There’s double doses of goodness in these cookies. Where to begin? First, there’s a double helping of buckwheat AND a double dosage of chocolate. To add to that, there’s a salty-sweet element too. Most importantly, these cookies are for an ultimate good, worthy, and loving cause. Please read on…

Earlier this year I heard that Dorie Greenspan was releasing a new cookbook…a cookie book entitled “Dorie’s Cookies” and I’ve been so looking forward to its release all these months (to be released October 25th)! It’s a cookbook filled with over 300 of her recipes, and it includes in that lineup her World Peace Cookies (its the cover image) and the infamous Jammers!

Dorie Greenspan’s “Dorie’s Cookies”

But what makes this cookbook release even sweeter now is that I’m also participating in a fantastic cause with OXO who has also teamed up with Dorie for their yearly Cookies for Kids’ Cancer campaign. OXO will be donating $100 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each blog post (up to $100,000!) which times up to also be National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I am honored to be a part of this campaign once again (see also the campaign from a couple of years ago featuring my Pumpkin Pie Spices Spritz Butter Cookies).

Today, 25% of children diagnosed with cancer will not survive. There is a direct correlation between increasing research dollars and decreasing mortality rates. Progress has been made, but there’s still a long way to go.

Visit OXO Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. To learn more about this worthy cause, visit cookiesforkidscancer.org.

Dorie’s Double-Buckwheat, Double-Chocolate Cookies & OXO Non-Stick Cookie Sheet

There were several options of cookies for me to share in this post. I was particularly interested in this one because it uses not only buckwheat flour, but a medium granulation of kasha (a pseudocereal buckwheat), as well. I’ve been especially drawn to recipes that use various forms or origins of flours and grains so this cookie really called out to me. The chocolate duo with the sea salt was sure to be a win-win combination.

You’re using two egg yolks for the recipe so save the egg whites to use later like in an egg white omelet, Parisian macarons, friands, Italian Amaretti cookies or meringues!

The recipe calls for flake sea salt and a sanding sugar. I used raw sugar and coarse sea salt instead, because it’s what was already in the pantry. I liked the sugar-n-salt element so much on the test batch that I decided to roll the edges of each cookie in it and then lightly sprinkle the tops of each sliced cookie.

Dorie’s Double-Buckwheat, Double-Chocolate Cookies & OXO Non-Stick Cookie Sheet

This recipe has instructions for baking it up as either a free-form or a slice-and-bake cookie. Many of the bloggers that participated in this campaign baked it up beautifully in a free-form style (also as pictured in Dorie’s Cookies book) and used the handy OXO double pastry wheel to shape their cookies. I decided to instead share the slice-and-bake alternative to further demonstrate a different version of the cookie treat.

The cookies were baked and are featured throughout the images on the OXO Non-Stick Pro Cookie Sheet which features a unique micro-textured, waffle-like pattern that ensures even baking and adds structural rigidity. An oversized edge makes it easy to grip and carry to and from oven.

Double-Buckwheat, Double-Chocolate Cookies – OXO On Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer & OXO Double Pastry Wheel

Making the cookie dough definitely requires more than just arm-muscle strength…so an electric mixer is in dire need here! This was easily achieved using the OXO Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer with a light to guide you as you’re blending/whipping up your edible creations and includes digital controls to steadily increase or decrease the mixer’s speed. A nice feature on the mixer is that there’s a wrap-and-secure cord, and flat, stable base for compact, upright storage!

I love how these tasty cookies turned out! They’re not too sweet but are the perfect treat with that cuppa-joe or afternoon tea without feeling like you need a bottle of water to chase it down. The medium granulation kasha, lends a subtle texture and also adds to the structure. What’s especially enjoyed is the contrast of the cookie itself and its texture laced with the sea salt.

Visit some of the other bloggers’ posts that baked up Dorie’s double-buckwheat, double-chocolate cookies.

I’m looking forward to Dorie’s book and more to share when I get my grubby hands on my own copy! Many thanks and much appreciation to OXO and Dorie Greenspan for teaming up for this lovely campaign and including me and my Teenie Cakes blog as part of those efforts.

