ChocoMom

Just solid wire, no coatings. Some of the sources I looked at recommended wires being 6 ft or higher in the air; place the posts 6 feet apart. I just kinda did it willy nilly. And still, wow.

Sure. So, I used wooden posts/sticks 4-6 feet high. I spiral-wrapped 2-or 3 wires around each post with extra wire at both ends. The ground end of the wire extends pretty far into the soil- maybe 1-2 feet. The other end has the wires going into the air 1-2 feet. The idea is, that the electromagnetic energy flowing through the air from say, lightening or solar events, would be "caught" and conducted into the ground so as to re-energize the soil. Supposedly, this had been done in Europe and Australia for decades - before commercial fertilizer was a thing. Now, if you take a deep dive, there are some pretty elaborate designs out there- but I just went with simple.

Okay....so how many of my fellow gardeners have ever heard of Electroculture? and, How many have tried Electroculture? My husband happened to come upon a video about it, and took a deep dive into the history of it, etc. He showed it to me, and I was curious. In 2002 when we purchased the house and property, we found many clusters of copper wiring out back and never did anything with it. So, I figured- why not try it?! I'm not putting any money into it- just a few minutes locating some wooden posts to wrap the wires around. My garden is about 45 feet by 90 feet, so I made up a dozen or so of these contraptions, and when I ran out of sticks, I just stuck the wire right into the ground. I did not fertilize the ground. I did water a few times bc the early summer was very dry here. I rototilled and pulled weeds same as I do every year. The results have been astounding: The first cabbage I EVER GREW was this year, and weighed in at 7 pounds. There are three more in the garden - even larger. The first brussels sprouts to ever grow beyond 3-4 inches are now boasting dozens of sprouts on each 4 foot tall plant. The first cauliflower to ever grow at all in that garden were huge gorgeous heads. The first broccoli to ever grow beyond a couple inches w leaves produced over 16 heads - and are still producing. The carrots and beets are massive. I've pickled over a dozen pints of beets for hubby- and that;s less than half of the beets I planted. The carrots are insane. The zucchini are growing faster than I've ever seen, and I've begun pickling those too! I grew red onions and they are huge! The acorn, buttercup and pumpkins seem to be growing faster than normal. The green and yellow beans are producing more than I have ever seen. I've picked them four times- and there's so many I've had to freeze dry, freeze, give away, cook- I cannot believe it. I blanched and froze 12 pounds in one harvest, and today will be the fifth harvest. Peas, I've picked three times- freezing or freeze drying 3-4 quarts. They are still producing. Sweet potatoes are ridiculous. Not even done growing, and they are massive. The tomatoe plants are so huge, I had to pound T-posts inside the tomatoe cones to hold them up. The basil was so plentiful, I made 6 jars of pesto- and they are still producing!!! The parsley has grown so well, I've been able to make salads using the parsley as greens. Like in Shopska salad. The only thing that did not fare well were the potatoes. The potatoe beetles were the most horrendous I've even witnessed. I did a second planting, and hope to harvest in Sept/Oct. We will see. But, I was just curious if anyone else has tried it and had similar results. Fun experiment, nonetheless.

Made my very first Apple Tart Tatin. Hubby and Gramps enjoyed it very much!

The Geode fault line cake. 1 st attempt.

One of the two cakes for Saturday, this is the checkerboard cake. Dark Chocolate espresso and vanilla for the cake. Icing is vanilla marshmallow buttercream with espresso buttercream filling and swirlies. Had a bag of Callebaut chocolate vermicelli- mixed with some gold sugar for a little pizzazz.

Nice to be back. 😃 Feels like home.

Well. My baby is turning 18 this weekend. She requested "a tall cake". Because this is a party of epic "I'm turning 18" proportions- with 4 of the 5 kids coming, plus their families, and friends, and extended relatives to celebrate - decided it had to be a little over the top. So.....doing an 8 or 9 layer Geode Fault line cake. Her colors are turquoise, blue, purple.. Got the rock candy. Got the gold dust and vodka to paint the edge of the fault line. Making a quadruple batch of marshmellow buttercream- because its is just so ethereal and easy to work with. Cake flavors are odd. The child visits our local Bigby shop and gets teeth-aching coffee drinks a couple times a week. So. Turned the vanilla layers into vanilla cappuccino. And the chocolate layers are more along the lines of a mocha. The filling in the middle of layers will be the caramel macchiatto. It'll be ....a piece of cake! 😂 Two of her brothers have their birthdays within a seven day period of her birthday. Since they are both going to here, I decided on Friday night, I'd do a checkerboard cake for them- because I miss doing cakes for them . Its been A LONG TIME since they were here for a birthday. Just for fun. So. That is what is I am baking. Conveniently, the igniter decided to poop out as I was baking the last couple layers. Found out too late. Chickens ate the remnants, resorted to finishing the baking in my chocolate workshop. Freeze drying may not really count as baking, but I did make a massive batch of chicken and steak fajita last night. Ended up with 4 full trays- so that is in the freeze dryer. Hubby did an Aldi run for me while he was on a business trip in Marinettte, WI. They had a ridiculous (in a good way) price on 3 packs of peppers- so - there we go.

Life has been crazy. A dear cousin passed away. My youngest son needed help moving downstate. MIL had a bad stroke. ( Incidentally, that happened the same day I had taken dinner over to them, with 2 pieces of that dark chocolate cake with the marshmellow buttercream. ) I've taken a month off of work - because I just needed a break, but every moment is filled with stuff to do. I've not been in the chocolate shop much this year, but will get back to it- even if its just to clean and organize. Nice to be back.

This is just not fair. How can one pick a single dessert?!!!! I mean...for me, there is the seasonal aspect...Strawberry pie,. Raspberry pie. Blueberry pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie....then there are banana splits---which are done on a spontaneous whim. And then the newest addition ..... dark chocolate cake (made with a cup of strong coffee), layered with marshmellow buttercream, and covered in semisweet chocolate ganache.

This looks like something from ASpecialtyBox.com I use a quite a few of their products, and do recall seeing packaging very similar -if not exactly- like this on their site. Very classy.

Both. The one in the photo doesnt show it, but I also affix some crushed Maldon salt flakes to the edge. 😃

I failed to get the flavors listed. Red domes are Strawberry Margarita. Used the Valrhona inspirations for that. The hearts wgold are Strawberry Baileys in milk chocolate. Blk/wh cube is a mudslide in Carmelia. Yellow/white are Pina Colada. Teal/silver dome is White Russian. Orange yellow is mango layered w passion fruit ganache. Then caramel hearts and cubes. Also did a vegan mixed berry with Felchlin's osa filling compound ...pale pink. The hearts wtransfer sheet are Earl Grey.

So, we have some Valentine's goodies!

aspecialtybox.com has bon-bon trays with a clear protective cover that fits right over the top of the bon bons. I've used them in the past for the spheres, but not all that practical if you're doing different shapes. Worth checking out though.