Chocolate Cosmos & Herbal Blends

So, after looking for 3 years for chocolate cosmos seeds I finally found some last winter. I ordered 3 packages. Planted them this Spring, protected them from the rabbits, all excited and waiting to dye with them.

When they finally bloomed I got this, regular pink  and white cosmos. I could have bought at our local grocery store for half price and no shipping costs.

You know the saying when you get lemons make lemonade. So I wrapped some up in premordanted wool fabric, steamed it for a good hour. Then left it to set for a few days.
 

After washing the fabric this is the result, very cute yellow, orange and green patterns.

Then green is where I sprinkled on extra pink flower petals.

This months herb society meeting was all about making herbal salts and sugars with your end of the season herbs. I baked sugar cookies and when the came out of the oven I sprinkled on the lavender and rose sugar's (I made earlier in the summer). The lavender seemed to give the most flavor, just of little hint of it. We also tried the sugars in ice tea. That was wonderful.
Another use for herbal sugar is as a bath/shower scrub. 

PJ demonstrated her chile pepper salt/pepper blend. She grows and dries many different types of peppers, you can make it as hot as you like, she kept it mild for the group. She ground them in a spice grinder with dried basil.

Mixed it with sea salt and black pepper. Everyone took home a sample.
I tried it this weekend on steak, perfect.

I picked a big basket of my herbs, cut them up into sea salt and shared them with the group.

They needed still to take them home, put into a blender and pluse until they become ground up.
Then spread on a cookie sheet and place in a 200 degree oven until completely dry, approx. 2 hours. Stir mixture several times during the process. Store in sterilized jars keeping away from moisture.