So Long Summer
Well, summer is over in the 5×5 Challenge Garden. Yesterday I cleared out the zucchini and the beans. The tomatoes are still going strong, so I left them to ripen.
The expanse of soil is nice to see after spending time cleaning up the garden. I considered adding mulch or compost for overwintering. Then I decided to plant the garden with various chicories and endives. They should do nicely in our cold fall and provide us with food for November & December.
No doubt you’re also cleaning up you little garden, think about adding a few fall/winter plants. If not, add a good layer of compost on top and you’ll be ready to go next spring.
Have you started cleaning out the garden for winter?
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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?
