Hurry Up and Harvest!

My New Favorite Herb!

Well, it is getting to be that time in the herb garden!  Running around like crazy harvesting what needs to be harvested, herbally speaking that is.  In the photo is a favorite of mine.  Though I don't always have it in the herb garden.  It is called Texas tarragon (Tagetes lucida) by those of you who can't grow French tarragon in the heat of the south.  A member of the marigold family.  I think I have shared this link before from Texas A & M called The Three Tarragons.  It really does a good job.

This plant is two years old which means The Herbal Husband coaxed it through the winter last year.  I was hoping it would bloom this year, but I think it got too much shade from the lemon verbena not necessarily a bad thing.  I will mainly use my Texas tarragon dried in tea blends.  We will not be digging many of our tender perennials this year because they have gotten too large.  I would love to bring them all in, but it is just not going to happen.

So here are some of the herbs I will be harvesting this week:  lemon verbena (dry), Texas tarragon (dry), green pepper basil (vinegar), scented geraniums (dry) and chives (freeze).  I have already made a box each of lemon verbena and pineapple sage jellies.  I have not been as busy jelly wise this season as in others.  Didn't have that much extra time.

So as you can see the parsley post jump started my blog! Who knew that was going to happen?  Hope you are having a beautiful day wherever you may be.  Got to get out in the herb garden.  Talk to you later.

A Blooming May, Herbally Speaking!

The Angelica in Bloom!

Dianthus 'Sunburst'

Dianthus 'Sunflor'

'Linear Leaf' Thyme

Comfrey Attracting Bees!

Favorite Ladybug on Joe Pye Weed!

May Means Chives Are Blooming!

And A New Addition to the Garden!

I can't believe May will be over soon!  I have been busy on everything except blogging!  Not sure how to get this blogging motor started!  Maybe I will try once a week?  I think I tried that once before without success!

This has been an outstanding spring here in the 'Burgh!  The Rhododendrons have been spectacular and everything else has as well and as always the weeds are surpassing size and tonnage.  Of course, I was behind last year and it just keeps adding up!  We are moving towards a wild forest like garden in the back.  So the weeds will fit in?

All of the spring herbs are up and turning black from the four-lined plant bug! Ugh!  Our abnormally warm winter hasn't deterred them.  Some of my favorite spring herbs are pictured above.  I also try to use my lovage plant before it flowers in our favorite chicken stew recipe.   I love angelica because it is big and takes up space!  I love dianthus because they are an edible flower and a lot of them smell of cloves.  All of the thymes in flower attract bees.  Comfrey is such a pretty plant in flower.  And of course, chives and the herb omelets begin!  Oh and I almost forgot to share my new favorite foxglove!  Isn't it beautiful?

This Apricot-Pink Digitalis Is My Favorite!

 It is also a good time to get started trimming some herbs to dry them before they flower.  As I was walking around the front garden last week, I noticed that the spearmint is up and looking good.  I will try to get out on Tuesday when it is dry to cut some for drying.

As you can see by the last photo, we have a new addition to the garden, a new arbor for the grapes!  It is long overdue.  It is much shorter than the previous version, but maybe it will be more manageable.  We are also planning to recycle some of the old arbor into features and entrances into the gardens.  So stay tuned!

Tomorrow my herbal companion, Bonnie and I are taking a road trip to Ohio to buy some herbs!  Always an exciting day.  We have a rainy day here at the moment!  I hope you are having a fabulous spring day wherever you may be.  Have finished several cross-stitch projects and that has taken a lot of my time up.  I also have been doing reading about herb garden design and the 2017 Herb of the Year, Cilantro/Coriander.  Hopefully I will get my blogging hat on and will be blogging about those subjects and other topics that have been crying out for attention.  Will talk to you sooner than later!    

An Aromatic Day, Herbally Speaking!

Wow That's A Lot of Bay Leaves!

Well, as I said yesterday, the herbal elves have been busy getting Christmas presents ready for you and friends.  An impressive clipping of bay leaves that had to be placed in jars and labeled by moi!  Thought I was done, wrong!  The Herbal Husband produced another bag today!  What about these?  So after I finish this post it will be back to work on the bay leaf jars!  Here is a link to a post I did when Bay Leaf was the Herb of the Year in 2009!

Old Man Winter has flipped the switch here and it is FREEZING!  No real snow just flurries!  Hope you are having a great day.  I have discovered that we will be out on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 until later in the day.  So we will pick the name late in the day and it will be posted after 6:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time!  Talk to you tomorrow.

Been Busy in the Herb Garden and Celebrating the 2016 Herb of the Year with a Jelly Recipe!

Rosemary Sherry Jelly Was One of 19 Batches of Herbal Jelly Made!

Last Pouches of Certo Used for Hot Pepper Jelly!

Keep Finding the Ladies!  This Time on Mint!

Mexican Sage--A Late Tall Bloomer in the Garden!

One Last Monarch on the Butterfly Bush!

One Last Gasp for Our Grape Arbor!

My Favorite Flowered!

