Mortal and Pestle, what to use it for?

As you know, I finally bought my 6" Kindle e-reader.  I think it was for $59 straight from amazon.com.  I quickly downloaded some free e-books and one of those e-books was "Essential Home Remedies" by Sue Woledge.   Although the e-book was not exactly what I wanted to add to my Kindle library, I actually truly enjoyed it.  The book only covers a handful of herbs but the way it was written, it kept me reading to the end.  I really enjoyed it and I actually listened and paid attention to a lot of her advice and recommendations.  One recommendation was the use of garlic.  I already knew the importance of garlic, but her recommendation was to use organic garlic.  I never really thought about that, but she was right and on point.  Although I love garlic and love using it on food and I even make my own garlic and vinegar potion, I never enjoyed preparing it.  It's so sticky and that layer of skin is so hard to remove and you have to press it with your knife or bang the ball of your palm to gain access to the garlic.  So I bought and tried all kinds of garlic presser and I was not satisfied and somewhat disappointed.  Until I bought a mortal and pestle.  

First of all, I didn't even know what they were called.  I do remember my grandmother had these and often used it for her tobacco.  I called them herb grinder or pounder.  and somehow in search of garlic presser on ebay, I found these.  I only found the two small ones,  They cost about $5 plus shipping.  I had no idea they were that small.  and I even tried using them, and they were a joke.

then, I found the big one at my local dollar store here in Macon, sold for $5 bucks.  I was shocked.  and it is now my official garlic presser and grinder.  It's made out of some kind of stone.  It's heavy and it does the job with ease.  So no more unused garlic in my house.  

I love it and planning on buying more soon.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon Georgia

A must see for all of you architecture fans is the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon Georgia.  They don't build churches this way anymore.  This church sits where Poplar meets Washington Avenue in the heart of downtown Macon.  Literally steps away from the First Baptist Church.  This church demands the attention of your camera.  The best time to take the photos is right before sunset, you can really have some great shots.  Specially the way the sun rays illuminate the structure.

Beginning my vegetable garden in containers

I'm trying out my green thumb.  Well to see if my thumb is green.  I'm using the grow bags method that Larry Hall use in his YouTube videos.  The idea is to use Walmart re-usable grocery bags and fill it with your potting soil and plant your vegetable or flowers.

Ofcourse I tweaked it just a tiny bit, by using a storage container from Dollar Tree.  My idea is to combine the terrarium concept and Larry Hall's grow bag concept.  Here is a list of what I used:

• Walmart grocery bag (only cost .50 cents each)
• Standard potting soil, I bought from Walmart (small bag because I'm still in the experimenting method)
• $1 container from Dollar Tree, with holes, so the grow bag can breath while inside the container.  (This is another method I learned from Larry Hall, is called air pruning technique, suppose to help your plant to take in nutrients better and prevents root bound)
• Small rock pebbles
• Charcoal use for aquarium
• Moss
• Spinach seeds

BURPEE SPINACH SEEDS

I know I'm late starting my garden.  But I'm in middle Georgia, so we don't get frost until later in the season.  and besides according to the spinach packet I can grow this in the fall.

Sow in average soil in early spring for first crop, again late summer for fall crop.  In the south, sow in fall.  Sow thinly in rows 1 1/2 - 2" apart.  Cover with 1/2" of fine soil;  Firm lightly and keep evenly moist.  Seedling emerge in 7-14 days.

I'm hoping to have a good turnout and planning on purchasing more of these container and start my vegetable garden.  

Here is a video of Larry Hall explaining air pruning.