J Schwanke’s Life In Bloom

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ Today's "Life in Bloom" takes us on a savory swing through the herb garden.

We'll make a bouquet of herbs, create a tower garden of herbs, visit with flower and herb farmers, and mix up an herbal cocktail.

♪ ♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

There's a great companion to flowers, and it's growing in many gardens right next to the blooms.

Or at least it should be.

I'm talking about herbs.

The large variety of these often fragrant plants prove to be a great option for greenery accents in bouquets and arrangements.

♪ With the added benefit of fragrance, mint is a lovely scent in any bouquet.

I also grow an abundance of basil in my gardens and reap the rewards, not only for arrangements, but also to make pesto to enjoy now and through the winter with frozen portions always of the ready.

♪ The perks of blending herbs with flowers are many, as we'll show you today in this episode.

♪ Here's an imaginative way to create a container garden.

I call it the herb tower.

Here's how it's done.

We'll start with three containers in graduated sizes.

In the bottom of each one, I've added rocks for drainage and a layer of charcoal.

Potting soil can be acidic, so adding the charcoal helps sweeten the soil by making it more alkaline.

And herbs prefer sweeter soil.

Then we'll put a layer of soil on top of that.

♪ In our largest container and our medium container, we're placing a clay pot upside down.

It sits about one inch above the rim of the container.

Our plants will go around that upside down clay pot.

♪ We'll start with our biggest container and we'll add a selection of herbs all the way around.

I like to add lots of herbs because I want it to be dense and good-looking right away.

Plus, I'm always trimming off of that.

As I trim off one, then the other plants can be advancing, so I'm never depleting my herb supply all at once.

When I'm planting the herbs, I tear away at the root system.

These herbs have already gotten root-bound.

So by breaking up those roots, we're going to instigate it to grow better.

♪ There's no rule when it comes to selecting herbs for your herb tower.

You should plant the herbs you enjoy and the ones you want to use in cooking.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ My smallest container I'll fill in with a selection of herbs, as well.

♪ ♪ ♪ Once we've planted all three containers, we can stack the medium one on top of the large one, setting it on top of the upside-down clay pot.

And our smaller one goes on top of the medium one, sitting again on top of the upside-down clay pot.

♪ So now we have our herb tower.

We can place it on the deck for easy access so we can trim herbs for our culinary experiences.

♪ Upright herbs will grow up and trailing herbs will cascade.

An herb tower is a great solution for those with limited space.

♪ Today we're here at Golden Hour Farm, where a husband and wife collaborative, Scott and Christian, grow herbal medicines, producing custom fresh and dried herbs and tea blends.

They also grow flowers for community supported agriculture, U-pick, and custom arrangements.

Let's see what's growing and learn more about Golden Hour.

How did Golden Hour Farm come to be?

I guess we named it that because we were both working full-time.

I was working for a farm, and Christian was working for a school.

And, so, the only real time we had to garden for ourselves was in the twilight, during the golden hour.

Christian was more interested in flowers, and I was more interested in herbs.

And we just -- We were running a community garden and we just joined the community garden by growing what we wanted to grow and slowly turned that into a business.

You have a different approach.

I think that's different than than anyone else.

So if you can just talk to, like, what motivates you both to do what you do.

Well, I would say -- So, I'm a trained therapist and I actually I have a 9 to 5 in addition to running the farm, so I work with clients doing mental health therapy.

And I think one thing that was interesting to me, both about flowers and herbs, was just the way that -- I think that the approach around healing, that's a big value of ours, and we talk about that on our web site and a lot of our materials.

And learning, like, the rhythms of both the farm season, as well as the seasons, like, throughout the year.

And then, also how to care for our bodies with herbs, and then the creativity that flowers bring.

I've found, personally, that that's helped contribute to my mental well-being and my emotional and my physical well-being.

And that's something that we have really wanted to share.

And of course, we, like, eat seasonally, we grow our own garden for vegetables.

Scott worked in veggie farms for eight years before we started Golden Hour.

So that's hugely important to us.

But I think, for us, we love just the values that we can have and share with others through the herbs and the flowers.

♪ I've heard through the grapevine, with a friend of ours, that you have some of the most unique and hard-to-find herbs.

Wow.

So, yeah.

