Savory Saving
This week it’s starting to feel like fall, of course that means it’s time to start harvesting herbs in earnest for winter cooking. I’ve been harvesting all of my oregano, which I use quite often in cooking. Many of the herbs I harvest get dried and stored in glass jars in the pantry. Thyme always lives in a pot in the house because I think fresh thyme is so much better than dried.
Basil is also an herb I love to preserve, most of it is eaten as pesto and most of that is eaten in the winter. Yesterday I made 5 batches of pest for the freezer. If you’re looking for a good recipe, I love the one from Simply Recipes. If you’re going to freeze it, leave the cheese out.
Pesto is such a great way to save summer in a jar to enjoy in the middle of winter and it’s super healthy. It’s definitely worth having around, the garlic and basil will help keep you fight off winter colds. I think there’s enough basil in the garden for a few more batches, I’ll wait to make those until frost threatens.
What do you think about pesto: love it or leave it?
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Cultivate Simple 44: Stew 4.0
So, on this weeks episode we get caught up on what has been happening Around the Run and we have a good time doing it.
Corningware is a great option if you want to have a plastic free kitchen, they come in handy for all sorts of things.
Bright red hot dogs – YIKES. Read this article about them on Serious Eats.
Fireplace paint from made from linseed oil and graphite.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:23:23 — 58.0MB)
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Fresh Herbs
We may not be prepared to keep bees, but we like to see them working on flowers that they like and that we will grow, in part, with the bees in mind. The culinary herbs from our own patch taste better for being freshly gathered or frozen green, rather than dry from a jar.
-Christoper Lloyd & Richard Bird (The Cottage Garden
This year I’m definitely missing some of my perennial herbs from my Ohio garden. I had a few big, beautiful sage plants that I harvested many leaves from, mostly for frying in butter. I started seeds this spring for sage, but I’m letting the plants get established before harvesting too many leaves.
I didn’t get any chamomile planted this year, luckily I have a big jar full from last year to get me through the winter.
I do have chives and five or six varieties of thyme, along with mints, hyssop, tarragon, horehound, oregano, marjoram and parsley. That’s enough to get me through, I certainly can’t wait until my garden is once again teaming with as many herbs as I can grow!
How many different herbs do you have in your garden?
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A Walk in the Woods
Last night we played hooky from our chores. We decided a hike was a better way to spend our evening. The evening was spent gathering sumac seed heads to make lemonade and mushrooms to identify in order to practice what we learned in class on Sunday.
It was an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours. There really is nothing better than being inspired by the natural world. There’s so much color and beauty right before our eyes, we can sometimes forget if we don’t get out to see it. Now that the mosquito population is waning, we hope to spend a lot more time out in the woods discovering what we have. I think the resident Chiots enjoyed herself as much as we did. Now that we’ve found an all natural pain killer for her, she’s back to enjoying longer hikes once again.
When was the last time you went on a hike?
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Friday Favorite: The Fair
I grew up going to the Wayne County Fair in Ohio every year (at least when we were in the country). It was a BLAST, one of my favorite things. You can see what that fair is like in the post I wrote about it a LONG time ago. Last Friday we attending the Windsor Fair with our neighbors. It was just what a fair should be. There were animals of all shapes and sizes, foods both fried and sweet (though we didn’t have lobster rolls at the fair in Ohio), there were quilts and vegetables on display and many wonderful educational items as well.
The fair is such a great way to bookend the summer, it’s always something I’ve really enjoyed. Perhaps some year I’ll enter a few of my veggies into the fair.
Do you attend your local fair?
