Sweet Herbs

'Tis harvest time and we have been busy filling the pantry with all manner of food. We do a lot of food preserving here, from drying to freezing, canning to cellaring. A habit developed long ago that we see no reason to abandon. We like to eat, we like to garden, filling up the pantry is the obvious fnext step.

From fruit to green beans and tuna (OK, not from our garden), Italian style tomato sauce to Mexican style salsa we fill jars with the food from orchard and garden that will feed us through the winter and beyond.

We have always felt that anyone can grow a little fresh food for themselves. Even apartment dwellers can have a windowbox with greens or other vegetables. But of the things you can grow and save for year-round use, I would wager that herbs are the easiest.

From Basil to Oregano, Chives to Thyme, I can't imagine cooking without using herbs, fresh or dried. Many are hardy perennials and very simple to grow and save.

We recently added new raised beds to our garden. With 1/2" hardware cloth underneath, they are a gopher proof planting area. Previously we had planted gopher delectables such as carrots and garlic in cut off oil drums that are from the food grade oils we use in our soapmaking (see our business site). With the new beds, some of these barrels were now free and I saw the chance to make a new herb garden. I've planted a variety of types of Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Dill, Chives and Sage in these barrels, as well as a couple of Lavender plants so far.

This has worked out even better than we expected. In only two months these herbs have grown so vigorously that we are already able to harvest plenty for drying. This is fabulous - as I make herb blends for seasoning when I cook (see earlier BLOG "I'm All Mixed Up"). We also grow a variety of Basils, Tarragon, and Marjoram elsewhere.

There is absolutely nothing complicated about drying herbs, all you need is a well ventilated place to hang them. I pick bunches of herbs late in the morning after the dew has dried off of the leaves. I will pick them at pretty much any stage, but preferably before they flower (if you want Dill Seed, you must wait until after they flower and then form seeds). Bunch the cut ends of the stems together in a bundle that is not so big and tight that the center may have trouble drying and wrap securely with a rubber band. This is a hot tip! The rubber band will contract with the stems as they dry and keep your bundle from falling apart. You can tie a string or wire to the rubber band to hand the bunch from or just hook the bunch over a nail without. I save those twistie ties from store vegetables and use those. They stay rigid enough I can put a loop in them and hook them on the rafters without a ladder (or handy tall person, which I am not).

If it is a place that gets direct sunlight you can tie the bunch inside a paper bag and hang it all together. This helps preserve the color of the herbs. This also confines the fine leaves of the herbs, should they break off when dry.
Once dry, I strip the leaves off of the stems and store in airtight containers in a dry, dark place. I don't crush or crumble them until I am ready to use them or make one of my blends. They retain  flavor and aroma longer when stored as whole leaves.

And then, in the dead of winter I can relive the flavors and aromas of summer by adding these herbs to my cooking. It's as easy as that!

We've got worms!

Fortunately not the icky internal kind, but those great little wrigglers who till and enrich the soil.

A couple of years ago a friend gifted me a book, "The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms" by local author Amy Stewart. A wonderful treatise on the wonders of small subterranean creatures, it inspired me to add earthworms back into our tended livestock - but indoors this time. I cannot begin to tell all the amazing things earthworms do, read the book or check out this info.) but suffice it to say, they work diligently to their own end, which conveniently helps make the planet habitable for us all.

Back when we had a lot of critters (goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, etc.) and before we had a business, we kept a worm bin beneath our rabbit cages. One of the great symbiotic relationships of all time, of immeasurable benefit to gardeners, rabbit manure is one of the very best in the garden and one of worm's favorite habitats. The redworms we inoculated that pile with ultimately migrated on their own throughout much of our farm, and we personally introduced them to our vegetable garden where they could do the heavy work of moving nutrients and aerating the soil for us.

But that was a long time ago now, and I miss the wonderful abundance of worm castings and manure for vegetables, flowers, and houseplants. Our garden compost pile has become a happy worm habitat, and provides enough for us to use when transplanting and topdressing the garden, but I can always use more, and pure worm castings for houseplants and outdoor container plants is the best.