This certainly has been a different year for me in the herb garden.  I have probably had years like this before.  As I get older my May trips to England affect the herb garden and the stresses have been weather related as well.  All of the photos above are from October.  I had a brain freeze about my jelly choices and fortunately I have a couple of the Western Reserve Unit of the Herb Society of America's cookbooks which saved me for flavors.  Thanks to all of those wonderful herb ladies for their inspiration  The hot pepper jelly recipe is from The Herbal Pantry by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead.  As you can see in the photo, the peppers are suspended in the jelly which makes for a great presentation.  Here is their recipe with my notations in parentheses.

Hot Pepper Jelly
Makes 6-1/2 8 oz. jars (The half I will use for us.)
Recipe says it makes 8 8 oz. jars.  For me, it did not.

"An appealing combination of sweet and hot, this jelly is extremely good with chicken or lamb, or with cream cheese as an hors d'oeuvre.  Also you can use this as a glaze for ribs during the last 15 minutes of grilling or baking in the oven."

1 cup minced green bell pepper
1/2 cup minced hot red pepper, or to taste
1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
6-1/2 cups sugar
6 ounces (2 pouches) liquid pectin

Combine the peppers, vinegar, and sugar in a non-aluminum saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat and boil gently for 5 to 7 minutes.  Remove from heat.  (Quickly stir in the pectin and return to heat and boil exactly one minute).  Remove from heat and (Stir for a couple of minutes at least.  I stirred for 5 minutes.  Probably too much time because the Certo really started to go gloppy.  I think when you see the pepper pieces suspended you will know it is enough.)  Put carefully (because it is already just about set up) into sterilized jars that have been boiled previously for 10 minutes and use two piece rings and lids to cover.  Place the lids in hot water until ready to use.  You don't have to boil the rings.  Place all jars into a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  As long as you hear that ping after the jars come out and the lids have sealed down, they are canned.  If the lid has not sealed, place them in the refrigerator and use them promptly.

"Note:  If the only hot peppers available are green, use a red rather than a green bell pepper."

In herb garden news, I did lose some herbs from the heat and dry weather.  We did have some winners from the annuals planted especially the Mexican sage which is blooming its head off at the moment.  Love those tall late blooming herbs!  And the beneficials are still around and you can participate just like me at Lost Ladybug Project, a project of Cornell University to find those lost ladybugs.  We also actually had a monarch last week as well.  Sadly not too many of them these days.  The grape arbor is finally going to be replaced.  Need the help of our neighbor, but hopefully that will happen in the next couple of weeks!  Maybe a Halloween treat!  And then finally our crowning achievement is that the lemon verbena both in the container and in the ground thrived so much so that they both bloomed.  Very excited!

Well, those are some of the high points of the herb garden this season.  Did cut my chives and chop them for my container in the freezer.  Did make a touch more purple basil vinegar.  Do have a small bush of mint marigold or Texas tarragon to harvest before the cold sets in.  Oh and some of the parsley will be cut and frozen for Parsley Dill soup.  And finally will clip back the lemon verbena in the ground and I am going to experiment with covering it with a fiberglass cover make for roses.  Maybe it will help bring it back.  It really like the space we put it in.

The herbal containers will be coming in the next two weeks.  Have also started several projects of cross-stitch, so I will post about the garden when I can.  The months are flying by with such speed and I don't seem to want to write as much as I used to.  A beautiful day in the herb garden and I'm inside posting here.  Hope you are doing well wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.  

Maybe Once A Week Will Work?

I have had a strange summer season.  I think Pittsburgh has had one of the hottest summers on record.  We are still registering close to 90 here!  Towards the end of the summer, I am usually not as interested in what's going on and even more so when it is hot!  I don't know how my friends in Texas do it every day.  I bow to your love of herbs and gardening!

I blogged every day in July and that was a bit too much.  I just don't have the time any more to blog every day and I was getting a bit long in the tooth, herbally speaking.  So I'm going to try doing a once a week overview of what's been going on.  Since I haven't done a post since late August, I will try to catch you up on my activities and the herb garden.  As you can see it is all about raspberries, sunflowers and a birthday thrown in!  Thank goodness for the raspberries because we aren't going to get enough grapes for jelly because of black rot and we don't have any apples because of a late frost!  It is just the way things go.  The weeds are monstrous as usual.  The Herbal Husband has been doing a lot of things to keep the garden going.  He keeps going as I get lost in everything!  It is getting overwhelming.  I hope that if I am here in the garden early next year, things will go a bit better!

So I am going to try to do an overview once a week of what's been going on.  You can always reach me if you have a question about a specific herb or problem that is occurring in your herb garden.  I am always just a click away!  Won't pin down a specific day of the week that I will post.  Will just try to be here once a week!  BTW, we have the ickies and stickies back and almost 90 the next couple of days!  Yikes!  Always love September's arrival because it brings cooler temperatures.  Not this year!  Talk to you soon!

It Has Been A Great Season for Raspberries!

Tiramisu for My Birthday Dinner!

Me and My Sunflower Posse!

Our Volunteer Sunflowers Were Some of My Favorites!

Unknown Variety of Sunflower!

Unknown Variety of Sunflower

Purple Basil Vinegar and Lemon & Lime Basil Jelly!

