Annie Organie

Common Yarrow

Anne Temple — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 16:52:34 +0000

Common yarrow, scientifically known as Achillea millefolium, is a flowering plant in the Asteraceae family, native to North America, Europe, and Asia. It’s a perennial known for its aromatic, fern-like foliage and clusters of small, white (or sometimes pinkish) flowers. Yarrow is widely used both medicinally and as an ornamental plant, thriving in various conditions and attracting pollinators.

Key Characteristics

Appearance: Yarrow has deeply dissected, fern-like leaves and flat-topped flower clusters. The flowers are typically white, but cultivars can have pink, red, yellow, or cream-colored blooms.
Size: It typically grows to about 1-3 feet tall.
Habitat: Yarrow is adaptable and can be found in various habitats, including grasslands, meadows, roadsides, and even disturbed areas.
Hardiness: It’s hardy in USDA zones 3-9.
Sunlight: Yarrow thrives in full sun but can tolerate some partial shade.
Soil: It prefers well-drained soil and tolerates a range of soil types.

Uses

Medicinal:

Yarrow has a long history of use in traditional medicine. It’s been used to stop bleeding, aid wound healing, and relieve digestive issues and menstrual pain.

Ornamental:

Its attractive foliage and flowers make it a popular choice for gardens, borders, and cutting gardens.

Pollinator Attraction:

Yarrow is highly attractive to bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.

Groundcover:

It can be used as a lawn alternative or for erosion control on sunny hillsides.

Cultivation:

Planting: Plant yarrow in spring or fall, spacing plants 12-36 inches apart.
Watering: Once established, yarrow is drought-tolerant and requires little supplemental watering.
Maintenance: Deadhead spent flowers to encourage further blooming. Yarrow can be aggressive, so consider containing its spread if needed

Annie Organie’s Sunday Loaves

Anne Temple — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 20:28:22 +0000

I have been making bread for over 40 years. There were times when I didn’t make bread and would buy it — but have you seen the cost for good bread these days? Ridiculous.

In my work with Moms Across America I know that unless you are buying organic the chances are that you are getting glyphosate, or Roundup in your bread. Even though wheat is not currently a GMO crop, they are spraying Roundup on it too dessicate, or dry out the crop to make it easier to harvest it. They then send the grains to the mill . Glyphosate does not wash, dry or cook off.

Even when you go to the bakery and spend $8 on a beautiful artisan loaf, if it isn’t organic, it probably has toxic pesticides in it.

Making your own bread just makes sense. It is a very comforting ritual once you get into it. And this recipe makes 3 loaves, so depending on how much your family consume will depend on how often you need to make it. I usually make it on a Sunday afternoon. It is a ritual I look forward to, especially in the winter.

Annie Organie's Sunday Loaves

Life is too short to be without homemade bread....

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Keyword bread, wheat, whole grain

Prep Time 3

Cook Time 40

Servings 3 loaves

Author Anne Temple

Cost $5

Equipment

1 Cast Iron Loaf Pan

Ingredients

4 cup Warm Water - 105˚ - 115˚
2/3 cup honey - divided
1 tbsp yeast (or 2 packets)
1 tbsp sea salt
5 cup organic bread flour
1/2 cup butter - melted
4-6 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
1/4 cup whole oats (optional)
1/4 cup amaranth (optional)
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (optional)

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl combine warm water, 1/3 cup honey, and yeast. Let sit until yeast starts to look foamy, about 5-10 minutes.
Mix in 5 cups of the bread flour, one cup at a time. After mixed, cover with a towel and let sit for 30 minutes to form a sponge - or the dough has lots of tiny bubbles in it - looking like a sponge.
with the mixer turned on with a dough hook (or you can mix it in manually), add the melted butter, salt and last 1/3 cup of honey. If you are using any of the optional ingredients, like the sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or oats, you can also add them here.
Add in the whole wheat flour - one cup at a time until the dough starts to gather together. You don't want it too wet and sticky, but you also don't want to add too much flour to make for a dry crumbly loaf.
Put dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes and put in a lightly greased bowl (I used coconut oil). Cover and let sit in a warm place until doubled - 1 to 2 hours.
Punch dough down and put on lightly floured surface. Divide into 3 parts and shape into loaves.
Put in greased loaf pans, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350˚
score top of loaves with a lame, razor blade or sharp knife and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
Once baked, put on a wire rack to cool and brush with melted butter if you like for a softer crust.

