After spending a rainy morning checking out the White House, checking out the Lincoln Memorial, and getting a private helicopter flyby from my brother-in-law, we ended up at &pizza located at the Hotel Hive for a warm, dry, lunch. Interesting fact, the Subway you might see on Google Maps nearby is actually in the Department of State building and is not open to the general public.

From the outside, it may be easy to miss the entrance for &pizza. There is an “In” and an “Out” door on either side of a porch area with tables.

When you enter &pizza, you order on one end of the counter and they make the pizza on an individual tray in front of you. As you work your way around the counter, your pizza is baked, sliced, and boxed. On the far side you can add some final toppings as you pay and pick up your pizza.

Our group ended up ordering three different pizzas, White, Maverick, and a Craft Your Own with just pepperoni; and an order of garlic knots. The three adults in our group enjoyed each of the pizzas and garlic knots, and the two kids in our group (age 5 and 7) enjoyed the pepperoni pizza and garlic knots.

Personally, I thought the White pizza had the best flavor profile; however, the pesto sauce spread on the top of the baked pizza was a little overpowering to the rest of the flavors. The garlic knots were airy and had a light garlic flavor. They were a hit with the kids, so I only ended up with one.

The beverage selection was “unique” for our palates. I enjoyed the Mango Passion Fruit; however, the Ginger Berry Lemonade was a bit much. They did not have “traditional” soft drinks.

There was no indoor seating; however, there was a partially covered heated patio area that was comfortable on the rainy cold day that we visited. In addition, there is a porch in front of the building with tables. This particular location is located near George Washington University and had a steady stream of college kids coming through while we were there.

If we lived in Washington D.C., I would add &pizza to our list of regular spots.

The 2018 Sturgeon Bay Farm and Craft Market happens every Saturday, rain or shine, from June 2nd to October 27th.  The market’s hours are 8:30am – 12pm, and it is held in the Market Square Parking Lot at the corner of 4th Avenue and Michigan Street.  There are over 65 vendors who offer a great variety of locally grown produce to choose from, beautiful flowers, and delicious foods.   This year we noticed it spilled over onto one of the side streets which was blocked off for the Market.

Besides the normal produce you would expect at a Farmer’s Market at the end of July, it wouldn’t be a Door County Farmer’s Market without cherries!  I was surprised to see sweet cherries still available at the Sturgeon Bay Farm and Craft Market because in year’s past we have only found sweet cherries at a couple of farm stands when we are up in Door County around this time.

If buying items to take home isn’t your style, a few vendors at the Sturgeon Bay Farmer’s Market have you covered.  Like the above stand that was making fresh made to order crepes.  There were also vendors grilling up fresh meat-based items, making kettle corn, and fresh egg rolls (and other deep fried goodies).

This Sturgeon Bay Farmer’s Market is called the Farm and Craft Market for a reason.  About half of the vendors are displaying their artistic items.  The above picture is of Dan Cihlar Masonry, which boosts “Door County’s Largest Selection of Concrete Lawn Ornaments.  There were other vendors selling everything from metal work, fine jewelry, knitted items, and custom wood carvings and toys.

If you are ever in Sturgeon Bay when the Sturgeon Bay Farm and Craft Market is happening, I encourage you to check it out!

What is ButcherBox?

ButcherBox delivers 100% grass-fed beef, free range organic chicken and heritage breed pork directly to your door utilizing a monthly subscription model.  Their meat is free of anitbiotics, hormones, and GMOs.  According to their website, their goal is to make 100% grass-fed beef more accessible than ever before.

I knew I was guaranteed the free items, but I had no idea what the rest of my order would entail.  I had selected the Beef and Pork option (skipping the chicken).  When my ButcherBox order arrived, it included the following items:

2 – Filet Mignon 2x6oz
1 – Baby Back Ribs Whole
3 – New York Strip 2x10oz
1 – Ground Beef Brck – 2x1lb
2 – Boneless Ribeye 2x10o
1 – Boneless Pork Chop 4x8oz
1 – Top Sirloin 4x6oz
1 – Bacon 12oz

However, a few days after I ordered, I received an email that stated:

Bank Error In Your Favor!