After looking into the many plans for home made and pre-manufactured worm bins and ultimately settled on the "Can O' Worms" recommended by Amy in her book.
We have had it going on our back porch over a year now, and we are hooked (you can get one at Abundant Earth). The basic idea in most of these is: worms move up in their world, looking for new food as they eat the old food, and leave behind nutrient-rich castings (yup, worm poo).
Worm bins are multi level condos, and as the worms move to the top level you can remove the bottom one and empty the finished castings onto your plants, moving the empty tray to the top to continue the process. Simple.

Things we discovered...
• You can overfeed them. If you do, what you end up with is a proliferation of fruit flies (vinegar flies). Prevent this by feeding less and/or covering the scraps you feed them with a thin layer of dirt or newspaper.
(An effective fruit fly trap: place a small amount of wine, red or white, in a small jar or bowl. Cover with plastic file or? and poke a few holes in it. The holes need to be slightly bigger than you may think, say 1/16" or so. this will catch a lot of flies pronto and they die hapopily intoxicated, I think!)
• Tea bags disappear faster than anything!
• Keep them moist. The worm casting "tea" you can drain off (see spigot on Can O' Worms) is great, if smelly, fertilizer.

There are a lot of preparations concocted by we humans for the benefit of plants. The nursery carries a zillion natural and synthetic things I can buy - but the worms do this job for me providing a soil conditioner and fertilizer that cannot be beat.
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And how to clean up after getting dirty playing with your worms? Use Simmons Soap of course!

Summer's arrival...

in actuality, if not weather.

42 degrees this morning and all day cool, foggy, & gray. Even some drizzle.

Our spring has been unseasonably dreary and cool. From earlier thunderstorms to recent days of coastal fog (but we are NOT on the coast!), it sure doesn't feel like tomorrow is Summer Solstice.

On the one hand we yearn for sun and warmth and all that can be done outside on these long days. On the other it is making it a little less painful as we wait to complete a garden retaining wall to plant the bulk of our vegetable garden. But even with only 1/3 of the garden in production we have been harvesting quite a bit of food.

Last night we ate the first of the artichokes from the plants we planted in March. We have lots of kale and Swiss chard and radishes are now in every salad. We are on our third planting of lettuce and arugula, and the garlic is close to harvest. We have picked broccoli, the cauliflower is ready, and cabbages are heading up (already time to start seed for the fall cole!).

To get us a bit ahead, both of the wall project and the cooler weather, we have been planting our greenhouses with peppers, basil, cucumbers, and squash, as well as a few tomatoes. I am sure we will end up with more than we need (that is, plenty to share) as we usually do (despite the fact that the gophers ate 99% of the onions). Gardens are like that. Not to mention an addiction of the best sort.

If you have followed the news, you will know that 73 pounds of lettuce & 12 pounds of peas were picked this past week from the White House garden. The little organic garden Michelle Obama started at the White House has been feeding them for some time.

What a great example for the country. How to eat well, get exercise, and save money at the same time. Here's to an addiction that actually improves your health!!

I'm All Mixed Up...

...With herbs and spices that is!

We are cooking a pot roast in the solar oven today and when I reached for my seasoning blend (Meat Treat) I found the jar almost empty. Time to make more of this and my other blends as well.

I find myself a rather lazy cook. I want to have my herbs and spices pre-blended so I don't have to formulate them for every meal. Over time I have learned of or invented herb and/or spice blends for everything from steak to tofu, Mexican to Chinese. For us the process begins in the garden.

Here are 3 blends of herbs we grow, dry, and combine to brighten our meals:

MEAT TREAT:
Rosemary - Easy to grow perennial in the ground or a pot. Impervious to bugs or deer.
Sweet Basil - Hot weather annual, easy to grow, pick repeatedly to keep from flowering and it will grow back.
Thyme - The regular sort, varigated or plain, perennial with tiny leaves. Harvest before it flowers.
Bay Leaves - Mediterranean Bay (the kind you get in stores) is milder. If you use the west coast native Bay Laurel, use it sparingly. We have a Mediterranean Bay tree in a large pot!
Garlic - OK, we buy garlic granules by the pound and use that. It is slightly coarser than garlic powder, and is definitely NOT garlic salt. I store it in a glass jar with airtight lid.

