-shaped and yellow to green in color. While the inside flesh is white.

All parts of this plant is healing. Including the bark, leaves, fruit, and seed.

Raintree Nutrition noted the following healing benefits:

All parts of the graviola tree are used in natural medicine in the tropics, including the bark, leaves, roots, fruit, and fruit seeds. Different properties and uses are attributed to the different parts of the tree. Generally, the fruit and fruit juice are taken for worms and parasites, to cool fevers, to increase mother’s milk after childbirth, and as an astringent for diarrhea and dysentery. The crushed seeds are used against internal and external parasites, head lice, and worms. The bark, leaves, and roots are considered sedative, antispasmodic, hypotensive, and nervine, and a tea is made for various disorders toward those effects.

Many clinical studies many have also been done concerning graviola. Researchers in Taiwan reported in 2003 that the main graviola acetogenin, annonacin, was highly toxic to ovarian, cervical, breast, bladder and skin cancer cell lines at very low dosages saying; “. . . annonacin is a promising anti-cancer agent and worthy of further animal studies and, we would hope, clinical trials.”

It would a great addition to have one of these healing plant growing in your backyard. You can make tea or tincture with it. The fruits are a tasty and healthy treat too.

But if growing a tree isn’t possible, then be on the look out for this fruit at your local Asian market.

Soursop cheesecake anyone? Here is a neat recipe from Cap Trib Exotic Fruit Farm in Australia.

Another note, I am always amazed at how much of nature is one big pharmacy! The more reason we should be protecting our rain forests.