This is embarrassing, but very tasty! We accidentally doubled the amount of free steaks in your recent ButcherBox.

Not a problem you say… you know someone who might eat them? That’s great!’

I’m still not sure if this was a marketing ploy, the old “over deliver”, or if it was an actual error.  If we remove the free and “mistake” items, the December ButcherBox appears to have included the following items:

1 – Baby Back Ribs Whole
1 – New York Strip 2x10oz
1 – Ground Beef Brick – 2x1lb
1 – Boneless Pork Chop 4x8oz
1 – Top Sirloin 4x6oz

This would meet their description of about 20 individual (5-8oz servings); however, its hard to cut that 10oz New York Strip Steak into two 5oz services and still enjoy it the same

How was it shipped?

I was hoping to provide readers with an unboxing video; however, with FedEx losing my package for one day it was delivered right before we had to leave the house for a friend’s wedding, so I had very limited time to check out the contents and get the meat into the freezer.

I’m still not entirely sure what happened with my delivery, other than it appears to have been an error by FedEx, not ButcherBox.  FedEx marked my package as delivered “left on the front porch” on Friday, only it wasn’t there or on any of my immediate neighbors porches.  I contacted FedEx and they stated that they would create a tracking case and look into my missing package and someone from that team would get back to me in a couple of hours.  Unfortunately, I was never contacted by anyone from the “Tracking Team”, but the package was delivered the next day, almost exactly 24 hours after FedEx had told me it had been delivered.  Luckily, as you will read, ButcherBox did an amazingly good job at packaging the meat, so it was delivered in great shape and was still completely frozen even with an extra day of transit.

ButcherBox ships its orders Monday – Wednesday with planned delivery during the week.  Occasionally, due to holidays or an unforeseen event that causes a delay, they may ship with a planned delivery of Saturday.  They recommend using a home address to avoid any issues with businesses being closed when delivery is attempted.  ButcherBox has multiple warehouses, so orders from the West Coast get shipped out of California, East Cost orders ship out of Delaware, and the rest ship out of Wisconsin.  You should expect an email to arrive the morning your order is shipped with the tracking information.  In my case, they used FedEx; however, according to their website they also use UPS.

The actual shipment is very well packaged.  The meat is flash frozen and placed in a reusable insulated ButcherBox bag.  This bag is then wrapped in two insulated blankets, one around the sides, and one under and over the bag.

Resting right on top of the bag is a plastic bag that contains a specific amount of dry ice, which is calculated based on your location and the expected transit time. The dry ice may be completely evaporated when delivered as it does evaporate over time in transit.   I will be honest I was hoping for there to be a little dry ice left in my shipment when it arrived, as I love playing with dry ice.

Is it Worth It?

I’m still asking myself if ButcherBox is worth the cost.  If I look at the cost I paid, $119 (normally $129) for the items I received, it was a good deal.  However, looking at the normal ButcherBox subscription, if I take away the $10 discount, and the free (and mistake) items, my next box will cost $129 and will include an assortment similar to:

1 – Baby Back Ribs Whole
1 – New York Strip 2x10oz
1 – Ground Beef Brick – 2x1lb
1 – Boneless Pork Chop 4x8oz
1 – Top Sirloin 4x6oz

For my family, I don’t think the normal ButcherBox subscription is worth the cost, even when I factor in the convenience.  Living in a rural area of Wisconsin I can find the same quality of meat from local farmers, at a lower cost.  If I was in a larger city, where supply was more limited, and cost would likely be higher, I may have a different opinion.

Conclusion

My ButcherBox experience was great!  I had one small hiccup with shipping; however, I was confident that if I couldn’t get FedEx to fix the error, ButcherBox would take care of me.  Luckily FedEx was able to track down my missing delivery, and the packaging ButcherBox used ensured that the meat was not compromised.

