{"id":43302,"date":"2013-10-07T00:08:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T07:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=43302"},"modified":"2013-10-07T00:08:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T07:08:45","slug":"herbs-merit-badge-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/43302","title":{"rendered":"Herbs Merit Badge, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 5,518 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20147,301 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Garden Gate\/Herbs Merit Badge<\/a>, I decided to make my barista\u2019s life a little easier. You see, I\u2019m a real chai lover: that subtly spicy, oh so creamy, delectably frothy, so-thick-you-could-chew-it beverage of choice. Especially during the fall season (oh, let it begin soon). I could pretty much drink my weight in chai lattes. Okay, okay, I am<\/i> a pint-sized gal, but still. You get my drift.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I was really fine-tuning my chai specifications and it was starting to wear on my barista. She was beginning to get the shakes around me, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s simply because she gets an employee discount on her grande, almond, double-shot mochas. It was because my order was a bit \u2026 well, specific. Tailored to fit my tummy\u2019s needs. Complicated. As in,<\/p>\n

Medium-sized chai latte with goat\u2019s milk, heavy on the nutmeg, light on the cloves, sprinkled with cinnamon, extra cardamom, dash of grated ginger, drizzled with local honey, in a tall cup with room for sprinkles.<\/i><\/p>\n

It was getting a little out of hand, I admit.<\/p>\n

But the taste! Ah, bliss in a reusable travel mug \u2026 come to Mama, sweet thing, come to Mama.<\/p>\n

So, anyway, when I realized there was a badge I hadn\u2019t even touched yet and it involved knowing and growing herbs, I was all about it. Sadly for me, the first thing I learned is I don\u2019t live in Sri Lanka, so growing my own cinnamon was going to be an unrealized dream for moi. But cardamom was a possibility, and I jumped in with both feet. I could already taste my homemade chai. It was going to be epic. It was going to knock my socks off.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was going to take three years for my seedlings to be ready to harvest.<\/p>\n

Phooey.<\/p>\n

\"MBA_Jane-9854\"<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, my little seedlings are hanging (in an oh-so adorable pot) from my bathroom wall. They like humidity, you see, and so I plan on having a nice steamy bath a couple times a week, just for them (never let it be said I don\u2019t know how to sacrifice for my planet).<\/p>\n

One delicious indoor herb (er, plant? Tree? Bush? Bark? Pod?) down, a few more to go.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,518 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20147,301 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ Wondering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}