Cajun Christmas Organic Soap

We have just begun the autumn season and are anxiously awaiting the cool weather. Since I cure my soaps for many weeks, I realized that it was time to think about making that seasonal organic soap, made to celebrate this special place and time.


In the deep South Louisiana Cajun land, Christmas is a wonderful celebration full of joy and excitement. Our area is known for our sweet sugarcane and spicy peppers, such as Tabasco. This soap was made to celebrate our Cajun culture. Organic cane sugar and spicy essential oils add to the fun.

We have the natural greens of our cypress trees and the bright red hot peppers. The problem with the cypress greens is that those trees will be bare and beautiful during our winter months. It was still fun to use them as decorations for my new Cajun Christmas Organic Soap.

Hibiscus Sabdariffa Update

It is almost the middle of September and most of our hibiscus sabdariffa plants are blooming profusely. Last month I was very concerned because of the lack of flowers and contacted Dr. Kit Chin from Southern Louisiana about it. He responded that the actual flowering should be coming in late August to September. Our plants are covered with fruit now!

Fennel and Butterflies

Right out of my dining area window is a very healthy fennel plant. We have been watching the black swallowtail butterflies busy around it. The plant is beginning to flower and set seed but the larva of the butterfly is feeding on it. I will share the plant with the black swallowtail, and hopefully, I will have seed left over to collect and save.

Here is the very young larva feeding on fennel.

The swallowtail larva continues to eat and grow.

The adult butterfly was busy today laying more eggs. I was unable to take a picture when she was completely still - a very active swallowtail!

Tomatoes in the Deep South

It is the beginning of the end for our summer tomato crop. We had a real long spell with no rain. The insect population seemed to suffer because of that and my organically grown tomatoes were really pretty and tasted great. When the rainy days began again, some of the tomatoes began to split.

The varieties that I grew this year were my usual ones plus a few new heirlooms. Jetsetter, Celebrity, Oregon Spring and Juliet plus the heirlooms Cherokee Purple and Creole are favorites in my garden each year. New varieties for me were the heirloom tomatoes: Aussi, Black Cherry, Italian Tree, and Black Plum. Of these, my favorite is the Black Cherry.

Aussi grew into a beautiful plant and is still growing. It did not suffer from disease at all and the tomato was wonderful, but it only produced one 9 ounce tomato. It did not split after the rain. I just recently picked it. We will continue to monitor the healthy plant in hopes that it produces a little more.

Italian Tree Tomato produced some nice fruit, but they split bladly after the rains came. Black plum was nice, but the plants died early in the season. Black Cherry was excellent, although the ripening fruit that was on the plant when we had a heavy rain, tended to split.

The tomato varieties pictured are from top: Black Cherry, Creole, Cherokee Purple and Aussi.

Hibiscus in July

We have had an unusual hot and dry month of June. It is July 5 and we have had one good rainfall in the past 30 days. Our hibiscus sabdariffa (Roselle) plants are growing, but we have only harvested one calyx from the plant from Horizon Herbs. None of these seedlings have produced fruit yet, neither.

The Roselle plant from Southern University was slower to flower, but it is now beginning to set many fruit. This plant was chosen by them because of its ability to grow nicely here in Southern Louisiana gardens.

Busy Birdfeeder

It has been very hot here in Louisiana and very dry. Right out of our large kitchen window, we have a bird feeder in a small courtyard, filled with cracked sunflower chips. Yesterday was busy, as usual, with the birds and we took some photos through our new insulated windows.

First Hibiscus Sabdariffa Flower

The first flower has opened this morning. One picture has a quarter next to it to help show the bloom size.