The quality of the meat was high, and everything we have tried so far has had great flavor and texture.  While we haven’t used them yet the “ButcherBox Kitchen” section of their website, has some great resources for cooking each of the cuts of meat.  Getting quality meat delivered to our door was extremely convenient.

Overall, it comes down to the cost.  While my December ButcherBox was a great deal, future boxes will not include the free steaks or the $10 discount that I had received on my first order.  When I look at what we would get for the cost, and factoring in that our family routinely uses Ground Beef, Pork Chops, and Ribs, but we tend to save steak for special occasions, it likely isn’t worth it for our family.

I do think you should keep an eye on ButcherBox to see if you can find a deal similar to the one I found, and if you do, I would encourage you to purchase at least one box (with the deals) to try it out for yourself.

Want to try ButcherBox?

If you decide to try out ButcherBox, consider using the following link to receive a special deal:

Free Bacon & $20 off your first order:
http://fbuy.me/hcUoL

I’m on the road for my day job, and to be honest, was not really interested in leaving my hotel room to go grab dinner.  This is a little odd for me because I enjoy the different dining options that Wisconsin Dells has to offer; however, sometimes I just need to take it easy.  With two young kids at home, its rare that I get quiet time to myself.

Looking around my hotel room, I found menus for Pizza Pub and Bobbers Island Grill.  I decided to go with Pizza Pub, mainly because I could order online.

Pizza Pub Menu

Pizza Pub’s full menu is listed on PizzaPub.com.  They have traditional appetizers that you would expect to see in Wisconsin.  Options range from Garlic Bread ($5.99) to Cheese Curds ($9.99).  They offer salads, burgers, hot sandwiches, spaghetti, dinners, and pizza.

The online menu has pictures of some of the food items; however, not all items are pictured.

Pizza Pub Ordering

Ordering from Pizza Pub was extremely easy.  Users have to create an account and are able to store multiple addresses.   I selected the items that I wished to order, and specified any options.  I ordered a Meatball Sub ($11.59) and an order of Chicken Wings ($11.99).  When selecting the Chicken Wings, I had to specify between traditional or boneless, sauce (Hot, BBQ, Sweet Chili, Teriyaki, or Plain), and Dressing (Ranch, Blue Cheese, BBQ Sauce, Hot Sauce, Honey, Honey Mustard, Garlic Parmesan, Sweet Chili, or No Dressing).  If you were curious, I selected Boneless BBQ Wings with a side of ranch.

Delivery from Pizza Pub

I placed my order on a week night, right in the middle of the traditional dinner time (6pm).  The system stated my order would take approximately 40 minutes.  This estimate was pretty close, as I believe the food showed up around 35 minutes after it was ordered.

The driver came was courteous, and my order was stored in an insulated pizza delivery bag.  As the system had previously explained I had to sign the credit card slip, and was able to provide a tip at that time.  Pizza Pub offers free deliver, with a minimum $10 order, so outside of taxes, there were no additional fees.

I was disappointed that my order was not accompanied with silverware.  It is kind of hard to eat boneless chicken wings without silverware, and only two napkins.

Pizza Pub Food

The meatball sub was served with french fries and a pickle.  Unfortunately, the first bite, a handful of french fries, left a lot to be desired.  The fries were a little warmer than room temperature, were chewy and were under salted.  At first I wasn’t sure if there was any salt on them; however, I did find a couple of granules of salt.  I did receive a small bag that had salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and two napkins.  While I was able to add salt to my desired taste, most people expect french fries to have a base seasoning of at least a little salt.

Luckily, the meatball sub did not follow down the path of the french fries.  On the menu it was described as “Homemade Meatballs Covered with Our Homemade Meat Sauce, Topped with 100% Real Mozzarella Cheese.”  It was obvious the meatballs were homemade.  They were moist with a nice Italian seasoning, and had a mixture of meats.  The four meatballs were served on a bun with marinara sauce and cheese.  There was a section of the bottom of the bun that was soggy, and a potion of the cheese had fallen off of one half of the sandwich and melted together, by the time it was delivered.

