Been Busy in My Herbal Work Space!

Somehow I Never Get a Really Cleaned Up Work Table This Time of Year!

We Recycle Everything Including Pill Containers for...

The Perfect Insect Trap!  Not What I Had In Mind!

Don't Always Get a Chance to Use Everything I Dry!

Even Though I Have Been Drying Herbs For a Long Time, This Still Happens!

Cleveland Sage Potpourri

One of My Favorite Books by Ann Lovejoy

Well, it is the time of year that my work table and space are overloaded with herbal treasures.  It is also the time of year to discover what is lurking in those opened containers used for dried herbs and what herbs need to be recycled because they are moldy!

I have had pretty good luck recently.  Not too much has gone to waste.  I have had some Cleveland Sage sit on my work table for a couple of years in an airtight container.  So I have put it to good use in a potpourri from The Sage Garden by Ann Lovejoy.  My cousin who is an architect has worked with Ms. Lovejoy in the Bainbridge Island, WA area.  It is a small world sometimes.

Cleveland Sage Potpourri

1 cup dried Cleveland sage foliage
1 cup dried rose petals
1 cup dried lavender leaves and flowers
1 cup dried sweet Annie foliage
2-inch section of a vanilla bean
2 tablespoons dried rosemary foliage
1 tablespoon dried orange zest
1 tablespoon ground orris root (fixative)
2 to 3 drops clary sage oil
2 to 3 drops rose oil

Toss dried leaves and flowers gently (like a salad).  Add orange zest and orris root and stir carefully to blend.  Dot essential oils over the whole and shake gently.  Store in an oversized, tightly closed jar or container (mixture should fill container about halfway) for 6 to 8 weeks, shaking container once or twice a week while melding.  To use, put 1/2 cup of mixture into a bowl and set in a room that needs refreshing or use in sachets.  Store remaining mixture in tightly covered jar out of direct light.

The Cleveland sage has a very sharp, crisp scent of sage.  The common sage smell is a little more muted.  I was overwhelmed by the sweet Annie as it can be potent!  I used a lot more rosemary than it says (I used a cup!)  I think it will turn out just fine.  Hope you had a productive day wherever you may be.  We worked out in the herb garden cutting annuals back and getting sticks, strings and Velcro out before we may get a bit of snow tomorrow!  We are going to get mostly rain, but snow is supposed to stick!  I'll take some photos if it does!  Our neighbors in Ohio have had a big dose already!  Talk to you later.

End of the Season in the Herb Garden!

Bye, Bye Pineapple Sage!

Really the growing season in the herb garden was a very long one this year!  The pineapple and tangerine sages have finally bit the dust for another season.  Hopefully one or both of them will seed in the garden for next year.  The tangerine sage was the one to do it this year.  Maybe the pineapple sage will come back next year.  It has happened in other seasons.  You never know.

I live with a lot of canning jars and I'm hoping that one of my master gardening friends who does a harvest class will take them off my hands.  We are still working on how many, but it is going to be a bunch!  Even though I eat a milked up version of tomato sauce, I'm going to be making two more batches of sauce and that will end my quart canning days.  I'll just stick (pun intended) to making jam and jelly until it isn't fun any more or I ruin a few too many batches.

Hope you had a great day.  It definitely wasn't outside for us.  Crisp, cold and sunny day.  Very little snow unlike our neighbors in Ohio.  Glad you didn't send the snow this way!  We are working on various projects inside.  I need to clear off my work table and get my artemisia tree, potpourri and other projects started and finished.  Time is flying by!  Talk to you later.

Another Perfect Gift Giving Suggestion, The Essential Herbal Magazine!

Under the Sun, the first five years Volume One

By The Hearth, the first five years Volume Two

Through the Seasons in One Huge Herbal Volume 2008-2012

A Fun Herbal Magazine Written by Herbie People for Herbie People!

I'm still an old fashioned kind of herbal person.  I love books and magazines that I can hold and sniff and cherish!  The world doesn't always agree with me these days!  Here is a local publication (because it is from my home state of Pennsylvania) that is all herbal and written by many talented herbal people called The Essential Herbal Magazine.

Tina Sams and her band of herbie enthusiasts write about what's on their herbal minds, the latest trends and controversies in herbs, herbal recipes and everything else about herbs you can think of and maybe some topics you hadn't thought of.  The first three photos are compilations of the first five years in two volumes, Under The Sun and By The Hearth and she has just come out with a huge herbal volume from 2008-2012, called Through The Seasons.  It just arrived yesterday and I can already tell it will be a go to guide for me.  I got all three out so I can peruse them again with an herbal cup of tea.