Twitter: @OXO / @Cookies4Kids
Instagram: @OXO / @Cookies4Kids
Facebook: facebook.com/OXO / facebook.com/CookiesForKidsCancer
Pinterest: pinterest.com/OXO / pinterest.com/Cookies4Kids

Visit OXO Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. To learn more about this worthy cause, visit cookiesforkidscancer.org.

~XO Cristina

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Dorie’s Double-Buckwheat, Double-Chocolate Cookies

Makes 80 free-form or 60 round cookies

From Dorie’s headnote: “I doubled up on the two most important ingredients in these cookies, and I even doubled up on how you craft them. There are two kinds of buckwheat in the cookies, buckwheat flour and kasha (buckwheat groats), and two kinds of chocolate, cocoa powder and dark chocolate. There are two different ways to make them: slice-and-bake or arts-and-crafts free-form.
The buckwheat is the charmer here. The flour makes the cookies tender and gives them a subtle nuttiness that only buckwheat habitués will identify. no one will guess there’s kasha in them, but it gives the cookies crunch and a fuller flavor than you’d think you’d get from such tiny nuggets. The kasha’s got a fabulous texture too. It’s a crunch-lover’s dream. (But you must use granulated kasha, such as Wolff’s, in this recipe; whole or cracked kasha is tooth-breakingly hard.)
If you roll the dough into logs, chill and slice and bake them, you’ll get cookies that are firm around the very edges and cakey, soft and almost melty everywhere else. If you roll the dough out free-form, bake it and cut it any which way the instant it comes out of the oven, your cookies will be tender through and through. (Only the thinner edges of the free-form shape crisp.) Whatever you choose, these taste better and look prettier with a last-minute sprinkle of sanding sugar and flake salt.”

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups (227 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ( 120 grams) buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup (21 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 sticks (8 ounces; 226 grams) unsalted
• butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup ( 100 grams) sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (45 grams) kasha, preferably Wolff’s medium granulation (see headnote)
• 4 ounces ( 113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons sanding sugar, mixed with 1 teaspoon flake sea salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling

Method

1. If you’re going to make free-form cookies, position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 350 degrees F. (If you’ll be making slice-and-bake cookies, preheat the oven after the logs have chilled.)
2. Whisk both flours and the cocoa powder together. (If the cocoa is lumpy, sift the dry ingredients, then whisk to blend.)
3. Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a largebowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, both sugars and the salt together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Drop in the yolks and beat for another minute, scraping the bowl as needed, then add the vanilla. Turn the mixer off, add the dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed until they are almost incorporated. This takes a minute more than you might think it should; at first the dough looks crumbly and then it starts to darken, moisten and come together. Mix in the kasha and chopped chocolate. Use a large flexible spatula to give the dough another few turns and mix in any loose ingredients.
4. Turn the dough out and divide in half.
To Make Free-Form Cookies:
5. Shape each piece of dough into a disk. One at a time, place between pieces of parchment paper and roll out to a thickness of
   1/4 inch. It’s the thickness, not the shape, that matters. (I usually go for a rough oval or round.) Peel away both pieces of paper from one piece of dough, then return the dough to one piece of paper and slide it onto a baking sheet (if you don’t loosen the bottom paper, the dough will curl during baking). Repeat with the second piece of dough. Sprinkle the dough with the sugar-salt mixture.
6. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back at the midway mark, or until the cookies are set — the edges will be more set than the center, which might still have a bit of give when gently prodded. Slide each cookie slab, still on the parchment, onto the counter. Using a pizza wheel or a knife, cut the big cookie into as many cookies of whatever shape you like. I cut it into strips about 1 inch wide and then cut these diagonally so that I end up with diamond-shaped cookies. Slide the cookies, still on the paper, onto a rack to cool to room temperature.
To Make Slice-and-Bake Cookies:
7. Roll each piece of dough into a log that’s 12 inches long (see page 12 for tips on log-rolling). Wrap well and freeze for at least 1 hour, or refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
8. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven as on page 203. Slice each log 1/3 inch thick and place the cookies about an inch apart on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats. Sprinkle with the sugar-salt mixture.
9. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back at the midway mark, until the cookies are firm around the edges and give slightly when pressed in the center. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool completely. © Images & content: Cristina A-Moore for TeenieCakes.com.

