drying herbs

I've tried three ways of drying my herbs, and have now settled on what works best for me. The oven.

Hanging them takes too long. Plus, now that it's getting colder (but not cold enough to heat my house yet) I don't want my kitchen ceiling fan on all the time. So these bunches that I hung up almost four weeks ago were drying, but not yet crisp. Every time in the past week when I tried to crumble a few hanging basil leaves in my fingers it would still have some give to it.

I tried using the microwave, which a gardening friend of mine recommended (she's tried all methods too, so that's her favorite. We all have our preferences!) She said to dry them just ten seconds at a time until the leaves crispy. The first zap I gave a plateful of thyme started a small fire in my microwave! No damage done, but scared me enough that I don't want to try that again!

Using the oven worked marvelous. I set it at the lowest temp it would go - 170- and laid the herbs spread out on a baking tray, put it in the oven with the door slightly ajar. It only took five to ten minutes for each batch of herbs to get dry and crispy. (I'm sure it would usually take longer, as these were already mostly-dry from having hung for weeks)

pictured here on the trays Parsley and Thyme

Then during a baby-nap I stripped the dried leaves off the stems of Thyme

and Fennel,

crumpled the Basil

 and Parsley

to fit into the jars. I love these little spice jars!

My husband found them at a garage sale with a wall-mounting spice rack. They are old, thick glass with bubbles in it, and corks. The colored glass is a good thing, as to keep their flavor longer the herbs should be stored either in a dark cupboard, or in colored glass to keep out the light (this is also why drying herbs that are hung should be in paper bags or in a dark room, something I failed to do this time).

Close-up of the Thyme and Sage:

Pictured left to right: Parsley, Fennel, Thyme, Sage and two jars of Basil

the end!

(I'm planning on drying another batch of herbs later, of more Sage and Thyme, and some Rosemary)

herbs

I'm trying my hand at drying more herbs.

I cut from the garden and hung up in small bundles some Thyme, a few leaves of Sage, Parsley, wild Fennel (not sure if that's going to be any good) and Basil.

Incidentally, I already had some Thyme dried but when I removed the leaves for storage the other day noticed they were all dirty. From soil that splashed up under the foliage in rain and didn't come off when I rinsed. So this time I made sure the Thyme plants had thick grass-clipping mulch under them, and waited for a sunny day after heavy rain. I've got way too much of it cut, but will inspect all the stems after they're dry and only keep the cleanest ones.

I cut quite a bit off my bonsai-tree Thyme that lives indoors, too. It's really pathetic looking now. I think it would fare better outside in more sun; the outdoor thymes are so much more lush and thick with growth.

Oh, and I've got one Garlic head.

The three volunteer plants from the garden? They actually all gave very nice cloves; the two smaller ones are already peeled and separated in the fridge for cooking use. This one head hangs lonely next to the herbs. I'll have to start garlics all over again, after three years of not having to buy any! Granted, they're cheap but the homegrown ones are so much more pungent and strong.

stuff growing

Spring definitely coming along. The Daylily corner is growing fast. I dug up all the Tulips from kitchen bed and moved them there around the daylilies; I know you're not supposed to move them except in the fall but they didn't seem to mind at all, haven't even wilted.

New bright shoots of Fennel are coming up out of the mess of dead stems in that other far corner.

Found a few Carrots that got planted too late last year to mature, but overwintered and are now making new growth. I know carrots are biannual plants; the first year they make a root to store energy, second year flower. I wonder if these will flower? or finish the growth they never completed last year?

garden chores

More work today. First rescued some more Sunflor seedlings- a few of the second planting two came up in the same spot, so I separated them, put one in a blank spot of the row, and covered with cloches. Others that are a big larger now and getting their first true leaves took the cloches off and tried a new preventative trick- a ring of sandpaper around the base, and Fennel sprinkled about. Heard that slugs don't like fennel.

Next the kiddo helped me check under boards for slugs and pillbugs. Found a couple fat slugs- squished 'em. Then we checked out the long beds- after I looked up online what the seedlings look like when they first push out of the ground. Tomato seedlings are sprouting! And the Cucumbers- getting eaten immediately. No sign of Green Beans- but when I was working to put bricks in (more about that) found a bean seedling leaf in the soil- riddled with holes. I see small black ants everywhere there, but few slugs. Are the ants eating my seedlings? I think I'm going to try one more time, and start the plants indoors. Covered the few we found with cloches.

