fruits 'n such orchard

On Friday we went on our last field trip of the 2011-2012 school year.  Fruits 'N Such Orchard in Dickinson was our destination. It was a warm day, but not too hot for an outdoor field trip. 

During the first half of the trip we toured the herb garden, where, Renee, the orchard owner showed us and explained what many of her herbs were.  We picked some herbs to put in tea and others that we later made a dip with.  I learned two things.  1.  I don't like to chew on Stevia leaves (really bad aftertaste) 2.  I really would love an herb garden.

One of Renee's friends made these archways/trellises for her.  They line the path to the herb garden.

There was a fountain in the center of the herb garden.  Renee had similar plants planted together in raised beds.  There was a bed of lemon flavored herbs, one of different types of basil, one bed was edible flowers, one was medicinal plants, one was a spaghetti garden (all the herbs you would want to put in spaghetti sauce), and a bed of asian herbs.

    This herb is a substitute for Cilantro.  Cilantro, apparently doesn't grow well here in the summer, but this plant will.    It definitely smelled just like Cilantro.

Here we are cutting up our hand-picked herbs and making our sour cream dip. It was delicious, the chives, basil, and a few other things I can't remember went into the dip.

Afterwards, we toured the garden and picked vegetables and blackberries.  So far, I have made a ton of salsa with fresh jalapenos, bell pepper and tomatoes.  Too bad I didn't wear gloves when I sliced the jalepenos.  My hands burned the rest of the day.  Also, I made a blackberry cobbler. Keith loved it.  I still have a few cucumbers that I want to try to make refrigerator pickles with...we'll see if I can get around to that or not.