Notes

This recipe makes three loaves, so I freeze two of them and take them out as needed.

You can have a LOT of fun with this recipe as it is very forgiving. Add the optional ingredients

Herbaceous Squash Soup

Zen Honeycutt — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 23:36:23 +0000

This is a great way to use your squash when your garden starts really producing and you are running out of ideas for all that squash. Tired of all your friends running away when they see you with an armful of squash?

Herbaceous Squash Soup

Delicious! Herbaceous! Creamy!

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Servings 4 people

Equipment

1 Instant Pot

Ingredients

2 each Yellow Squash - medium
1 each Acorn Squash
5 clove Fresh Garlic
2 cup Water
1 can Coconut Milk
1 Pinch Salt
1 Pinch Pepper
1 Pinch Red Pepper Flakes
1 Sprig Fresh Thyme

Instructions

Combine chopped yellow squash, halved acorn squash (with seeds scooped out), water and garlic into Instapot and cook for 20 minutes.
Scrape the cooked acorn squash out of shell. Remove shell.
Keeping remaining squash in the Instapot, add coconut milk, herbs, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.
Blend with an immersion blender and top with more dill and/or green onions to taste.

Notes

If there happen to be any leftovers, this will freeze beautifully.

Fresh Garden Tomato Soup

Anne Temple — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:35:19 +0000

When your garden harvests are coming in, usually fast and furious, sometimes it can get overwhelming. I have 80 tomato plants in my garden and eat as much fresh as I can. I use the cherry tomatoes to make delicious Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce and freeze most of the paste tomatoes to process later on for use all year. Even after all that I still have tomatoes coming in. I have come up with a great way to use up extra tomatoes so they don’t go to waste.

This recipe is also a great way to use up those tomatoes which you might throw away, ones with bruises or insect damage. Find a great deal on canning tomatoes at the farmer’s market? Grab them up and let’s make some soup for the cold winter months ahead. This recipe is so simple and SOOO GOOD!

The following recipe will make about 3 quarts of soup. You can halve the recipe for smaller batches. Any tomatoes will do.

Fresh Garden Tomato Soup

So fresh and delicious - you will never eat store-bought canned soup again!

Course Main Course, Soup, Tomatoes

Cuisine American

Keyword tomatoes, vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 20

Total Time 1 35

Servings 4 pints

Author Anne Temple

Cost $2

Equipment

1 immersion blender
1 Sheet Pan
1 Dutch Oven
1 Parchment Paper

Ingredients

6 lbs Ripe Tomatoes
6 cloves Fresh Garlic
1/4 cup Olive Oil
3 med Onions, quartered
3 each bay leaves
1 handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp salt to taste
1 tsp pepper to taste
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes to taste
6 cup Vegetable Stock Use chicken or beef stock if you like

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450℉
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Wash and core the tomatoes, cutting out any bad spots, halve or quarter them (depending on their size), and spread them with the garlic and onions on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast for 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes start to carmelize.
Remove from the oven and add to a large stockpot with the stock, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the soup has reduced by about 1/3. Add salt/pepper to taste.
Remove the bay leaves and blend with an immersion blender, or add in parts to a blender (be careful not to overfill or your blender will blow its top and you could get seriously burned, not to mention the mess!)Garnish with additional fresh basil leaves, croutons, or anything you like!

Notes

When it's that time of the year when your garden harvests are coming in, usually fast and furious, sometimes it can get overwhelming. I have 80 tomato plants in my garden and eat as much fresh as I can. I use the cherry tomatoes to make delicious Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce and freeze most of the paste tomatoes to can later on for use all year. Even after all that I still have tomatoes coming in. I have come up with a great way to use up extra tomatoes so they don't go to waste.

This recipe is also a great way to use up those tomatoes which you might throw away, ones with bruises or insect damage. Find a great deal on canning tomatoes at the farmer's market? Grab them up and let's make some soup for the cold winter months ahead. This recipe is so simple and SOOO GOOD!

The following recipe will make about 3 quarts of soup. You can halve the recipe for smaller batches.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

Anne Temple — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 17:23:57 +0000

This has become my go-to recipe for pasta sauce. I had several cherry tomato plants that went crazy last year and I was harvesting enough cherry tomatoes to make this sauce every 2-3 days. You can freeze this or can it. Either way, you are going to love opening one of these containers in the middle of the winter to smell the fresh tomatoes!

Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

A delicious way to use up your abundance of cherry tomatoes!