Then put up branchy twigs from the brush I cleared the other day to support the growing Snap Peas. Weeded their bed, too. The Garlic wall along back edge of all the long beds is coming up strong.

Next tackled the brick project. My paths made between the beds keep getting messy when it rains- the wooden edges simply float, and the bark shreds I'd put down go all over the place. I started raking them all out again (filling back in that gap by the small patio- hopefully to plant more marigolds or something there). Then found someone on craigslist was tearing up a patio and getting rid of the bricks. Yesterday I made two trips in the car to get bricks, stacked them all at the bottom of driveway, worn out for the day. Today shifted all the bricks over to the beds- in rougly equal piles at the end of each path/row. Pulled out the boards and recut the edge with straight shovel, then laid row of bricks in to make the edge. It's tedious work, but looks so much nicer, and it will stay in place! After I've got all the bricks down (I know I'm not doing it properly with sand and all underneath, but just want something to mark my path decently) I'm going to put a layer of gravel on the paths themselves- to keep out the weeds, make it easy to tell what to step on, and have something that will be relatively dry to walk on after heavy rains, not the soggy muck I get between the beds now. Phew! I'm guessing I can brick-edge two paths a day, and be done in a week.


The porch flowers are filling out nicely.


And I bought some Hostas the other day. Put them on the ends of front flower beds.

At the end of day, when cool again, pulling weeds and clearing litter from the walled bed. Isa discovered slugs- minute ones- all in the Lettuce leaves, and together we handpicked at least forty or fifty off of them. I moved on to inspect the Chard, Beets for slugs, then came back and immediately found one or two more slugs on each lettuce plant again- I had no idea there were so many!

I did manage to save some Cucumber seedlings- put cloches over spots where other seedlings had come up and got chomped, and went back end of day to check- another one had sprouted up next to the chomped one. Then remembered I'd planted two or three in small groups. Glad I did.

lettuce

Yesterday we ate our first harvest- Lettuce! I thought some Radishes would be ready, too- but the roots are just barely beginning to swell. The plants are getting fairly big and tall, much larger than I remember last years' (but that was a different variety). We ate in our salad mostly romaine leaves, with a little bit of simpson lettuce and some from one bibb lettuce that came up by itself. The romaine was a tad bitter, but perfect with carrot shreds and sesame ginger dressing.

The war with slugs continues. Got some in beer near the Peas today. Inspected the other long beds- it looks like the Peppers and Tomatoes are coming up; so far slugs don't seem to be coming at them but I'm not going to take any chances, and put cloches over them. The second set of Sunflor seedlings is almost ready to be uncovered, anyways. Found that the Cantelope seedlings are coming up- and eaten right down to the ground. Must be the slugs, so I'm going to cover those areas too (as well as I can remember where the seeds were planted!) and put out beer in that section tonight. I've been reading up more on slug control- a collar of drinking straw, or sandpaper, can keep them off the larger seedlings, and they don't like Fennel! So maybe if I cut some fennel and scatter that around the seedlings, they'll stay away.

fennel

I've heard that Fennel attracts butterflies, so I moved a plant that always got mowed over, into the garden next to another one. They're on the outer back edge. Growing strong. But I just read on another gardening blog that fennel is invasive- so it's better to have in a pot. When I walk over to the spot where I dug up the second plant, there are small fuzzy plants all over the place. Now I'm thinking I shouldn't have moved that plant, and I ought to dig them both up and put in pots, instead.

sprouts, compost

Celery is beginning to sprout under the kitchen window, and I think some Romaine as well, although it looks a lot like broadleaf weeds, so not sure yet. Weeded the rest of the long bed today. At the very back the Fennel still coming back up. I cut this plant down last year right after we moved in, thinking it was one of the many tall weeds. Now I'm going to let it grow back, for even if I don't use the herb, the yellow flowers attract butterflies. I want to move it though, but not sure if it will withstand that.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow and through the weekend. The pile is heaped up with green weeds now, so after they're all wetted by rain I'll turn it over again on the first sunny day and see if there's enough half-finished compost to rake into the long bed and prepare for planting. It shouldn't need much. I learned from Thalassa Cruso that my leaf mulch probably did a good job of feeding and warming the soil overwinter, so I might not even need to dig, as long as put down more top-dressing of compost through the growing season.