Everything except the lavender is going into the dehydrator. The lavender I’ll be using to make sachets for my drawers, because recently I had the most unfortunate collision between a sweater and my nose.  I may throw some sage in the  sacks, too.

Harvest is one of my most favorite seasons. The weather is unbelievably pleasant, all the fruits and vegetables are begging to be eaten and the mornings and evenings are cool enough to bake. It’s so nice to smell bread rising and baking that it makes me wonder why more people don’t do it.

So here’s to a lovely harvest moon on this beautifully-scented September evening.

Once I had them in my head, I couldn’t seem to shake the thought of these super delicious, refreshing rolls. There is a slight learning curve to preparing them, but it’s almost immediately rectified once you get into the rolling process.

If you want to make these, you need to have a few very specific things: rice wraps, cellophane noodles, bean sprouts & basil. Everything else is negotiable.

With what little we had on hand (mostly condiments like the vinegar & chili sauce), we were able to buy all of the ingredients for 30 Nime Chow for less than $10. That’s including the peanuts, which were probably the most expensive item. Everything else was well under $2, making each roll (with sauce) about 25¢ each. Who says eating well has to cost a lot of money?

For ours, we had a head of bok choi from our CSA that we hadn’t even touched yet, so that was a perfect perfect perfect addition to the rolls. Traditional rolls use a little lettuce and add shrimp; we didn’t feel like splurging on the shrimp (not to mention I don’t know how to handle or prepare shrimp and the rolls don’t really need it anyway), so I diced the bok choi stems and cut the greens into long strips, then soak, layer, roll, roll, roll!

This is my newest, most favorite thing. We even had them for breakfast this morning!

I find myself more and more attracted to food that has a process involved while eating. One of the most fantastic things about these rolls is that you first cut them in half, then spoon on some lime-vinegar peanut sauce and top with a tiny squirt of hot pepper sauce (the Chinese chili kind).The act of “building the bite” allows time for reflection and consideration, visual appeal, thankfulness and anticipation. When I look at my little roll, I see the cross section of sprouts, basil, noodles and I like to hold it in the mind for a moment, anticipating each flavor and texture. It’s an unbelievably pleasurable experience.

One of the gardeners hasn’t been able to tend for his plot, so it was wildly overgrown. I offered to clean it up for him. Lucky for me, he has wonderful taste in herbs. I had been eyeballing his basil for a while because it’s the perfect variety for Nime Chow, summer spring rolls.

Because he hasn’t been there in a while, his Thai Basil is about waist high with five-to-seven-inch flowers. As an additional favor to both of us, I harvested the flowers to save seed. When it’s all said and done, there should be enough seed for all the gardeners to have a little for next year’s plantings. The bonus is that now that the flowers are cut, the basil will continue to grow delicious leaves for all our lovely snacking purposes.

Basil seed is ridiculously small, almost negligible by eye. So to collect them, there’s a little trick.

First, I brought the bundle of flowers back to my kitchen table. At the base of the stems there are usually a couple very tender leaves. So I pluck off the edibles and then place the flowers in a paper container –in this case an envelope — but a paper bag would work just as well.

Close the container and let sit somewhere to completely dry. When the flowers are totally dry, shake the container vigorously. The seeds will fall out of the flowers. Pour the shaken contents onto a working surface and collect the little black seeds. Voila!

I keep a coin envelope of mixed seeds for this time of year, when the basil is flowering so quickly that i sometimes just collect all the flowers and put them all in a bag together. Then it’s a surprise in the Spring!

Tiny Peony pillows made from fabric scraps.

For the past month or so, I’ve been trying to find new ways to use up all the old fabric scraps I have before I go and buy new fabric for more projects. I have only a finite amount of room to store fabric and I’ve been at maximum capacity for, oh, more than a year.

In my naturally-obsessive hunt-and-peck fashion, I found this tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew for these petal pillows. I prefer a more rustic, unfinished look, so I did not sew the edges, which will eventually fall completely apart.

For the one on the left, I used expired sample fabric that my brother sent me (he owns a “lifestyle store” in California and always has leftover sample fabrics). The flower is made from sample fabric swatches for interior designers or something, that I got at a recycling place. The one on the right is made from a remnant of a burlap coffee bean bag and the petals are made from the sample fabric from my brother in three analogous reds / pinks.