FISH FEST:
Lemon Thyme - Wonderful fragrant perennial, easy to grow and harvest as for Thyme (above).
Lemon Basil - Another wonderful basil. Loves hot weather. Annual that you can harvest it repeatedly and it will rapidly grow back as do all the basils. Just remember to cut it above 2 new leaf shoots.
I have never found Lemon Basil or Lemon Thyme in a store, so plan ahead and grow your own if you want to try this blend.
Dillweed - The feathery leaves, not the seeds. Plant this annual once and it will re-seed and grow forever.
Oregano - Another hardy perennial. Greek is milder, Mexican stronger, use accordingly. We prefer Greek.
Sweet Marjoram - Very fragrant annual. Relative to Oregano, used with eggs, vegies and meats.
Celery leaves - I actually grow a specific type of celery that mainly produces leaves. When I have tried to grow nice stalks of celery I always got wimpy stems with lots of leaves anyway - it just does not like our climate. I also save the leaves from celery (organic) I buy at the market and dry them in a colander after trimming them from the stalk.
Garlic - (See above)
Onion Powder - this we buy as well.

ITALIAN SEASONING:
Oregano, Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic
See above for all of these.
Fennel Seed - We buy this, toast it lightly in a small, heavy pan (we use cast iron) and then crush it slightly with a mortar and pestle.

PREPARING THE HERBS:
All the herbs listed here are harvested early in the morning after the dew has dried off of them, and hung in bunches by their stems in a well ventilated place out of direct sunlight. I like to use a rubber band to hold the bunch and a twisty-tie from vegetables I purchased at the store, or string, tied on to hang them by. The rubber band conveniently stays tight as the herbs dry and the soft stems of basil and others shrink in diameter. Woody stemmed plants such as rosemary and thyme have no problem. As to the bay, I just prune off a very small branch full of leaves and dry it and that lasts us a year or 2!

When dry, strip the leaves from the stems and store as whole leaves in airtight containers (we use glass jars) in a cool, dark cupboard. When you make a blend or use the herbs directly in cooking - that is the time to crush or chop them. Once broken they will lose their aromatic and flavor qualities faster.
By the way, you can save the stems and bundle them, tie with cotton or jute string, and throw on hot coals when grilling for herbally smoked meats.


ASSEMBLING THE BLENDS:
This is the inventive part. I never measure anything unless I have to, and cannot begin to give you exact measurements for any of these, but I do have some "rules of thumb". In all the blends you use equal amounts of the large leafy herbs (basil, oregano, dill, celery).
Grind these coarsely with a herb grinder (there are many styles, I like the Mouli Parsmint best - shown in photo) or chop with a knife. Thyme, more condensed, should be around 2/3 the amount of one of the others after grinding. Ditto rosemary. You can run the rosemary through the grinder as well.
To 1/2 cup blended herbs add 1 large bay leaf, ground, and/OR 1 Tablespoon garlic granules OR 1 Tablespoon onion powder, or 2 teaspoons fennel seed, as called for. If you use bay laurel, use less.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then store in an airtight container until used.

USING THEM:
Sprinkle Meat Treat over chicken, turkey, whatever, before cooking. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons to oil and vinegar with 1/2 teaspoon salt for a nice herb vinaigrette.
Sprinkle Fish Fest over any kind of seafood before cooking. Also sprinkle with a bit of lemon pepper or a squirt of lemon juice.
Italian seasoning can be added to tomato sauce for pasta, lasagna or any tomato dish.

YUM! I'm hungry just thinking about it all. Now off to transplant my basil plants (sweet, lemon, purple (for salad dressing), mammoth (mild - good in salads), and Thai). I think ahead, as I work in the garden, to the harvest and culinary delights ahead.

Eating Well...

We have been planning our garden for months.

Late winter is spent perusing seed catalogs and choosing what we need. We generally start tomatoes and peppers indoors in February, cabbage and other cole crops soon after. But only since April has the weather been such as to allow us to play in the dirt outside.

Our cole crops, onions, lettuce, chard, and peas are now planted in the garden proper. We also have overwintered garlic, leeks, multiplier onions, and early spring greens and radishes already producing in barrel containers made from the drums our soap oils come in. These barrels are critter proof and have good drainage, unlike the garden's heavy clay soil. We also filled 2 whole upright barrels (with drain holes in them) with soil and planted an artichoke in each - yet another attempt to foil the gophers from another of their favorite delicacies.

