The Beer Gardener

Gardening, beer, food, etc.

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I'm also repotting these struggling babies today! Some of them are getting pretty sad, but hopefully they'll perk up once they get cozy in their new containers.

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It's about time I picked this blog back up. Starting off the gardening year with a basil growing kit that I received for Christmas.

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We suddenly have a ton of ladybugs! 🐞

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Our first tomato harvest. Unfortunately, the plant these came from has black spot, and it's spreading to the other tomato plants. I hope the neem oil I bought works.

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We tried a new brunch place this morning. The shrimp and grits were spot on! Way more than I could eat in one sitting. I'll get to enjoy them again later.

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Today's cucumber harvest.

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WE HAVE BEES. I REPEAT, WE HAVE BEES. I know you guys don't know this, but I haven't seen any bees in our backyard at all this season. But we had multiple bees in our vegetable flowers a couple days ago! I'm so, so happy to finally see them. We planted a bunch of flowers for them and everything, so I'm glad they appreciate it.

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Our last full day of vacation was well spent. We had some quality brewery-hopping time in the afternoon when we visited three different breweries, Burial, Hi-Wire, and Bhramari. Everything we tried from Burial was pretty heavy, and not really our cup of beer. Not bad, just not what we're into. I felt kind of bad at Hi-Wire because we only tried their small batch stuff and none of their regular beers. They were delicious though. We almost got a second flight to try more, but we were pressed for time to get to our dinner reservations. We squeezed in Bhramari on the way to dinner, and I'm really glad we did! Not only were their beers fantastic, but I loved the look of the place, and the woman who waited on us was very friendly and knowledgeable about their brews. I think this was my 3rd favorite brewery we visited, behind the Funkatorium and Sanctuary.

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Just visited Sanctuary Brewing in Hendersonville. They’re brewing some crazy stuff! We started out with a tropical IPA, which was light, hoppy, fruity, and refreshing; and a coffee IPA, which had a nice light coffee flavor and a good coffee nose. We followed that with their two spicy brews, a chai brown ale and a tika masala pale ale. The chai was great, the smell and taste reminded me of winter. Very comforting. But the tika masala, oh my god! It smelled and tasted just like the dish it’s named for! My mind was blown. I wanted nothing more than to take a large growler home to enjoy again later, but they don’t sell growlers of their small batches. Regardless, I dont think I’ll ever forget that one.

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We started our night last night at Wicked Weed's Funkatorium, where they brew a variety of fun sours. We really loved everything we had there, and we'll probably hit it again before we go home. We followed that with Twin Leaf Brewing. They had a few pours that we enjoyed, especially one that was brewed with tea.

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We hit our first brewery for lunch yesterday, Wicked Weed! We tried some interesting and unusual beers, which is what they're known for. I had one made with cucumber, and one made with peaches and habenero. Chris had one made with beets, and one made with charcoal and kiwi. Definitely some unusual stuff there, but they were all fantastic!

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Had eggs Benedict with stone ground grits for breakfast at a cute local diner right down the street from our cabin. The woman who owns the cabin is a licensed massage therapist, so we enjoyed a yoga class with her followed by an amazingly relaxing massage. Now that we’ve purified our bodies in a way, we’re ready to go poison them with beer!

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Last night we had dinner at a place called Farm Burger. They make their burgers with local, grass fed beef, and they were delicious. We shared an order of garlic fries, and I got a beer float to go with it. I had never heard of a beer float before, so I let the woman taking our order recommend one. I ended up with hard cider and salted caramel ice cream, a perfect combination!

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I’m starting off this blog by going on vacation! My boyfriend, our dogs, and I are enjoying the next 5 days in Asheville, NC.

We started our trip off by stopping in Hendersonville on the way up for lunch at a fantastic irish pub, Hannah Flanagan’s, where we both ordered the shepherd’s pie. It was as delicious as it looked!

After we filled our bellies with food, we walked across the street to the Flat Rock Ciderworks tasting room. We ordered a flight that included their apple cider, pomegranate cider, as well as a couple beers from other local breweries. We ended up taking home a growler of the pomegranate cider. It was very interesting, almost wine-tasting.

So far it’s been a great start to our vacation! We just checked into our cabin, but we’ll be going into Asheville for dinner and more beer tonight.