How about that?

Right?

Sounds special.

Is that true?

I think that, for most people, it's probably the case.

And we do have a lot of sort of niche herbs that...

I don't know.

I could list a few.

We have, like, 60 -- 60 different species that we grow.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay.

All right.

♪ So what's your favorite herb?

My favorite herb is stinging nettle.

It's...

It grows widely in marshes and in fields in lowland and in, like, old horse pastures.

It likes really rich, like, manure piles.

Super nutritive, full of minerals and vitamins.

Makes it really tasty tea.

You can eat it, especially in the spring when the greens are tender.

What about you?

What's your favorite herb?

I think chamomile is one of my favorites.

It's just very calming.

And we've done a little bit culinary with them.

We made a cake for my birthday, which was really good.

So, tell me about the tea.

Well, one of our first customers encouraged us to have tea blends.

That was just something that, yeah, she thought we would be successful in, thought it would be a fun way to share herbs with our community.

Like, A, it's really supportive of the business because, you know, we can just, any extra product we have in the fall and winter, we turn into tea blends.

Sure.

And then, it's just a really nice on-ramp for people who aren't familiar with herbalism or have maybe done, like, tincture, you know, any sort of other herbal medicine that might be intimidating.

Most people -- not everyone -- but most people love tea or understand tea or can drink tea in some form.

And, so, we love that it sort of gently introduces people to herbs.

Absolutely.

You're a very special couple, and what you do is very special, and I'm just very impressed with that.

I just think that it's -- We need more people like you.

Kindness and beauty.

You had me with that.

I was like, "This is a great place.

Kindness and beauty and tea."

So that's wonderful.

Okay, I have a tradition.

Okay.

"Life in Bloom."

I made flower crowns for you both.

Okay.

So this one, I think, is for Scott, because it's a little bigger.

Do I put it on myself.

You may.

Okay.

And let's see.

Here, I'll help you.

Yeah, please.

Let's see if I did well.

Is it going to fit?

Is it going to stay on your head?

I think so.

Yeah.

There you go.

You guys look great.

It's awesome.

It's so cool.

So there's dill.

There's basil.

Yeah.

There's marigolds, which I really love.

Yes, we have some in the garden.

That's wonderful.

Well, hopefully -- So, I can do a u-pick, and I can make a beautiful arrangement from your flowers here and your herbs, as well.

So, thank you very much for coming on.

I appreciate it so much.

♪ It's time for your Bloom 365 Tip, helping you enjoy flowers and herbs all year long.

Scott, what's a great tip for us for herbs?

Everybody's got herbs in their garden and they want to dry them.

One mistake people make is drying them in the window, like, in direct sunlight.

Sure.

And that deteriorates them pretty quick.

So dry them in dark, and then, once they're dry, store them in the dark, too, in a sealed container to keep out moisture and light.

Amazing.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

♪ Basil is a culinary herb of the mint family.

Basil is native to tropical regions from Central Africa to Southeast Asia.

Basil is a tender plant and is used in cuisines worldwide.

Depending on the species and cultivar, the leaves may taste somewhat like anise with a strong, pungent, often sweet smell.

Basil used commonly as a flavor is typically called sweet basil.

Basil is most commonly used fresh in recipes.

In general, it is added at the last moment, as cooking quickly destroys the flavor.

Basil is one of the main ingredients in pesto, a green Italian oil and herb sauce.

It's also an essential ingredient in the popular Italian tomato sauce marinara.

Basil can be kept for a short time in plastic bags in the refrigerator or for long periods in the freezer after being blanched quickly in boiling water.

♪ This is a super easy pesto that has five ingredients.

The first one is the blue African basil.

I grew this in the garden and I actually use the blossoms.

We've got pine nuts that we've roasted.

That gives it a wonderful nutty flavor.

We've got a whole head of garlic, we've got Parmesan cheese, and we have olive oil.

We combine these together in a mixer.

You can use a food processor.

Or I like this little compact size one.

♪ ♪ ♪ Olive oil is the active liquid in this recipe.

Adding it allows the dry ingredients to coalesce.

You're aiming for a consistency that has body but isn't too runny, like the consistency of sour cream.

Now I can use it fresh or I can take the extra and freeze it in an ice cube tray.

