Gardening Gifts That Thrill This Gardener
Update: I made Pili Pili Oil from one of the calendar recipes this morning. Here’s a picture of the ingredients in the pot and then the bottled result. Now we wait a week for it to age and then enjoy!
Pili Pili Oil Ingredients in the pot before heating.
Now to the cellar to age for a week
My sister-in-law and her husband came up with some great gardening gifts for me this year and I couldn’t be happier. There’s a great set if gardening gloves that I look forward to trying out once the snow disappears, but right now I’m focused on the beautiful Herb Gardens calendar they got me.
I love several things about this calendar, but particularly the beautiful photographs of herbs for every month and on the calendar. Already it’s inspiring me to focus on expanding my bay window garden during the chilly winter months here in Michigan.
Other things I like about this calendar include:
An herbal project or some herbal lore is presented every other day on the calendar. Today it’s suggesting bundling herb stems and hanging them upside down to dry.
An herb recipe on every page. For January the recipe is Pili Pili Spicy Herb Oil. It’s not something I’m familiar with and we do a lot of cooking so I think I’ll be heading down to the kitchen soon to mix up a batch. (Since I’ll be using some of my homegrown Rosemary I’ll take the stems and do a drying bundle as the calendar advocates.)
In addition to the herbal projects or herbal lore, this calendar includes important national and international dates.
The calendar includes a detailed environmental benefits statement on the type of paper used in printing it, how the paper is processed and about the company’s tree planting efforts. If you garden for a better environment, that’s important.
If you love to cook and enhance your food with herbs for flavor and fragrance, this calendar should inspire you. And it’s still available. Just scroll down and click on the buy buttons to purchase this to hang in your kitchen this year.
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Creative and targeted programs that make an impact are the hallmark of experienced marketing professional Ruth Steele Walker. Focusing on results that improve the bottom line, she accelerates projects from conception to implementation with a mastery of writing, production, placement, budgeting and coordination.
During more than 25 years with Foremost Corporation of America, the nation's leading insurer of manufactured housing and recreational vehicles, Walker consistently produced effective communications programs that resulted in increased net written premium. Her expertise in crisis communications was a vital part of Foremost's exemplary customer service in the wake of hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Walker specializes in communications targeting the 50+ demographic, with an emphasis in communications for the 65+ segment.
Among other achievements, Walker developed communications for the merger of Foremost and Farmers Insurance, addressing audiences including customers, employees, trade and consumer media. For Foremost's 50th anniversary, she created a celebration program of internal and external promotions, special events, recognition and a 162-page commemorative book.
Earlier in her career, Walker was a newspaper reporter, a TV and radio producer, and worked in national sales and traffic at network TV affiliates. Walker earned a BA in journalism from Michigan State University and an MS in communications from Grand Valley State University.
She and her husband Scott operate a small vineyard in Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, producing premium vinifera wine grapes. The vineyard has been the largest local supplier for Suttons Bay wine label L. Mawby, recently named one of the world's top producers of sparkling wines.
