From My Home to Yours
~ Let's Talk Herbs! ~
Since my house looks like an herb store right now with herbs drying in more places than not, I thought we'd talk about preserving herbs this week before we get into our regular features.
Right now, I have 2 large trays of nettles air-drying and a large tray of yarrow air-drying. I jarred up a full quart of air-dried elderberry flowers and another jar of air-dried apple mint. I also harvested a tray of rosemary that is also air-drying as well as a tray of tarragon. Notice my preferred method of drying herbs is to let them air-dry. This method preserves all the good stuff in the herbs. I do have a dehydrator, but try not to use it for herbs if possible. When I do though, and yes, there are times when I do, I never dry the herbs at a temperature higher than 95 degrees. Anything higher and you run the risk of destroying all the good medical and or culinary stuff in the herbs.
I also spent several hours this week researching and reading up on the herbs that I am currently growing. I want to know all about each, their uses and contradictions, if any. Next week, I plan to harvest dandelions (including the leaves), grape leaves (for making a tincture) and parsley. Working on my winter apothecary is a priority in the summer time, just as preserving other foods are ... it all serves a purpose!
I also plan to make several tinctures next week using my home grown herbs and I'll be sure to share the method I use for the process and how I plan to use them. I had planned to do it this week, but I ran out of time! This is a very busy time of the year for us!
In the kitchen ... I typically have some kind of chicken wrap for lunch everyday (unless we have leftovers available) and this last week I decided to prep the ingredients ahead so that putting the wraps together would be easier. I laid out 7 small containers with their lids and then measured the ingredients for each wrap into each, put the lid back on and put them in the refrigerator. Every day this week at lunch time, I would pull out a low-carb tortilla, open one of the containers and dump it's contents onto the middle of the tortilla, wrap the tortilla around the ingredients and then put the wrap in the microwave for one minute. Once out of the microwave, I cut the wrap in half, added a piece of fruit and enjoyed the meal. It was quick and easy and low-carb, which is the style of eating I do that works best for me. What did I put in the containers for the wrap ingredients? This week it was chicken and a slice of smoked cheddar cheese. That was it! It made lunch prep so much easier and you can believe that I'll be repeating the same process, maybe different ingredients, for the upcoming week.
In the garden ...
In the orchard ...
This week we've harvested plums twice. I plan to de-seed and flash freeze some for smoothies, but other than that I'm at a loss as to what to do with them. I could make plum jam and plum sauce, but honestly, I don't know how I would use the plum sauce. The plum jelly is a given! A hot biscuit and a smearing of plum jam and you're set! Anyone have any ideas how to use plum sauce? If you had a tree full of plums ripening, how would you use them?
Let's see how I did on my goals from last week ...
work on herbal garden area (it needs some freshening up) I did some heavy harvesting, but it still needs help in the form of fertilizing and more heavy harvesting! I'll continue to work on it a little each week until I get it where I want it to be! Baby steps work in gardening too!
plant wildflowers and cockscomb seeds in tractor tires. Didn't get done!
preserve squash ... well, that didn't get done because we went on a squash eating binge and ate almost all of it!!! We had pan fried squash, grilled squash, and deep-fried squash, all on different days. Yes, we're still harvesting squash, but amounts are not large enough to do a canning. It's okay, we still have some home-canned squash left from last year! If we get enough of a surplus to can, I will, if not, we'll continue to enjoy eating fresh from the garden squash until it's no longer producing!
plant more garden ... Done! This week I planted a third setting of tomatoes and sweet potato slips that we were given. I plan to continue planting something in every week. Here again, baby steps help me win the gardening game. An hour a day is all I can give it, but it's working!
Here's what next week's goals look like ...
plant more cucumbers
harvest grape leaves
harvest dandelion along with leaves
harvest parsley
plant wildflowers and cockscomb seeds in tractor tires (I'm not giving up on this!)
make herbal tinctures
Until the next time ...
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