Saving your herbs

Drying herbs is a great thing to do so that you always have seasonings on hand, even when your favorite fresh herbs are out of season. Here are some tips and tricks on drying herbs.

Air Drying is the cheapest and easiest, although it does take some time. This works best with hardy herbs like Rosemary, Dill & Thyme, although you can try this technique with others too of course! (I'm going to go ahead and give it a whirl with my chives.) 

1. Trim branches from plant, sit out to let dew or extra moisture dry. (If you do not dry your herbs properly they will rot. eeeek.)

2. Gently scrub off anything extra (bugs, etc) and pick off those dead leaves.

3. Gather herbs into bundles and tie tightly with a ribbon or somethin'. Be sure and tie it tight, the herbs will shrink as they dry and may fall out of their little get-up. I learned this the hard way while drying roses. They fell from my balcony to the first floor... oops. 

4. To avoid my mistake above, try putting the herb bundle in a paper bag (*recycling opportunity!*) and then tie your twine on. Poke a few holes in the bag for ventilation.

5. I hang mine outside on my balcony, but you can hang yours anywhere that they'll be out of the way, as long as the place is warm & dry.

This process takes weeks. So, just keep-a-checkin' and when they're dry and crumbly, chop and place in a jar or airtight container. I use all those cute little jars (like for pesto or pimentos) that I just can't bring myself to throw away. Guess what! Now you have an excuse to keep yours too. :)

These are the chives that I didn't dry, but they were just so delish (and sooo fragrant) that I had to share!

Casualties of Winter

It's about time that I say farewell to a few warm weather plants! My friends have been making fun of me for a while now, as a few of my plants have been looking rather sad. Dead, actually. But it's okay, because those plants are ready to die off or become dormant for the winter. This is one of the exciting things about gardening! I can now bid a happy goodbye to my tomatoes, pepper varieties and strawberry plants.  My chives, rosemary, and basil are hardy enough to survive through Fall and probably even through the Texas winter...seeing how it's November and was 86 the other day.  With their goodbye comes a very happy welcome to some of my faves: winter veggies!



Last weekend I was in Austin visiting the fam and Natural Springs Garden. Usually, for helping out I get to harvest some veggies to take home, but this time I was sent home with something even better- plants! {the whole "teach a man how to fish" philosophy, at its finest!} Also, the handymen in my life (dad and my husband) built a very cute mini garden trough for me. It's big enough to plant about two rows, and will be a beautiful container once it starts to weather naturally! Once I get some potting soil, I will be transplanting most of my new greens into it!

The cold fronts are getting closer and closer together, and squirrels getting fluffier, which is apparently a sign of a cold winter to come. With that, the fall/winter veggies that I am *very* excited to introduce are several different varieties of greens: 

Jericho Lettuce

Lola Rosa Lettuce

Arugula!

Black Seeded Simpson 

Red Salad Bowl Lettuce

Giant Red Mustard Greens

Yellow Swiss Chard. This photo is not enhancing it's color, it's actually that yellow! 

So pretty.

My Garlic chives are still looking good! They are huge! I am going to look into drying and bottling them, don't worry, I'll keep ya posted on that. :)

Bulls Blood Beet Green. Check out the little babies growing already!

Also, cilantro, basil and my baby ghost pepper plants that you've already heard about are all looking beautiful.

Ghost Pepper 

These will make for a beautiful salad! There's so much here that I can make mix and match to create different salads and not get tired of the same ol' lettuce. Yes, this means no more spending $7 on a container of organic greens that go bad in 5 days!!! 


Once these are all in their new home, I'll post the picture of the mini garden trough. Also, check back soon, I'll be researching drying herbs (my chives especially) and bottling them to stow away in your kitchen. Sometimes it's better to have dried herbs on hand because fresh ones can burn easily if you are baking them. It's always better to dry your own herbs... because it's free! :)


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