Course Main Course, Tomatoes

Cuisine Italian

Keyword pasta sauce, tomatoes, vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Servings 4 pints

Author Anne Temple

Cost $1

Equipment

1 immersion blender
1 Sheet Pan
1 Dutch Oven
1 Parchment Paper

Ingredients

3 lbs cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves fresh garlic
1 lg onion, diced
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp salt to taste
1 tsp pepper
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400℉
Wash tomatoes and remove stems from the tomatoes and put them in a bowl. Toss with olive oil and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Roast for 25-30 minutes or until the tomatoes burst. Remove from oven and set aside.
Add the olive oil to a heavy-bottomed dutch oven. Add the onions and cook til they start to become translucent - about 5 minutes.
Add garlic, herbs, and red pepper flakes and stir for 1 minute.
Add tomatoes and all the cooking liquid and simmer for 25-30 minutes, occasionally stirring.
Remove from heat and cool for 15 minutes.
Use an immersion blender or blender to blend to your desired consistency.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

This has become my go-to recipe for pasta sauce. I had a few cherry tomato plants that went crazy last year and I was harvesting enough cherry tomatoes to make this sauce every 2-3 days. You can freeze this or can it. Either way, you are going to love opening one of these containers in the middle of the winter to smell the fresh tomatoes!

Depending on how much of the ingredients you grow in your garden will depend on how much each serving will cost, but it's certainly going to save you money over buying prepared organic pasta sauce from the store!.

Compost Those Fall Leaves!

Anne Temple — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 16:05:59 +0000

This time of year in my neighborhood, the streets are lined with piles of leaves, waiting for the city trucks to remove them. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over 15,000 tons of leaves are picked up and composted by a local company, Purple Cow Organics, and sold back to the public.

There are a few reasons why the leaves must be picked up and not allowed to rot in place. They can clog up city drains causing flooding. Leaves contain a lot of phosphorous which can contaminate streams, rivers, and lakes.

There are those who recommend leaving the leaves in place in your yard as there are lots of insects that use the leaves to overwinter. Some may be beneficial, but some, such as slugs, are not. Also, full-sized leaves take a long time to decompose, sometimes as long as two seasons, so you risk killing any vegetation beneath them.

Composting your leaves is a great way to create organic compost/mulch for your gardens. With a little bit of effort, you can a wonderful soil amendment for your vegetable garden each year, and it’s free! Leaf compost will provide nutrients, suppress weeds and help retain moisture in your soil. It’s a win-win all around!

The quickest way to produce your compost is to mulch or shred the leaves. You can do this with a lawnmower or a leaf shredder. If you have a leaf blower with a mulching blade you can vacuum up the leaves in no time. I usually do it this way and put the shredded leaves on top of my garden beds to overwinter them and keep the soil covered. Remember, nature does not like bare soil.

You can also just create a pile of leaves in a corner of the garden and let it sit. If you have some other organic materials such as grass clippings to add you can speed up the process by adding these nitrogen-rich materials, but it is not necessary. If you use only leaves, it may take up to two seasons to produce the compost. It will depend on your area and climate.

Some types of leaves are better to compost than others, and some should be limited or not used at all. According to Old World Garden Farms, maple, birch, ash, cherry, cottonwood, and fruit tree leaves are all great choices to use as they provide the best nutrients and will break down quicker. Waxy leaves should be limited as they take the longest to break down and will also repel water causing runoff, and we don’t want that.

Unfortunately, oak leaves should be limited as they have a lower PH level and are low in nitrogen and trace minerals. This will slow down the composting process and will not provide you with the most nutrient-dense end product.

Leaves to Avoid

Some leaves should not be used at all in your compost pile. Black Walnut and horse chestnut are two such trees that should be avoided, as they contain toxins that will harm plants and prevent growth. If you ever order wood chips from places like getchipdrop.com, always specify that you do not want wood chips from these trees, unless of course, you plan on using the wood chips in areas where you do not want anything to grow.

Go get going this fall and turn that pile of leaves into “black gold”!

References

https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/where-do-the-15-000-tons-of-leaves-in-milwaukee-go-after-they-fall

https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2022/10/13/compost-leaves-fast/

You can still plant in July!

Anne Temple — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:55:54 +0000

Depending on which zone you live in, July may mean many different things. For some of us, who live further south, harvesting is in full swing and others are just now starting to see their hard work rewarded in fresh organic produce.

You might think you have passed up the opportunity to start a garden, but you still can. We will list some of the plants that you can start in July no matter what zone you live in.