Teenie Notes

Storing
• If you’d like, you can freeze the dough, either rolled out or shaped into logs, for up to 2 months; be certain to wrap it well. The logs can also be refrigerated for up to 3 days. The cookies can be baked (or sliced and baked) straight from the freezer; add a minute or two to the baking time. The cookies will keep covered at room temperature for about 4 days; they can be frozen, well wrapped, for up to 2 months.

source Dorie Greenspan’s Dorie’s Cookies, 2016, p204

Dorie’s Double-Buckwheat, Double-Chocolate Cookies & OXO Non-Stick Cookie Sheet

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Exotic and unusual. Like something extraterrestrial, it’s the passiflora or passion fruit and its passion flower – my purple passion.

Passion Fruit Flower – passiflora

I almost can’t even breathe. We’re in June of 2016, already. Time is cruelly just whooshing by and I feel like before I know it every week, it’s already friday! The feeling is not just because it was a short week and Memorial Day came and went with a blink of an eye. I also lost several months in the beginning of the year when I had a couple of surgeries that pretty much left me in want of time to pass by quickly so that I could realize some sort of healing or progress in my condition.

What’s really making me feel like there’s not enough time for anything, though, is I’m working on my graduate degree and the amount of reading, assignments, papers and exams has my head spinning. (I’m nodding my head from side-to-side in disapproval…), this is why you’re suppose to finish school when you’re much younger. Although, I have to say that it has never felt more right than now, to have returned. Anyways, I’m into the third course with nine more to master (no pun intended!)!

I had been trying to get this post out weeks ago. Here we go – we were starting to talk about passion fruit and passion flowers…

Passion Fruit

My introduction to passion fruit was with my Aunt Virginia. She was out visiting to take me to a baker who she was buying my wedding cake from. You see, my Auntie was an insanely talented and master cake decorator and baker. She designed and created the most beautiful cakes. I speak in the past-tense because it’s not something she does full-time anymore. When I got married, she generously took care of my wedding cake and at the same time learned some trade secrets from a gentleman who lived out in Southern California and happened to also make Hawaiian cakes with the most exquisite tropical flavors. One of those flavors being with passion fruit.

Truth-be-sadly-told, I had a taste of that most delicious cake when we sampled it months before the wedding. One of the layers of the cake was passion fruit…would you believe in all the flurry of the wedding, I never even had the chance to taste my own beautiful wedding confection except for that initial slice and taste bite made just for the photographer!

That’s the last time I ever had passion fruit (uhm…shall we say, that was many, many years ago).

Passion fruits are not as popular here in the U.S., so it seems, when it comes to recipes and use of the fruit. However, I frequent and favor many of the U.K. and New Zealand food publications and it is much more commonly used in the most delectable and creative of desserts and dishes.

I have not been able to easily find passion fruit, fresh or frozen, here in southern California and its purée can be criminally costly. Wanting my own stash to do with what and when its needed (and with such abundance and freshness), I finally adopted my own passion fruit vine and looking forward to experimenting with homegrown harvest soon. Like my guava plant, I tend to add fruits to our garden that I cannot easily find in the stores (like our kumquats, cara cara oranges, kiwi berries, crab apples, Meyer lemons, fig tree varieties, and Babcock white peaches).

Passion Fruit Flower – passiflora

The passion fruit has the most unusual flowers, as seen in these images. The plant itself is a vine with pretty shaped, healthy green leaves, and quite a beacon for ants. The fruits are a pepo, a type of berry and is oval being either yellow or dark purple when ripe. The exterior is smooth with a soft-to-firm, juicy interior, riddled with a lot of seeds. It is often used with other juices due to its sweet aroma and flavor.

This vine of tasty fruit is native to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay (also Paraguay’s national flower), and is commercially cultivated in tropical/subtropical areas for its sweet fruit.

We already have several good-sized fruit, I’m hoping to have some soon to harvest and work with. Now to learn when to harvest the purple jewels and keep the production going!

Like practically overnight, we went from May-gray to temps in the mid-90’s….insane! Have a lovely weekend!!