Then I can pop out those cubes and have them in the freezer so I can have fresh pesto any time of year, even after the season's over.

Yum.

So, now let's make a pizza.

I love making pizza on the grill, and the homemade pesto is the perfect additive to those pizzas.

We're creating it in a cast-iron skillet, and we'll use the pesto instead of tomato sauce.

You can add as much or as little as you'd like.

I'm a big pesto fan, and I love basil, so I go heavy with the pesto.

Then we use some fresh heirloom tomatoes.

♪ ♪ We have a wonderful friend who makes homemade burrata.

So we'll use that as our cheese.

♪ ♪ Use a little bit of Parmesan on top.

And I salt the crust.

I get the grill to 700 degrees and I run it for seven and a half minutes.

It's perfect every time.

♪ ♪ ♪ With this amazing resource of herbs, I thought it would be beautiful to make a herb bundle bouquet.

We're going to use spearmint, two different types of holy basil and Calendula.

And we'll bind the bunches together and drop them into our container.

It's an easy, fun way for you to create an herb bouquet.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So I'm so excited for "Flower Cocktail Hour" today because this is my favorite cocktail of all time.

I was introduced to this cocktail by a wonderful bartender at The Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland.

And we were talking about Chartreuse, which is one of my favorite liqueurs.

And he told me that, "Have I ever had Flower's Grave?"

And I was like, "No, but I would love to."

And, so, he created Flower's Grave for me and then wrote out the recipe on a receipt.

And I folded it up, and I have kept it in my billfold to this day.

The tavern is no longer there.

Who knows what happened to the bartender, but I have the recipe for Flower's Grave, and I'm going to share it with you today.

So the first thing that we need is fresh squeezed lime juice.

So we'll press those first.

♪ ♪ We filled a rocks glass and our shaker with ice.

We use an ounce of lime juice.

We use an ounce of dry vermouth.

We use an ounce of Chartreuse.

And we use an ounce and a half of bourbon.

♪ We'll shake it... and strain it out over ice.

♪ It's so wonderful because of the herbal fragrances and the herbal taste of the Chartreuse.

It's just incredible.

Cheers.

♪ ♪ Christian has such a beautiful u-pick flower farm, I couldn't resist taking my bucket out and going through and picking some of these beautiful flowers.

♪ We've got a selection of Rudbeckia and sunflowers and Amaranthus and snapdragons and Gomphrena.

But we also have some herbs.

We have some Calendula and some Dyer's Chamomile.

And we're going to combine them together in a beautiful vase.

That's the great thing about u-pick flowers -- you pick the flowers and you create your bouquet.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ It's time for one of my favorite things -- sharing some flower fan mail with you.

Today, I have three arrangements to share with you from viewer Virginia Kirwan.

Virginia sent me pictures of her fishnet stockings coleus in the garden and this bouquet in a bubble bowl that includes her coleus.

Here's another with a big, bright sunflower as the focal emphasis.

And finally, a white pitcher bouquet overflowing with sunflowers, black-eyed Susan, butterfly bush, and more coleus.

These are wonderful, Virginia.

I love to see pictures of your flower arrangements.

We call them "Schwankes" after a viewer nickname.

Send them to [email protected].

That's the letter J at the letter U bloom.com.

And watch for more Schwankes on upcoming shows.

Herbs add flavor and aroma to life however you add them.

Whether it's in a recipe or as a bouquet, alone or with flowers.

Try it out.

I think you'll enjoy the results.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm Jay Schwanke.

So you mentioned spirit herbs.

I want to know more.

It started at the first vegetable farm I worked at.

We had the spirit vegetables.

So we kind of translated that over to herbs.

Christian is chamomile.

Why are you chamomile?

I think the calming.

Calming.

Sometimes a little bitter maybe.

A little bitter.

That's great.

That's okay.

That's good.

And I could appreciate it.

So it's like who's your spirit animal?

Yes.

You have a spirit herb.

She also switches her spirit herb around sometimes.

Okay, that's good.

I've been nettle for a while.

That's somewhat self-explanatory.

[ Laughter ] "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Visit J's web site, ubloom.com, for flower projects and crafts, complete recipes, behind-the-scenes videos, J's blog, flower cocktails, and more.

♪ "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪ ♪