Last night I decided to try an almond torte with cherries and cream. The BC cherries are fantastic and I get raw cream from our local herd-share fresh every week, in fact I have just gotten back from picking up my share.

The almonds probably come from California. I did find a online farm-stand that would ship me nuts from the farm in 30 lb boxes, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. Most almonds are pasteurized these days, unfortunately. As usual my oven burnt the hell out of my tortes. As a result I use a lower temperature for a longer time that might normally be used for a torte, feel free to experiment with the temperature.

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MindSpice is a specially created spice mix that is designed to uplift the spirits and refresh the mind. It includes cardamom, clove, rosemary and cinnamon. On sniff will clear the mind during an afternoon mind-fog and will raise the spirits or assist with memory.

Cardamom has restoring and balancing abilities and is good for lifting depression and clearing the mind. Rosemary is well known for memory, as well as being a gentle stimulant. Clove is a powerful antiseptic and kills bacteria, viruses and fungus, it reassures the body and also raises the spirits. Cinnamon is energizing as well as warming and also is useful against unfriendly micro-organisms.

The boxes are made with photos of the cherry blossoms that they are stuffed with. They fit into any purse and can be helpful to sniff when on public transport during flu season. They make fun and trippy treats for a rave or as an aromatic and unique party treat.

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Last month I got a great email in my inbox from Out of The Box Sampler inviting me to share a sample for their monthly box. This was great news and I started trying to figure out what in the world I could make 25 of that wasn’t gonna take me a whole month, but that would also be a sample of the items that I have in my handmade store Hella Delightful.

There isn’t much there, but I hope to add to it as projects show their faces. At the moment I am in a new location and need to find some wild spots that are forage-able, so all the stock I have is it. Anyway I thought of making bundles of half-sized yarrow stalks, but I found the size too small to be usable counting the I Ching.

I had collected a bunch of cherry blossoms during the spring this year and had taken photos like mad as well and was really wishing I could find a good way to share these photos. As a kid I used to make boxes out of old Christmas cards to look like miniature Christmas presents to hang on the tree as decorations, I used to love doing it, so I decided to try making some tiny boxes out of the photos of cherry blossoms. I may have made them too small in retrospect, but I didn’t really collect that much of the cherry blossoms.

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