-Cristina

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Amongst the myriad of fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and creatures in the garden (both friends and foes), we’ve made way for Lavandula angustifolia. Lavandula is lavender, not only the color but the flowering plants with a genus of 39 known species. I was surprised to learn that lavender is also from the mint family…

Lavandula (lavender) & the bee

A post or two ago, I wrote about “The Bee Friendly Garden…” and kindly asked that everyone bee kind to the bees, please! With that, we’ve since introduced lavender to our garden and landscape. These showy, tall stemmed flowers attract welcomed winged, garden friendly guests…hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. I’ve even read (although, not confirmed), that lavender can deter scorpions.

Encouraging beneficial guests to a garden or landscape helps to organically keep pests at bay while also allowing pollinators to do their magic (like our friends the bees!). This is especially important and necessary for our fruit trees. Even self-pollinating trees benefit from the additional assistance from our buzzing, winged friends.

As you might imagine, I’m enjoying sitting close to the new garden additions with my camera to try capturing the flying passerbyers from behind the lens. All is enjoyable so far and hopefully these bees won’t turn their attentions on my paparazzi behavior and deliver me a stinger (if anything must be delivered…make mine with fresh mint and shaken not stirred, please!)!

Lavandula (lavender) & the bee

The lavender throughout this set of images in this post is a Spanish-type lavender (Lavandula stoechas) with shorter flower heads and crowned with paper-like bracts that resemble petals. Not as fragrant as other varieties, but this particular species loves our hot weather and will do well when our temperatures drop much colder than most of the San Diego area. The inconspicuous grayish-green leaves and spots of top color makes for an attractive addition to our landscape.

From what I’ve read, and so far have experienced, lavender is an easy plant for a Southern California garden and quite drought friendly. It enjoys full sun and depending on the species, will reward you with its vibrant colors a good part of the year.

Lavandula (lavender) & the bee

We’ll be adding more lavender of the Hidcote variety from an organic source. Hidcote lavender is one of the cold hardiest varieties of the English lavenders. It is deeper dark purple, known for its fragrance, used in potpourri and often used in dried-flower arrangements. Although a Hidcote cultivar is good for culinary purposes, it’s the Munstead variety that is more widely used [Note to self: “must find an organic source for some Munstead, as well!” UPDATE: Found an organic seed source here…on its way! ].

Lavandula (lavender) & the bee

Are you an admirer of Mediterranean gardens? Mediterranean gardens are inspired by the coastal areas of Italy, Spain, and France. A garden themed from the Mediterranean region includes some of these characteristics (to name a few):

• Cold Hardy
• Drought tolerant
• Tough and hardy in general
• Casually elegant
• Assortment of plants, rich with textures and colors
• Use of architectural elements and terra cotta
• Herb gardens
• Fruit trees

Lavender is just one of the many favorites used in Mediterranean gardens, especially loved for their versatile use for culinary, decor and landscaping desired elements.

Read more about lavender with this visual guide from Better Homes and Gardens – “A Gardener’s Guide to Lavender.”

Don’t forget to pick-out or find the bee in each of the images – and remember, “bee” friendly to our bees, please!!

Lavandula (lavender) & the bee

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I’m officially hooked. Hooked on roasted strawberries that is! While strawberries are in season, the sweetest, plump, and most beautiful ever and you have a generous bounty, roasting strawberries is just the thing to do…

Roasted Strawberry, Olive Oil & Crumb Topped Muffins – Prep

With a toss in a small amount of sugar and a splash of vanilla extract, roasted strawberries have the most delicious aroma. The longer you roast them, the more berry juice you can expect. However, I don’t like mushy fruit, even in fruit pies. I need some texture and an ever so slight firmness to cooked fruit. It’s all preference as to texture so when roasting strawberries it will depend on the temperature and length of time you’re roasting and what your plans are for the red rubies.

Roasted Strawberries

For the strawberries used in these muffins, I started at 350°F for anywhere between 15-20 minutes. I had enough juices from the roasting to add some to the muffin batter and optionally use any leftover to brush on top of the baked muffins had I not also added crumb topping.

Roasted Strawberry, Olive Oil & Crumb Topped Muffins

Fresh baked good with the roasted strawberries just seem to flavor intensify even more by popping them into the oven to draw out their depth. For these muffins, I’ve added a crumb topping that includes some good old-fashioned oats and some finely chopped walnuts that not only adds a rustic nuttiness, but lends to texture as well (and give you a small amount of a healthy dose of walnuts for the day!).