This year we are building a retaining wall and leveling out the main part of our garden. It sets back our planting dates by several weeks, so we are starting even more plants indoors to be ready to transplant when the project is done. It delays our garden harvest gratification, adding to the bit of envy we feel seeing all the early bounty in the Farmers' Markets out on the coast where the climate is so much milder (see our blog post: Time Travel - into Spring).
On the other hand, now that these markets are up and running for the season, we can get a preview of the garden delights to come.

No matter where you live, you probably have access to locally grown fresh food. As big and as urban/sub-urbanized as the United States is, there are still community gardens, small farms, and local markets virtually everywhere. Getting food from the area where you live is a good experience for many reasons. Not only is the food fresher, you get to experience what is "in Season" and close to the earth, and you support your local farmers. On top of that, the carbon footprint of local produce vs. that which has traveled hundreds (if not thousands!) of miles is much, much smaller. And, environmentally speaking, that is a huge benefit even if you leave out the part about supporting your local ORGANIC farmers.

So how to locate sources of fresh local food near where you live?
One way is to use the "Eat Well Locally" search tool to the right of this post. Another great tool is LocalHarvest. Use it to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area. Enjoy!

Happy Spring!

Vernal Equinox, 20 March 2009 07:43 (EDT)

Today marks the "official" beginning of the spring season.

Now is a time of balance, of equal light and dark,
when all the elements of the earth and within us
ask to be brought to peaceful harmony.

Spring Equinox is one of our favorite times of the year --
days are longer than nights, it's getting warmer,
the trees are budding and the air has that expectant
stillness before the full bursting forth of summer.

Now is the time to plant the seeds that will grow and
bloom into our hopes and dreams. Let us be fearless --
and wise! The world will reap what we sow. And
remember the Native Americans, who consider the
effects of their actions for seven generations to come.

Despite the above quote and popular belief, the equinox is not necessarily the day of equal light and dark. That day generally happens slightly before the spring equinox (or after the fall equinox), the exact date depending on your location on Earth.
Technically the vernal equinox occurs when the center of the sun crosses the Equator, rising due east and setting due west. It really means the "center" of the sun. Sunrise is defined as the moment the very top edge of the sun appears to peek over the horizon. Sunset is when the very last bit of the sun disappears below the horizon. Those astronomers get pretty precise about these things.

But for millennia humans have given much more significance to this day. It is celebrated as Alban Eilir, Eostar, Eostre, Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Festival of Trees, Lady Day, NawRuz, No Ruz, Ostara, Ostra, or the Rites of Spring among others.
While Winter solstice truly marks the beginning of the return of longer days, Spring Equinox embodies the return of light and warmth and renewed life, giving rise to traditions of life, resurrection, fertility, and feasting in many cultures.

We celebrate this time of renewal here with work on our garden-to-be. With snow forecast for the weekend we are not doing much outside, but there are seeds to start and young seedlings to tend. We do cultivate in a greenhouse to extend our season here and this weekend will be sifting dirt and compost and planting greens and cool hardy crops in large tubs.

For anyone, the easiest, most cost effective vegetables to grow to extend your food budget are greens. From lettuce to Swiss Chard, all grow happily in containers. They are very quick to mature and you can have fresh, organic vegetables and salad year-round with little effort. We grow ours in reused large storage tubs we scrounged. Drilled a few holes in the bottom and Voila! Free 18 gallon planters. I generally grow lettuce in succession for a constant supply. I start new seed within a week of transplanting out my starts. $3.00 worth of lettuce seed will keep you in salad most, if not all, year. Add to that radishes, other types of greens, beets, carrots and such and you can grow a large amount of vegetables in containers, easily, for a very small amount of money.

We mix our own potting soil with about 1/3 of our clay-ey soil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 mixed chicken or steer manure and bought potting soil. Often the latter is actually really old potting soil I have reclaimed from other planters. We never throw any out as it is a nice amendment to loosen up our clay soil here.
The nice thing about all these vegetables is that they are also beautiful. Even if you only have a couple of planters of lettuce, with maybe a dwarf marigold in them, they can double as landscaping. So start your own salad bar as a way to celebrate the spring season, and remember to garden organically. It's easy.