The fourth photo is of the current magazine cover, November-December, 2014.  The magazine is published six times a year for $24 a year in both print or pdf files for digital download.  A bargain at any price in my opinion.  If you are on Facebook, you can like their page and find out when the latest issue is out and on its way to your door or inbox.   There are also a lot of other herbal products like soaps, incenses, salves and balms.  You get the idea.

So again think of your small herbal business owners this time of year.  They are looking to you for support this holiday season and all year round.  It is freezing here but the pineapple sage is hanging in there.  Just going to enjoy it in the herb garden for as long as it is blooming.  And no snow yet!

33 degrees and holding on!

Started to clean out the shelves in the basement!  Monumental job there!  Finding some interesting items!  Will share with you soon.  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.

A Beautiful Day in the Garden and More Harvesting Tips, including Fennel Seeds and Parsley!

A Big Blue Sky and a Warm Pleasant Day!

The Containers Got a Sunbath!

Happy in the Sunshine!

Mints, Scented Geranium and Figs (Brown Fig Count 108!)

Planted Garlic!

Time to Harvest Parsley!

A Few Rose Geranium Leaves to Dry!

Bronze Fennel Seeds!

German Chamomile Still Blooming!  Not For Long!

Lemon Eucalyptus Leaves to Dry!

Well, the last nice day to work in the garden was today.  Tomorrow the cold air is coming our way.  Not supposed to be as intense as our neighbors to the north have gotten already.  But it will be a wake up call after the beautiful day we had today.  I got out into the garden and clipped any last leaves of herbs that needed to be harvested.

Fennel seeds should be harvested when they are green not brown.  I just clip the seed heads and throw them in a paper bag until dried.

Green Not Brown for Fennel Seeds

As far as parsley goes, I always have at least three parsley plants each year.  They are a true biennial and produce leaves in their first year and go to seed in the second year.  Not completely a bad thing because swallowtail caterpillars love parsley in its second year.  Back to the story, I somehow got three second year parsley plants to start this year.  They went to seed and disappeared!  Only got one parsley to replace them.  So I pretty much do the same technique that I use for chives.  I do a parsley dill soup in the winter that uses a cup of parsley leaves in the recipe.  I just use a small Chinese takeout container and place a cup of leaves in each container.  I always try to mark what it is (in case I lose my herbal mind) and the date.  Then just place them in the freezer.  I always try to use my freezer harvest up before the end of winter.

A Cup of Parsley to Go Into the Freezer!

I also cut to dry rose scented pelargonium leaves, lemon eucalyptus, coconut scented pelargonium leaves (not sure that they will dry well).  Just wanted to mention that the vinegars I made two weeks ago are ready to decant.  Have to find some small bottles and it may be one more addition to my Christmas basket/box this year!  Stay tuned.

Hope you had a great day outside if you were in the eastern half of the U.S.  I really enjoyed it.  Here is a last look at the pineapple sage.  The bees were still trying to get nectar from it this afternoon.

Bee Enjoying the Blossoms of the Pineapple Sage!

A Beautiful End to a Day in the Herb Garden!

Talk to you later.  

Herbal Beginnings, Herbal Choices, Herbal Passions and Herbal Blessings! An Herbal Gift for Giving!

Well, I had to give it away in the title of my post!  It isn't about my life in herbs!  I'm going to try and give you some gift choices for the upcoming holiday season.  By all means, if you have an herb shop or herb farm in your vicinity and they are open for holiday shopping, please patronize them!  I have a bunch of links on my home page and maybe they will do mail order if they aren't around the corner from you.  Remember to patronize the small businesses.

I have been wanting to do a post about the four books in an herbal series by herb farm owner extraordinaire, Carolee Snyder.  Her herb business is called Carolee's Herb Farm in Hartford City, Indiana.  The series is all about the adventures of Callie Gardener.  Each of the four books has twelve monthly chapters.  At the end of each chapter, Carolee talks about an herb of the month.  The last chapter of each book has herbal recipes for four different courses.  Herbal Beginnings has appetizers and cocktails, Herbal Choices has soups and salads, Herbal Passions has entrees, side dishes and other delights and Herbal Blessings has desserts and other great recipes.