There’s a cup of low-fat sour cream that I’ve mixed the strawberry juices into, a mere couple tablespoons of butter and some extra-virgin olive oil. Besides some of the good ingredients and the roasted strawberries, what I really loved about these muffins is that they are not greasy. Very minimal oily residue lingering on the bottoms of your paper muffin liners.

Roasted Strawberry, Olive Oil & Crumb Topped Muffins – Prep

The batter will have a thick consistency and even seem a bit dry, but don’t be alarmed. They bake up beautifully. Remember, they’re muffins…rustic textured muffins so they will seem a smidge dense.

I’m patiently waiting for our garden strawberries to start sharing some beautiful treats. This year we’ve planted Loran and Sequoia varieties in hopes of prolonging the season a bit longer with one being a June bearing and the other an ever-bearing.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Roasted Strawberry, Olive Oil & Crumb-Topped Muffins

Yield: 12 Muffins

Roasting the strawberries draws out even more of the strawberry’s flavors. Warning: Roasting strawberries becomes addictive for future baked goodies!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. strawberries, rinsed, hulled
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crumb Topping

• 1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon white whole wheat flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Muffin Batter

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
•  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• lemon zest from 1 lemon (optional)

Method

roast strawberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Using a rimmed baking sheet, line with foil or parchment paper. 
2. Cut strawberries in half, larger berries quartered.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, place strawberries, sugar and vanilla and gently toss to coat with clean hands. Transfer and spread the berries out on the prepared baking sheet.  Roast, stirring once or twice, until the berries are tender and have released some of their juices, about 15-20 minutes (until they have softened, released their juices, but are still firm to touch, not mushy).  Allow to cool slightly and then gently remove berries and transfer to a large plate to lay flat while you prepare the batter.
4. Reserve a couple tablespoons of the strawberry juice, mix with the 1 cup of sour cream. 
5. Adjust oven temperature to 350°F.   Either line 12 muffin cups or spray with cooking spray.
make crumb topping
6. Combine oats, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and walnuts.  Add the melted butter and toss with a fork.  Set aside.
make and assemble the muffins
7. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl, stirring well with whisk.
8. Mix together the melted butter, sour cream, granulated sugar, olive oil, vanilla, egg, and lemon zest in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.  The batter will be thick, not runny.
9. Filling each muffin cup by only a third, divide batter evenly among the 12 prepared muffin cups.  Using 3/4 of the roasted strawberries, place a strawberry piece or two on top of each muffin cup’s muffin batter. Evenly distribute the rest of the muffin batter on top of each muffin (you are layering the muffin: batter, roasted strawberries, batter, strawberries, topping). Evenly distribute the rest of the roasted strawberries into each muffin cup by very slightly pushing into the batter.   Sprinkle each with crumb topping.
10. Bake for about 20-28 minutes, rotating pan half-way through baking time. Check with a wooden skewer.   Transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. © Images & content: Cristina A-Moore for TeenieCakes.com.

Teenie Notes

• Use firm, fresh strawberries.
• When roasting the strawberries, gauge to make sure its still firm when you pull from oven. You don’t want them too mushy. However, the longer you roast it, the more juice you will have (so its personal preference).
• The batter will be rather thick and stiff.

source Cristina A-Moore | Teenie Cakes

Roasted Strawberry, Olive Oil and Crumb Topped Muffins

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Planning and organizing a landscape and an edible garden involves not only endless hours of hands on labor of love, resources and researching, it also includes deterring and repelling pests and attracting and calling for beneficial friends like birds, hummingbirds (they’re a class all their own!) and the ever diligent native and honey bees. The Bee-Friendly Garden…bee kind to the bees, please!

Bee-Friendly Gardening – Babcock peach blooms

We have steep hillsides surrounding a good part of our main backyard that we covered with red apple ground cover. It’s a lush green ground cover that’s drought tolerant, attractive and attracts some good friends, the bees. We had an unusual cold spell in southern California a few weeks (or was it months?) back. The cold mornings were very beneficial for some of our stone fruit trees, like the Babock Peach who requires hours of chill time. However, it really did a number on the ground cover, freezing and killing a majority of it back. It’s recovering and slowly returning, but my main concern is what it may have done to my warm invitation and beckoning of beautiful winged friends like the hummingbirds, butterflies, and busy bees? Fortunately, there is a myriad of other beneficial plantings to coax these winged fairies to stop by and visit.