I originally thought that they forgot the pickle; however, I eventually found it buried under the fries.

The second container was the order of Chicken Wings.  According to the menu, the Chicken Wings were desicribed as “10 Traditional or 12 oz. Boneless (Hot, BBQ, Sweet Chili, Teriyaki or Plain) Served with Celery Sticks & Choice of Dressing”. As stated above, I went with Boneless BBQ Wings with a side of ranch.

It was nice to see that the celery was wrapped up in wax paper to keep them from getting covered in the BBQ Sauce.  I was concerned that the container was plastic and was not insulated.  This concern played out as the chicken wings were warm, but not as hot as I would have hoped or expected.  I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the chicken and the fact that it wasn’t chewy or dried out (Sorry, I didn’t want to use the word “moist” twice in one post…).  The BBQ sauce was a little tangy and had very minimal heat.  In case you were curious, the celery was crisp.

Overall Impressions of Pizza Pub Delivery

Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the delivery food that I ordered from Pizza Pub.  The meatball sub and the chicken wings were good, but really needed to be a little warmer.  In addition, the time that it took to deliver the food resulted in part of the bun becoming soggy, and the french fries becoming chewy.  However, I do believe that if I had ordered the same food in the restraurant I would be writing a completely positive review.  The food had good flavor, and I could tell from the meatballs and chicken wings that quality ingredients were used.

I know some people might be thinking this is slightly harsh, since the issues were related to the delivery process; however, as a restaurant that advertises its delivery service I expect that they have addressed the issues of keeping the food warm through proper storage containers and delivery processes.

With all that said, in the future I’d skip the delivery from Pizza Pub and go to the restaurant instead.

The building that housed Shipwrecked Brewpub will be torn down with work starting on September 27th.  According to a news release, crews are planning on having the entire building taken down by October 2nd, to minimize disruptions to neighboring businesses ahead of Egg Harbor’s Pumpkin Patch Festival.

Shipwrecked Brewpub was established in 1997; however the building dates back to 1882.  According to their website, the building was built in 1882 by George Barringer, and was a salon to serve the lumberjacks, sailors, and travelers in the area.  The building was expanded in 1904 to include guest rooms and a full dining area.  In 1912, it was renamed the Harbor Inn

In 1997, the current owners purchased the building and reopened it as Shipwrecked.  Shipwrecked celebrated its 20th anniversary a few months before the fire.  Construction of the new building is expected to last into Spring of 2018.  Shipwrecked hopes to reopen during the Summer of2018.

Shipwrecked Brewpub is located on the corner of Highway 42 and Country Road G in Egg Harbor. More information can be found on their website, shipwreckedbrewpub.com.

This was the 3rd year that the Tomah Rotary Club has offered their Beer and Sausage Fest as a fundraiser.  The event held at the Recreation Park Building at the Monroe County Fairgrounds was advertised with the flyer to the right, which led quite a few people that I talked to, to assume that the event was going to have a good selection of beer and sausages to sample.  The folks in my group, and others we spoke to at the event, shared a common theme, that the beer tastings offered were more than what was expected but the sausage side of the festival was lacking.

After the event, when I was researching how many years the event has been offered, I found the following explanation of the event, as a Facebook comment on the event page, that did a better job of explaining what the event was going to entail:

Please join us and please share this event! Live music from “Marty and the Sharks”, lots of beers to taste, Klement’s sausage, pulled pork competition and brewing demonstrations. Saturday, September 9th, 4 to 8pm at Recreation Park Gold Building in Tomah. 8 to midnight after party with beer bar, food and beanbag tourney. No ticket required for after party. Tickets for beer tasting are only $20.00!