I loved each of these books for different reasons.  Herbal Beginnings gives Callie the courage to start her own herb business after being stood up by her fiance.  The twists and turns of her life and all of those prospective boyfriends and her beloved lab, Wicca, who is almost human makes this a wonderful first chapter to her extremely busy life on the herb farm.  Then to add on top of that herb education and recipes!  It is a real winner!  We especially loved the pesto stuffed eggs and lavender pizza recipes.  I look forward to trying more of the recipes in the coming months.

In Herbal Choices, Callie's adventures continue with marriage possibilities, boyfriends, girlfriends, Wicca and herb farm adventures in its second season.  Twelve different herbs to learn about and soup and salad recipes that I'm eager to try.

Herbal Passions, continues Callie's adventures in the Joyful Heart Farm, her tryouts of herbal recipes with her girls' nights out, old and new loves, lots of surprises and of course, herbs and entree, side dishes and other delights.

Herbal Blessings is my favorite and the final book of this series.  It is Callie's fourth year in business.  I don't want to give too much away but it is an exciting time for Callie.  Carolee asked if she could use my pineapple sage jelly recipe and so you will not only get my recipe, but lots of herbal dessert ideas in this final chapter of her series.

So I hope I have started your gift giving thoughts with some herbal ones.  Carolee not only has these books but many other choices for herbal gifts, including t-shirts and sweatshirts with herbal themes.  She does do mail order for everything, but plants.

It is a glorious day in the 'Burgh.  Hope you are out enjoying your herb garden.  Talk to you later.

Raspberry Vinegar Recipe for Tricia Hantke!

Picked on Tuesday, November 4, 2014

I try when I can to fulfill reader's wishes for recipes, ideas, answers for their herbal questions.  Tricia Hantke asked if I could share the raspberry vinegar recipe from the same book as my raspberry jam recipe comes from.  I would be happy to do that.  As you can see from the photo I picked the last raspberries on Tuesday.  It has been a great season for the raspberry!  This vinegar recipe is from the Time-Life Series The Good Cook Preserving by the Editors of Time-Life Books from 1981.

"Raspberry Vinegar
This vinegar, diluted with warm water, is an old remedy for sore throats.  When there were colds about, it was often taken around as a nightcap to children in boarding schools.  It is served in Yorkshire with Yorkshire pudding, as a sweet.

To make about 1 quart [l liter]

________________________________________________________________

2 lb.                                                  raspberries, ripe and dry (about               1 kg.

                                                        4 pints [2 liters])

________________________________________________________________

2 1/2 cups                                        malt vinegar                                             625 ml.

________________________________________________________________

about                                               sugar                                                       about

4 cups                                                                                                             1 liter

________________________________________________________________

Put the berries into a wide-necked jar and mash them well with a wooden spoon; then pour the cold vinegar onto them and leave, covered, for six days.  Stir the mixture each day.

   Now strain the raspberries through a jelly bag without pressing, and measure the liquid.  Measure 2 cups [1/2 liter] of sugar to every 2-1/2 cups [625 ml.] of liquid, and stir together over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Boil gently for 10 minutes, removing any scum that rises.  Leave until cold, then pour into bottles and cork firmly.

Gertrude Mann

Berry Cooking"

The only suggestion I would make is to sterilize the jar you use.  The vinegar should be OK on the shelf for six months or so.  Hope this is what you were looking for, Tricia.  I'm always here to answer your herbal questions.  It is sunny but cool here.  A brief warmup and then the Polar Vortex is coming!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.

My Favorite Christmas Crafts!

I haven't come up with anything new and exciting this year!  I will be lucky to get an artemisia tree done and decorated.  I was out at Well Sweep Herb Farm over the weekend and got bunches of beautiful dried flowers to help in decorating my tree.  Dried flowers are something that Well Sweep has been known for this time of year.  I think this year it will be a combo tree of Sweet Annie and Silver King artemisias.  Here are the directions for the tree Artemisia Tree.

Artemisia Christmas Treet

Another year I used old potpourri to make wreaths for decoration.  Here is the directions for the potpourri wreaths.

Bow Is a Little Too Big But You Get the Idea!

The spices were the next to get the wreath treatment.  These are a very favorite of mine and hopefully I will get some time to do them.  Here is my post from Mother Earth Living for these charming spice wreaths.

These Wreaths Smell Wonderful!

Here is a lamb's ear ornament I made as well.

