Cilantro - the wonder herb!

People either love Cilantro, or they hate it.  There's quite a few studies out there that say the reason there are cilantro haters is due entirely to their genes.  Who knows how much truth there is to that, but it's interesting for sure!  There are so many cilantro haters, that there is actually an I Hate Cilantro website!

I happen to be one of the people who love cilantro.  And for me, it's a good thing!  Most of you know that I suffer from Lyme Disease.  I'm constantly looking for food that can help with the healing.  The more I read, the more I learn that Cilantro really is something I should consume regularly to help my body heal itself.

There are a ton of studies out there showing that cilantro cleanses the body of heavy metals.  Heavy metals aren't good for anyone, but they are especially bad for people who have any sort of inflammatory disease.  In fact, heavy metal toxicity could be part of the reason some inflammatory diseases exist - not always of course, but sometimes!

Cilantro also has more antioxidants than almost any fruit or vegetable out there!  It's a great source of fiber, magnesium and iron.  It's full of vitamin K and B vitamins.  It also helps protect against heart disease, Alzheimer's and cancer.

What else does this wonder herb do?

It helps to prevent cardiovascular damage.
Aids in detoxification
It can calm anxiety
It's extremely beneficial to those with diabetes due to it's ability to help level blood sugar
It has strong anti-fungal and antibacterial properties
Helps aid in digestion
Can kill Salmonella
Eases hormonal mood swings and reduces cramping
Helps give your liver a little boost
Helps eye diseases
Wards off urinary tract infections

The good news?  Cilantro is super easy to grow!  I have mine growing in a pretty shady area and it flourishes.  The easier the access, the more you will use it in your diet.

How can you fit more cilantro into your diet?  I regularly mix it in with an avocado and lemon juice for instant guacamole.  I also found a fantastic smoothie recipe that I've been making regularly - you'll find the recipe below.   It works well in almost any green juice/smoothie that you make.  You can throw it in with your salad - or make salad dressing. How about cilantro pesto or fish tacos? Or you could always make some Thai food!

Moral of the story?  Eat more cilantro!

Cilantro Smoothie
1 Papaya
Frozen Peaches (I used an entire bag)
2 cups of vanilla almond milk (unsweetened if you want to go sugar free)
handful of cilantro

Ants! Ants! Ants!

I've noticed quite a few ants in the garden- more than I am comfortable with.  We have such great organic soil and with all the moisture, it's tough to avoid ants all together.  However, after some extensive research, I have determined that making an ant bomb may be the best thing to do.  It's natural enough to use in your garden - or your kitchen for that matter.  Side note - even though Borax is a fairly safe way to kill ants, I would still recommend keeping it away from pets and children.

Put 4 oz of water in the jar
Add 1 tbls of Borax
Add 1 tbls of Powdered Sugar
Mix well
Add cotton balls and mix it up again making sure to cover cotton balls with the mixture
When you are done, poke holes in the lid and place in your garden (I used a hammer and nail)

It's important to keep equal parts Borax and Powdered Sugar - you can't have more Borax than powdered sugar, or the ants will avoid it completely.

You'll want to mix a new solution 2-3 days later if you still see a lot of ants.  You shouldn't have to repeat this more than once or twice before you notice a major decrease - or eradication -in the ant population.

Within 10 minutes of putting it in my garden, ants were all over it!

Take a look for yourself:

So how exactly does this work?  The ants will feed off of the mixture (because they love sugar) and they will take it back to their colony.  The entire colony starts eating the mixture and it wipes them out.  I hate the thought of killing anything, but I also hate having ants in my garden!

I have also placed one of these jars on my kitchen counter as ants have seemed to take a liking to that area.  From what I've read, it should only take a couple of days and the ants should be gone!

And if you have to buy a big container of Borax, don't worry!  You can use the rest for laundry and cleaning.

Borax is much safer than other pest control and I encourage you to research it on your own.

Garden Beds

We made it all of last year without garden beds.  The only reason we did that was so we could use the entire backyard for our wedding.  This year we decided we had to have our garden back!  Only this year it's much better!

Raised beds are so convenient and I recommend them to everyone.   If you're in Portland and looking for someone to build them, I recommend Griffons Gardens. They were very responsive, easy to work with and professional.  Not to mention the beds are very sturdy and will last for years to come.

Here is the before picture:

And the after: 

The boxes are 4x12 and 4x8.  Perfect size for lots of veggies. 

This is only 3 weeks of growth! Clearly we used starts.  We do have a few things starting from seed and they are sprouting!  Thank you Portland for the great weather we have been having!  Counting down the days until we can enjoy fresh salsa!

Our Yard - Before and After

Here is a grainy picture of our yard last year.  It was so much work and there wasn't much open space to just lay around in the yard.  We wanted to get rid of the chain link fence and all the other stuff that was so much upkeep.....and we did!

And after....

In the near future we will add a garden bed and a birch tree.  We are so happy with the new space!  I can't wait for summer BBQs.

And here is a picture after the sod had a chance to root.  It grows like crazy and looks more like a carpet.  I'm so glad we decided to use sod and not plant seed.  We are really happy with it.

Getting Dirty

Talk about experiencing a day in the garden!  I spent 9 hours digging, moving plants, and building a patio. Which, I must say, made me lose every bit of desire that I had to learn how to lay tile.  Laying brick is NOT easy.   Getting all the dirt even and flat was nearly impossible!   To have a perfect patio I would have had to spend three long days making the dirt even.  My goal was to have a nice patio in the garden area for a fire-pit.  I accomplished that goal!  You can definitely tell it wasn't done by a professional, rather, most may guess it was done by a 15 year old.  It was a good learning experience.

Bring on the summer parties with friends around the fire!