Bee-Friendly Gardening – Wickson crab-apples | Even though self-pollinating, can benefit from honey bee pollinators too!

In addition to what has already been planted in the gardens, this year I’ll be better at planning companion planting in the vegetable beds, adding even more glorious color with fragrant blossoms to repel insects that will do the plants harm, and encourage eco-friendly buddies to socialize a bit longer and maybe even take residence closer by.

Bee-Friendly Gardening – Tomatillos | Tomatoes pollinated by native bees produce larger and more numerous fruits.

DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of The Bee-Friendly Garden: Design an Abundant, Flower-Filled Yard that Nurtures Bees and Supports Biodiversity to review from Blogging for Books. Opinions are my own. I was not monetarily compensated, obligated to write a review, or write a favorable review. Links to the book may contain Amazon.com affiliate links where, if clicked and a purchase is made from that click, I may earn a tiny percentage of the sale that is applied for TeenieCakes.com operating expenses. Read more here.

I’ve been looking forward to this book by authors Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn for more guidance and inspiration on how to further make good use of space by adding beneficial plants that will naturally attract winged creatures to help with pests and further pollinate our edible gardens.

The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey & Gretchen LeBuhn

Spaces of all sizes, large, small, container or patio gardening, can benefit from colorful, safe, and healthy gardens. Just some of the many benefits of nurturing a bee-friendly garden include:

• Improving the quality, flavor, and size of your homegrown produce
• Increase the quantity of your fruit and vegetable harvests (and who doesn’t want that!?)
• Developing healthy and fertile soil
• Attracting beneficial birds, butterflies, and other garden-friendly insects
• An organic, pesticide-free, and ecologically sustainable environment for your family and furchildren
• A continuously colorful and blooming garden through the seasons with an array of bright and lively flowers

This is an informational and beautifully laid out book with full-color images that starts with a chapter on “Our Friends the Bees” (myths and facts) and ends with a chapter on “Beyond Your Own Backyard – Becoming a Bee Activist” which I am (an activist for bees) and thoroughly enjoyed the introduction on how bees are beneficial and their desperate plight and challenges due to their environment changes by both man and perhaps some natural phenomena, as well.

I was especially drawn to the chapter on “Bee-Friendly Plants for Edible Gardens” as I’m planning and reworking our edible garden and happy to learn that many of the herbs and plants I already have in the landscape are doing their bee duties. Herbs like everyone’s favorite basil (which is also an excellent companion plant for tomatoes and peppers), lavender, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme and mint.

The section on “Designing Your Bee Gardens” will give me a lot to think about and consider as our ever-changing garden and landscape matures and changes over the years. As trees and shrubs provide more shade and warmth to our surroundings, I’m able to better integrate more colorful and aromatic areas that are not only eye-pleasing, but beneficial to all our fruit trees, vegetables and herbs, welcoming in beneficial creatures, like the bees, and hopefully overrun and repel our foes.

There’s a great “Resources” section listing bee-friendly nurseries and gardens, recommended books, pollinator organizations, and more online information. The Regional Plant Lists will prove invaluable and I’ll have to place a handy bookmark for this section as I know I’ll be referencing it often. Although generous in content, I would’ve liked it to be even more extensive but it definitely shares plenty for me to work with!

Take a peek at the extensive preview pages on Amazon.com (←affiliate link) and consider a bee-friendly landscape and/or garden to benefit your environment and bee-friend our native and mighty honey bees!

DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of The Bee-Friendly Garden: Design an Abundant, Flower-Filled Yard that Nurtures Bees and Supports Biodiversity (ISBN-13: 978-1607747635) to review from Blogging for Books. Opinions are my own. I was not monetarily compensated, obligated to write a review, or write a favorable review. Links to the book may contain Amazon.com affiliate links where, if clicked and a purchase is made from that click, I may earn a tiny percentage of the sale that is applied for TeenieCakes.com operating expenses. Read more here.

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