My Experience at the 2017 Beer and Sausage Fest

While the doors opened at 4:00pm, we decided to arrive around 4:15pm, so we didn’t have to stand in line.  This did mean that we sacrificed our ability to get a “Klaus Beer Tasting Glass”.  These glasses, pictured on the left, were offered to the first 100 people through the door.

Tickets were $20, and were available at from the Tomah Chamber of Commerce, Tomah Rotarians, or at the door.  Based on the people that showed up around the same time as we did, a lot of tickets were sold at the door.  After we had paid for our tickets, it was learned that designated drivers could enter for free and would be able to drink soda and water for free.  Since we had already paid, our driver decided to sample a few beers.  In addition, we were under the impression that the tickets were for sampling sausage as well (more to come on that).

Beer Offerings at the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest

The number of beers offered at the Beer and Sausage Fest exceeded my expectation.  They had over 60 beer offerings from approximately 15 breweries.  Breweries that were represented included: Boston Beer Company, Door County Brewing, Karben4, Lake Louie Brewing, Leinenkugel’s, Milwaukee Brewing Company, New Glarus Brewing, Pabst, Pearl Street Brewery, Potosi, Sand Creek, Titletown Brewing, Toppling Goliath, Tyranena-Lake Mills, and Wisconsin Brewing Company.

Each brewery had a table with their offered brews chilling in a tub.  All of the beers were poured from bottles or cans, none were on tap.   A sign offered limited information about each beer, mainly the brewery, name of the beer, logo of the beer, and the type of beer it was (IPA, Pilsner, etc.)

I personally was hoping that there would be a representative from the brewery on hand to talk about the beers, make recommendations, and make tasting notes.  However, the tables were staffed by Rotarians who were volunteering their time to pour samples. While they did a great job, they couldn’t offer much information about the beers that they were pouring.

The exception was a table that was staffed by the Tomah Zymurgy Club.  They had an educational display, which was the advertised brewing demonstration, and a few beers to taste that they were able to fully describe.  I really enjoyed the ginger beer that they offered.

Since I was not one of the first 100 to walk through the doors, to get one of the special Klaus tasting glasses, I had to rely on the plastic cups at each station, but there were plenty and reusing your cup for sampling was optional.  This worked out well when I wasn’t impressed with a sampling, and needed a fresh start.  About an hour and a half into the event, they put tubs of pretzels out at each of the brewery tables which helped differentiate between beers,

Sausage Offerings at the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest

The Sausage side of the Beer and Sausage Festival didn’t quite meet my expectations; however, I’m not sure exactly what my expectations were.  I was assuming there would be a variety of sausages to try, based on “Sausage” being a main part of the festival’s name.  It appears that I wasn’t the only one that was a little disappointed in this part of the festival based on some conversations I had during the event, and at least one person who commented on the Facebook Event page stating, “Kind of disappointed the sausage wasn’t included in the entry fee. I wasn’t the only one…”, after the event.

They had three styles of sausage at the event.  They had Brats, Italian Bombers, and Smoked Polish Sausage, all from Klement’s Sausage Company.  While they did have small samples of each available, the main purpose appeared to get you to buy the sausages for $3 each.

Of course, since I primarily focus on food, and not beer, I tried all three of the sausages, some maybe more than once.  The first offered (on the left) was the basic Klement’s brat.  Not much to say about the brat, as it had good flavor, but wasn’t anything special.  The second offering (in the middle) was the Klement’s Italian Bomber.  These were cooked up with sweet peppers and served with an Italian sauce.  This one had a good flavor profile, was a good sample, and ultimately was one of the sausages that I purchased.  It didn’t disappoint, and was a great sausage to be served up in a bun.  The last offering (on the right) was the Klement’s Smoked Polish Sausage.  The picture above seems to have it with sweet peppers and the Italian sauce; however, it was just the sausage when I tried it.  The Smoked Polish Sausage had a great smoked flavor and was a tasty sample.  It reminded me a lot of the Polish Kielbasa that we have for dinner occasionally.  I said it on Saturday night, and I still think it is true, that this sausage was good as a sample, but I don’t necessarily think it would make a great sausage in a bun to eat.  Since I didn’t purchase one and eat it this way, it is only my assumption, based on the flavor profile.