In any case, they’re very quick to make. I ended up liking the blanket stitch around the coffee bag pillow, so I hope to be using that more on new ones. Pillows are really a perfect way to use up fabric because you just can’t have too many, especially small ones.

Justin had a suggestion to try making a little pillow quilt, which I might try next with all the tiny scraps. We’ll see how that pans out, but for now, I’m really happy with these little fellas.

Planting garlic is fun and easy. Garlic takes almost no real work, but it should be planted by Thanksgiving to overwinter. When the ground thaws (in Rhode Island, around late February), little green shoots will sprout out of the ground. With kale and spinach, garlic is one of the first true signs of spring.

In colder regions like ours (6B), hard-neck garlic should be planted. Soft-neck garlic might make it, but it really depends on the harshness of the winter. We love this purple variety we got from our CSA last year. It is very pungent and yields enormous cloves. Compared to grocery garlic, 3-4 cloves would equal one of ours. And ours are actually juicy.

We use almost the entire plant. In June we eat the scapes as pesto and spread it on sandwiches in place of mayonnaise, dollop it on eggs with ricotta cheese or just eat it straight-up with crusty bread. The woodier stalks are used in making soup stock along with the skins and onions, carrots or potatoes.

By mid-July the garlic plant is nearly as high as our shoulders. Once the leaves turn 2/3 brown, they’re ready to pull. Many people suggest not actually pulling them out, but I’ll admit that I do just that. I guess you’re supposed to gently dig them out. When we pulled them this year, I was reminded of those old cartoons where a groundhog or rabbit sucks a carrot right out of its hole, except opposite.

We use an average of 1 head of garlic each week. Combined with the garlic we get from our CSA share, we should have enough to save for seed and for eating for 2012.

I picked up sewing again. But this time, I’m being far more meticulous about it. I’m using proper thread color & weight! I’ve even been using the proper needle. This is so unlike me with my usual sewing style (because I don’t normally sew to make clothing, I make art). But the meticulousness is paying off. My garments lay nicely, are sturdy and fit me well.  For my birthday, I bought myself an online sewing class to teach me how to make very fitted retro-style dresses. Now I comb through fashion sites choosing things I like and then figure out how to make them.

My first test-project: I made myself a summer dress out of an old bed sheet.

And because I’m mostly teaching myself how to sew, I blundered this early on, but came out with a save. I had originally intended to only make a blouse using a bodice pattern I found on BurdaStyle. But if anything, I am persistent.  Because the pattern was designed for a shorter torso, when I put it on for the first fitting, I noticed that it fell just above my belly button before the hem. So I decided to add a “belt.” When I added the belt, I realized I had enough fabric left over to make a circle skirt and attach it all together. This dress is just for the house and I have worn it three times in the last two weeks. It’s ridiculously comfortable, breezy, light and stylish, so that if I needed to run to the store in it, well, at least I wouldn’t be wearing pajama bottoms: I would be dressed.

These are not only peppers I grew from seed, they are cherry bombs that I grew from seed that I harvested from last year’s harvest.

At about mid-June I realized that, basically, I had planted salsa in my plot, and not much else. Sure, a couple carrots, garlic, some kale and broccoli, but really, all I have left are peppers, tomatoes & tomatillos. And a lot of ‘em. So now that it’s late August, we’ve been eating almost exclusively the S’s: salads, smoothies, soups, sandwiches or salsa on chips.

I have since replaced it, but I don’t really like the new lens; it’s too long and so I’m just waiting to scratch up the bones to buy a shorter one. Meanwhile, I have been making things. Lots of things.

My newest hobby1: hula hooping and making hula hoops. Hula hoops are a lot of fun to use and to make, and so the apartment is pretty much overrun with coils of tubing. Sigh.

It wasn’t long after I started making hoops that I decided I needed an LED hoop. It’s the most fun a girl can have by herself. Seriously. I didn’t make the LED hoop, though I had tried making one before I bought this. It turned out that the money it would have cost me to make my own would have been more than it would cost to just buy one, so I did.

• 5 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 pint of blueberries

1. Combine eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk in a mixing bowl. Add flour and mix well.
2. In a baking pan or cast iron skillet melt the butter and coat the bottom of pan.
3. Pour batter into pan and drop blueberries randomly into it.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minute or until the cake rises and falls and turns golden brown.