You will need to know how many days you have until your last frost date. We have found a great tool to help you. All you need to do is plug in your last frost date and it will tell you how many days you have. You will see that in most zones there is still plenty of time to get growing!

Below is a list of 21 plants that you can start in July for a fall harvest. Some can be direct seeded and some can be started now indoors to plant the seedlings later. Brocolli, cauliflower, and cabbage are cool-weather crops, so starting them indoors will give them the best chance, as the heat of summer may prevent the seeds from sprouting. Another nice thing about a fall garden is you may have fewer pests and diseases on your plants, and that is always a good thing!

20 Plants for a Fall Harvest

Starting My Garden

Anne Temple — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:30:05 +0000

In February of 2019, I was living the life. I had rented an 1840 log cabin on a 130-acre farm and had a small vegetable garden. My dog, Remy, and I would go for daily walks around the farm and go exploring in the surrounding woods. The landlord wanted a long-term tenant. I told them I planned on dying there. Well, life has a way of saying — not so fast there girlie.

At the beginning of March, we had a lot of snow on the ground. I let Remy out that morning and the next thing I remember was the sheriff knocking at my door to ask me if I had a dog. I said I did and he told me she had been hit by a car. At first, I thought that it couldn’t be her cause she never left the yard. I went upstairs to put on clothes as I was still in my robe. I had trouble walking up the stairs as my legs had gone weak and once upstairs I forgot how to put pants on. I just couldn’t figure it out so I put on my coat and went out with my leggings on.

Yes, it was my girl, my heart, my friend. Gone. I found deer tracks in the snow and knew that she had chased the deer into the road. Anyone who has owned a treasured pet knows the grief of losing a pet so unexpectedly.

Later that same month my landlord stopped by to chat. I had a bad feeling about it. I couldn’t pinpoint why but I just knew all this small talk was leading me somewhere I didn’t want to go.

He told me that they were closing down their gardening business and moving part of it back to the farm, and one of their employees needed a place to live and that I had to move out. He gave me 6 months. I thought, how could things get worse. What had I done, in this or a previous life to put me in this awful situation.

After living on the farm I realized that I loved and felt at home being in nature. I REALLY didn’t want to move back to an apartment, but I thought that it would be my only option. My daughter had just bought a house with her girlfriend and suggested I try to see if I could get approved for a mortgage. I tried and was approved! The hunt was on. My excitement soon turned into dread.

All the areas that I wanted to move to were way out of my price range. So I ended up buying a small house in an iffy area of Milwaukee. It was a tiny house but had a big backyard, so I bought it. I wanted to put in a garden and the yard had potential.

And lucky for me, I saw that there was a small vegetable garden already there, about 12′ x 15′. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the garden hadn’t been touched in years. There were small trees in it. So I got to work — I mean, how hard could it be?

This was a mess of weeds and small trees

No one had touched this for years.

Putting in hay bales so I could grow something.

Really hard. Each tree took about an hour each to get all the roots out. And the other plants, which I still don’t know the name of were all connected by underground runners, so I have to dig out every square inch of the garden to make sure I got them all. By the middle of June I knew I had to get plants in or I wouldn’t be harvesting anything, so I decided to use hay bales in half of the garden. It worked out pretty well! I added a couple of trellises’ I had from the farm and we were off and growing food!

I wanted to grow more. So the next spring I had my friend Rock come and cut down the 4 pine trees. I then signed up at getchipdrop.com and had truckloads of woodchips delivered. I saved all my cardboard boxes (removing any tape and address labels and got to work.

I started out by putting the cardboard down and then putting in about 6 inches of woodchips. I made the beds about 36 inches wide and about 20 or so feet long. I made the path between the beds about two feet wide. I then laid down about 9-12 inches of soil and we were off and running.

I ended up using a lot of old wood left at the house by the previous owner and built the raised beds. By the end of the summer, I was able to grow quite a bit of fresh produce.

I also added some cattle panels, which you can find at any farm/tractor supply store, and put in a trellis, which I planted red runner and Chinese Noodle beans. It was fascinating to me to watch everything grow. It became my happy place. Isn’t it amazing to watch a tiny seed turn into something that feeds you and your family? I think so.

I did most of this myself. I don’t tell you this to brag but to say “If I can do it, you can do it!“

So take part of your lawn and grow some food!

This was a great way to use up ALL my cardboard boxes!

Garden beds are starting to take shape.

So happy to see this – the same year!!