Pulled Pork Competition at the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest

I am still beating myself up for missing out on the sampling of the pulled pork competition at the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest.  This was setup in the corner of the room, and we ended up there after only two brewery tables.  When a few in our group decided to do the pulled pork tasting, I was holding out for the sausage, thinking it was going to be more involved part of the festival than it actually was.  By the time we had made it around the room, and I saw what the sausage part of the festival was, the pulled pork competition was packed up and gone.

The Pulled Pork Competition consisted of five crock pots of different pulled pork entries.  The contestants appeared to be all Rotarians.  You could purchase a ticket for $5, which allowed you to taste all five pulled pork entries. They were using 4oz Styrofoam bowls for each of the samples, so you got a decent amount of pulled port to try for your $5.  When you tried all five entries, you placed your ticket in the entry that was the best.  I didn’t catch who won.

Like I said, I didn’t get to sample any of the pulled pork; however, from those in our group that did they were impressed by the quality and taste of the entries.

Overall Impression of the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest

Overall I thought the Tomah Rotary Beer and Sausage Fest was a great event worth the $20 entry fee.  The parts of the event that I was disappointment in, was based on my expectations, which could have been avoided if the event was marketed differently.  Based on what we experienced, it was a beer festival.  I think it was a little bit of a stretch to add the “and Sausage” part to the title.  As a beer festival, it had a great selection and was well priced.  I think this may be how the organizers saw the event as well based on a reply to feedback about the sausage not being included in the entry fee, “and our entry donation was about half of what other beer festivals are getting for entry.”

I was impressed by the number of beers offered, and we didn’t have to spend a lot of time in line waiting for samples. The crowd was great, a good representation of Tomah, and there were some great conversations. My only recommendation on the beer side, would be to see if they could get some of the breweries to have a representative to help add to the education side of the event.  As a beer novice, I would have found this extremely helpful and interesting.

I hope the Tomah Rotary Club takes the feedback it receives and makes adjustments for next year to help the event meet people’s expectations of the event.  This is a great event, that I’d like to see keep growing.  Being a food guy, I hope they keep the Sausage part of the Festival and just beef it up [pun intended].  I’d like to see more sausage companies represented and some larger sample sizes.  I think this is doable, while keeping with the event’s purpose, as a fundraiser.

I also noticed on Facebook, that there was interest by a couple of companies to have a vendor booth present at the event.  While I didn’t see the companies that asked about it at the event, I don’t know if they decided not to attend or if the event was not accepting vendors.  I think it would have been easy to add a few of these vendors (home brewing, drinking paraphernalia, etc.), which may help offset some of the costs.  I know there was a lot of interest in the home brewing side of things, based on how busy the Tomah Zymurgy Club’s table was.

I didn’t have a lot of time to plan, prep, and execute this recipe, so I searched out an easy recipe.  My goal was to find an easy and tasty cheeseball recipe.  Since some of my favorite cheese spreads involve bacon, when I found this Bacon Ranch Cheeseball recipe, I knew it was the one!

Print

Easy Bacon Ranch Cheeseball

A quick and easy bacon ranch cheeseball recipe.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 24 Servings

Ingredients

• 16 oz Cream Cheese
• 1 oz Dry Ranch Dressing Mix 1 Package
• 1 Cup Shredded Colby and Monterey Jack Cheese
• 3 oz Real Bacon Bits

Instructions

• Take 2 8oz packages of cream cheese (softened) and mix until it is slightly whipped. 
  
• Add 1 packet of Ranch Dressing Mix and mix until incorporated.
• Fold in 1 Cup of Shredded Cheese.  Add extra bacon bits or crumbled at this time if desired.
  
• Pour bacon bits or bacon crumble on a plate.
  