Some of the Items Needed to Make the Lamb's Ear Ornament!

These all can be done and ready for Christmas giving.  No excuses!  Was trying to put my favorites together for you so you could have easier access to the directions.  Hope you are having a great day.  Still a little mild here.  Rain and cooler for the rest of the week.  Talk to you later.

Odds and Ends, Mostly Herbally Speaking!

We Had a Baby Cantaloupe Growing on the Bay Tree!  It is Delicious!

This is My Current Lemon Verbena Inside for the Winter

Chives Still Blooming in November!

Tangerine Sage Looks Pretty Good Still!

Prostrate Rosemary Doing Well Even With Leaves Falling!

I lost my camera over the weekend while we were out of town.  Believe it or not, I put a couple of AA batteries in my first digital camera and it is still working!   At least I can give you an idea of what is going on outside.

Anyway, the baby cantaloupe was growing in the bay tree and it ripened!  The Herbal Husband is a magician in the garden.  I think gardening is keeping him on his toes.  Hopefully he will keep doing it for many more years like my friend, Marion Monahan in England.  We have just had an amazing year in the herb garden.  Hope yours has been great as well.

We did have a frost that ended our growing season and so we are going to pull out tomatoes and beans and get the garlic planted.  As long as you don't have frozen ground, you can plant bulbs and garlic now.  Got to enjoy the weather while we can.  So I'll talk to you later.  Oh, BTW, now that I have something of a camera, I'll try to do some Christmas related posts and give you some decoration ideas, gift giving ideas, etc.  I'm getting the basket/box giveaway together for my U.S. readers as well.  So stay tuned!  Have a great day! 

Overwintering My Favorite--Lemon Verbena!

October 10, 2009-Probably Just Dug This Up and Brought It Inside

April 20, 2010--Ready to Go Back Into the Herb Garden in About One Month

January 4, 2011--Showing Signs of Life

January 29, 2011--Starting to Put On More Leaves

December 28, 2011--Two Different Lemon Verbenas Both with Leaves-Not Usual

November 4, 2014--This One Has Started to Drop Its Leaves!  A Good Thing!

Lemon verbena is not a perennial herb for me and lots of you all around the United States.  One of my friends on Facebook who lives in Tennessee wrote to me and asked me about overwintering her lemon verbena inside.  So here are the facts as I know them, Pamela.  She said her lemon verbena is starting to look bad, brown leaves, etc.  Don't worry, this is what usually happens with lemon verbena.  It is all about dormancy.  Mark Langan who owns Mulberry Creek Herb Farm in Huron, Ohio, told me that he leaves his lemon verbena out until it loses its leaves.  He says that it comes in and the plant has gone dormant and doesn't have leaves to worry about and that keep the plant stressed.  Stress leads to white flies and spider mites for lemon verbenas inside.

The photos above give you some idea with the dates how our lemon verbenas look during the indoor season.  The Herbal Husband works to keep the leaves on the plant, but sometimes it is better just to cut the plant back and give it a chance to go dormant.  The January 2011 looks are the year I finally got The Herbal Husband to cut back the lemon verbena in December if it hasn't lost its leaves by then and early in January or February once the days start to lengthen, the leaves will start popping out.  My plant we brought this year is more sparse than usual. 

So Pamela, I would cut your lemon verbena back and use the leaves for tea or potpourri.  That will give it a chance to go dormant and get ready for next season.  We put ours in the basement with lights, a south facing window or western facing window.  Any of these locations will work.  We also don't have the greatest windows.  They are drafty and the plants do just fine.  The Herbal Husband waters ours every three to five days, but you need to use your finger to measure how damp the soil is.  You can't neglect watering it is very important to keep the roots viable and the plant living.  All those sticks may not look like anything now, but in February or March you will have a beautiful plant again.  Hope this information has been helpful.

So to recap:

Don't too worried when your lemon verbena starts losing leaves after coming inside for the winter.  It is trying to go dormant.

If you have leaves hanging on into December, just cut your plant back to a foot or so.  You can also just manually take off the leaves without trimming it back.  Just so the leaves are gone.

If you keep the plant watered regularly, you will be rewarded in January or February as the day length gets longer with new leaves.

By April if you are further south, May or June, you will be able to plant it back outside after danger of frost.

Please ask more questions if you have them.  I'm always willing to answer your herbal questions.

There has been some frost in the garden.  So we are just getting the last of the plants cut to dry.  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you later.