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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That’s a great idea for the meal prep!
ReplyDeleteLee Ann, thank you, it just makes things fall into place faster during the busy seasons!
DeleteI wondered how to use our tree full of plums last year and then we got up one morning and every last plum was gone. No matter how hard we try the squirrels outsmart us.
ReplyDeleteLana, LOL, I think your squirrels must surely read your minds thus allowing them to stay one step ahead of you all, all the time!
DeleteI had a bumper crop of plums last year and was struggling to think of ways to use them too. I mainly froze them to use later, but also made some plum jelly and some plum brandy. I have never made plum sauce, but I have made a sort of Chinese dipping sauce using plum jelly, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, chilli, garlic and black pepper. The original recipe calls for redcurrant or crab apple jelly. Both work well, but the plum jelly made a tasty substitute when I had run out of the others. This sauce isn't for keeping. You just make it fresh as you need it.
ReplyDeleteAs you've got a dehydrator you could try drying the plums to make prunes and if you are feeling particularly patient you could even try making sugar plums for Christmas presents.
Tracy, you gave me ideas of things I hadn't thought of, thank you! Hmmm, making sugar plums does indeed sound interesting!!
DeleteGlad to help! I forgot to say that British jelly doesn't have bits of fruit in as we class that as jam. If yours does have fruit pieces you could still use it to make a dipping sauce, but would just have to heat it slightly and sieve it first. It has to be heated anyway when making it, so that would just an extra step. x
DeleteI love plum jam on pork but nothing tops a hot biscuit. My dried herbs don’t seem to retain their flavor. Thanks for your wonderful posts.
ReplyDeleteDiana, I hate that your herbs don't seem to retain their flavor. That's one of the things I enjoy about growing herbs the most, the fragrance they give by simply touching them.
DeleteI also had a Victoria plum tree which regularly gave us 200lb of plums over the years I found I couldn’t process this many so after I had picked and processed all I could I let the neighbours pick the rest. Our lounge is in the front of the house and it was entertaining watching people come with ladders and pick. In return the neighbours gave me some of their surplus produce. I found that freezing fruit and then thawing in a sieve catching the juice gave use a wonderful summer drink.
ReplyDeleteI found this site useful for recipes and tips on growing but it is a uk site so adapt the timing etc. https://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/?s=Plums&submit=Go.
Chris, thank you for the website address and I bet it was fun to watch the neighbors share in your bounty. That's a good idea about freezing fruit and then turning it into a summer drink. It's fairly simple too. Thank you for sharing!
DeleteHow do you keep squash bugs and the squash borer from destroying your plants? We love squash and zucchini but don’t even bother to plant it anymore.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Kim
Kim, I don't have a magic answer for dealing with squash bugs and borer's. Some years are better than others. One thing that I do is harvest from the plants everyday as soon as the squash are big enough. I also plant more than we can use for the purpose of being able to harvest enough for our needs. So far this has been a good year for squash and zucchini and I haven't seen any bugs or borer's yet!!!
DeleteWow Mrs Patsy, your herbs look so beautiful and healthy. For fertilizer, you can just tuck some comfrey leaves around them, or make the smelly comfrey fertilizer "tea". My current method is to chop comfrey leaves now in summer while they are prolific and lay them somewhere warm to dry. When dry, I just crumble them into powder. Then the powder can be sprinkled all around the garden including under your fruit trees and watered in. Or hopefully "rained in" which is even better. . It's also a great help when putting the garden to bed come autumn and also to wake it up in early spring.
ReplyDeleteYour fruit looks so so good. Have you thought of making plum juice? It can be canned or just frozen (think repurposed peanut butter jars for the freezer ). this can find its way into your morning smoothies, mixed with ginger ale, or, just freeze the juice in ice cube trays and save to put in glasses of water or lemonade.
You can also snip your plums in small pieces and dehydrate to use in oatmeal, or oatmeal cookies. And soft cooked plums mixed with applesauce can become fruit roll ups. And don't forget about plum butter, a cousin to Apple butter, or mix both plums and apples and pears together and call it fruit butter. I use jars of canned plums in coffee cake or muffins adding warm spices like ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Or plum cobbler with ice cream. A plum tree is a tremendous resource to have. I save those little red mesh produce bags as well as egg cartons to fill with plums to share with family and neighbors.
Can you talk a bit about the tincture you are going to make with your grape leaves?
I dry my grape leaves for tea in the winter. You can purchase grape leaf tea online but it is very expensive. This is the time to harvest the leaves before the bugs find them! I like a hot cup of grape leaf tea with a little lemon and honey.
Also another possible food source as times get harder is the leaves of the pumpkin plant. I learned it from reading that gardeners in South Africa raise pumpkins because they love the leaves so much. They cook them like collards. I'm going to try it this summer. There must be recipes online.
Thank you for your posts even when you are at your busiest.
Blessings, Elaine
Elaine, what a smart idea for using comfrey as a plant fertilizer! I love it and am going to start doing that asap! I also like the idea of making plum juice for adding to smoothies and water. I can see me getting the most from our plums if they are in juice form. You have shared a wealth of ideas for using plums, I'm excited to try some of them ... thank you!
DeleteI have never heard of grape leaf tea, but I will be researching it now, thanks to you! I'll be sure to include info about grape leaf tincture in next week's post.
My hubby spent several years in West Africa as a child with his missionary parents. I asked him about pumpkin leaf and he said he can't remember eating pumpkin leaf but does remember eating potato leaf in a dish. I think I will do some research on the pumpkin leaves as well, it's just good sense to know how to get the most out of everything you have, especially food.
Thank you for your content rich comment! I have learned lots!
I would use the plum sauce as a glaze for pork, a dipping sauce for wontons or even chicken tenders, and maybe use in place of raspberry in a vinaigrette or as a topping for waffles.
ReplyDeleteWendi, I really like the idea of using it in a vinaigrette recipe! I really like that idea! Thank you for sharing!
DeleteFrom Elaine again
ReplyDeleteMrs Patsy, With your plums you can also make syrup, excellent one French toast, and you can make a topping for ice cream. One last way I use plums is to make small jars of glaze for pork roasts. Basically plums, brown sugar, honey,ca pinch of ginger or whatever you like. When your pork roast is just about finished cooking just baste the plum glaze on and put it back in the oven for a few more minutes. You can also make a bbq sauce with plums.
Elaine, more great ideas! You are a wealth of information! Thank you!
DeleteHello! What a wonderful productive week even if you didn't get all your "goals" done. I still think you did a lot of fantastic work. I used to do a lot with herbs but not as much anymore. Reading this made me miss it. Great idea about lunch prep! Sounds good and simple!
ReplyDeleteTo prevent the squash vine borer problem just wrap strips of foil along the stem, from just above the roots all the way to the first set of leaves, and then go ahead and plant it. Solved our problem. I do this with all summer and winter squash, watermelon and pumpkin. I learned this from the old Alabama gardener Website.
ReplyDeleteElaine
My mom always made plum dumplings. Just stew plum pieces in a little water. Then sweeten to taste. She made a simple dumpling dough with Bisquick and milk. Extra plums were stewed in a little water and then frozen in tubs for future plum dumpling treats. I still make them today when the plums arrive at the grocery store.
ReplyDelete