• Form cheese mixture into a ball with your hands.
• Roll ball in bacon bits until covered.  Wrap cheese ball in plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
  
• When cheese ball feels firm, remove and serve with crackers.
  

Overall, it was a great success.  Next time I make a Bacon Ranch Cheeseball I am going to use real bacon, a bowl mixer instead of a hand mixer, and make sure I have some better crackers on hand!

Do you enjoy Cheeseballs?  What is your favorite Cheeseball flavor?

Don’t get me wrong, I had cooked with herbs before; however, I always turned to dried herbs and spices. They were just easier. Each time I tried one of the above recipes I had to go track down the fresh herb at Wal-Mart and paid $2.38 for a small container that would go bad after a week, even though I often only needed a couple of cuttings.

Why Would I Buy Fresh Food from Wal-Mart?

At this point, you might be asking why I shop at Wal-Mart, especially for fresh food? Well, I live in a small city that has a Super Wal-Mart and a Gordy’s Market. While I would love to avoid Wal-Mart for my shopping, the selection at Gordy’s is limited and I don’t enjoy driving 45 minutes one way to get to a larger grocery store.

I have found that Wal-Mart often has a better selection of fresh produce and it will last longer than produce purchased at Gordy’s.   I do get nervous about what gets added to the produce to make it last so long, but having a growing family I can’t afford to have produce go bad after two days.  I think this is one of the main reasons I am motivated to get our outdoor garden planted this year.

Ok, back to my story…

After buying packaged fresh cut cilantro and having the remaining cuttings go bad after a week, I was not excited to buy another container the next time I wanted to make the 21 Day Fix Salsa. That is when I found a short rack of fresh herb plants next to the tomatoes. I was intrigued, especially since they were only $2.98, almost the same price as the small containers I had been purchasing. The cheapskate in me realized that as long as I kept the plant alive long enough to make two batches of the salsa I was ahead money wise.

I pulled the trigger and bought a fresh cilantro plant. This plant was placed on our kitchen windowsill and lasted a couple of months before I killed it off. Even though it didn’t last very long, I was excited, as I saved money over buying the individual containers. I’m not sure if my wife was as excited, as she isn’t a big fan of cilantro.

My next purchase was Basil. This plant lasted a lot longer and we still have it today. I enjoyed using fresh basil on the 21 Day Fix pizza recipe, and I love the smell of the basil on my fingers after I trim back the plant. I do get frustrated with myself, as we have made homemade pizza a few times in the more recent months and I forget to add the basil, even though it is right in my face above my kitchen sink.

Based on my success, I couldn’t stop after two… I add a parsley plant; however, this one doesn’t get much use.  It is still hanging in there on the windowsill but is feeling neglected.

My most Recent Wal-Mart Herb Purchase

My most recent Wal-Mart herb plant purchase was Mint. I needed this for a salad, but I had forgotten how much I enjoyed mint. Since the mint plant joined my windowsill garden, I have added mint to salads and occasionally I will add some to my water or just grab a leaf and chew on it for a while. This has brought back memories of picking wild mint at the Boy Scout Camp, Camp Castle Rock (now Ed Bryant Scout Reservation), that I attended as a youth. We used to walk around chewing on fresh mint or adding it to the water to mask the iron taste.

Life After Wal-Mart Herb Plants

Since buying the herb plants at Wal-Mart, I have had high hopes to expand my selection and the quality of my herb plants. I received some seeds as a Christmas gift and attempted to grow some plants from seed; however, I failed due to what I am calling bad soil. As we plan out our vegetable garden, I am trying to determine how I should incorporate herb plants. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this, as I want access to them year-round, and the Wisconsin winter weather makes this a tad difficult. I might have to keep them in containers outside in order to be able to easily bring them back inside when the temperatures start dropping.

So, thanks Wal-Mart for helping me enjoy fresh herbs!

In addition to this new offering, Phelps Maple Syrup Fest features local sugar bush tours, tree tapping demos, an arts and crafts fair with over 70 vendors, children’s activities, a Maple Café, and more.