Decided to do a double post, basil style!  I think my purple basil vinegar is done AND the lime basil and lemon basil needed to be harvested!  Kathleen Gips always said that growing lemon basil was a waste of time for her because it goes to flower so quickly!  I understand your statement this season particularly, Kathleen.  I didn't have space in the herb garden for basil.  I planted them in my French bowl.  They really went to flower quickly!  And when you don't pay attention!  I may be making pesto instead of jelly!  I'll let you know!  Back to work.  The 90's have gone.  Rain the next two days.  More tomorrow.

Purple Basil Vinegar Done and Lemon and Lime Basil Picked for Jelly!

Purple Basil Gives You Purple. . . and Other Harvesting Tips!

vinegar!  Isn't this the prettiest color? I get caught up in the little details of everything and forget about some of the important pluses of herb harvesting.  We planted the basils in my French bowl and they have been doing well.  So well that I need to start harvesting them and making herbal stuff.  So what you see is in a quart canning jar.  Even though it is a quart, it holds about 3-1/2 cups of liquid once the herbs are in the jar.  So I would guess that I have about one cup of basil in the jar along with white wine vinegar.  I will be adding more basil to the mix and then wait about two weeks and try it and bottle it for gifts or use it for salad dressing.  You could also use red wine vinegar, but I would use regular basil instead of the purple.  Rice Vinegar would also be a good choice for basil.   I just would not use plain old white vinegar.  Use that for cleaning!

Bonnie and I were talking this morning about our 'Clevelandii' sages we got last fall from our Ohio herb buddy, Kathleen Gips.  I said I wanted to harvest some of my leaves as it was getting very tall.  She said mine flowered and hers has not gotten as tall as mine has!  So my extension agent, Sandy Feather, used to tell me when you couldn't get a plant to flower or fruit in a container, stress it out a bit.  The more pampering it gets the more lush in leaves it becomes and it won't produce flowers or fruit.  Bonnie neglected her sage a bit hence the flowers.  You also want to be cutting about one-third of most herb plants so that it will keep producing leaves.

We are slowly coming down in humidity and temperature.  Looks like tomorrow will be a delightful day and I am hoping to get the herbs that I bought a couple of weeks ago into the ground finally.  This has been a long season.  I always like surprises in the garden and Bonnie has given me her elecampane and I am just figuring out where to put it so it will be a surprise!  I will let you know where it goes!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  I will talk to you tomorrow!

Another Herbal Moving Day!

Had to Put The Containers In the Garage Temporarily!

It happens every year.  Shouldn't be a surprise at all.  Worked most of yesterday to get the containers moved into the garage, basement or the living room.  I secretly am always happy for this day.  Even though I didn't feel as connected to my herb garden this year, I did have a lot to harvest.  So I guess it was a success because The Herbal Husband was paying attention, herbally speaking!

The basement is getting full between containers and harvested herbs hanging from the rafters.  Lots of lemon verbena, stevia and lemon scented geranium.  Today I cut the first of the pineapple sages.  We will cover the one in my herb garden with Reemay overnight and hopefully it will survive.  I processed the first pineapple sage into six containers of leaves.  They will stay fresh for at least a couple of days until I can make the jelly.  That equals a couple of boxes of jelly!

I was thinking of cutting my tarragon to the ground, but decided to leave some plant standing because it has seemed to have found the right place to grow well.  In the past I have cut it all and it hasn't come back.  You would think I would learn from my mistakes.

So hopefully you are in better control of what's going on in your herb garden.  It is a bright cool day in the 'Burgh and getting colder.  Will definitely have frost tonight.  Indian summer will be coming.  One of my favorite times of the year.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Have been struggling with the time change and all of the chore of the herb garden.  Not enough time to blog.  Hopefully with the weather changing, I will remedy that.  Talk to you later.

Herbal Harvest Time!

Busy out in the herb garden working to harvest herbs.  Summer is fleeting and we are already looking like fall around here.  So the lemon verbenas got their trim and the stevia did as well.  What marjoram grew has been trimmed and placed between two paper towels and then the paper towels smell like the herb once the herb is dried.  I cut the tarragon back the other day and will make tarragon wine jelly with it.  Recipe to follow.

Lemon Verbena Drying for Tea!

Would Like to Have the Herbal Husband Using Stevia!

The weather is very dry but the second crop of raspberries has started already.  Made another batch of jam on Monday.  No grape jelly this year.  Most of the grapes have been eaten by the birds or rotted.  Hope you have started harvesting in your herb gardens in earnest if you are in the northern half of the U.S.  I hear the water flowing.  The Herbal Husband is watering.  Been trying the blog on my phone because my photos are on that device and Blogger is not cooperating!  Will keep trying and will keep harvesting!  Still need to talk about savory!  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you later. 

Herbal Containers With Rain and Heat!

Some Years Our Patio Is Just As Interesting As the Garden!

The Container with Rosemary, Sage and Thyme is Wonderful!

The Pot of Herbs de Provence is Growing Wildly!

The Silver Herbs in the Gray Container is Doing Well!

So Exciting!  A Swallowtail Caterpillar Eating the Dill in the Container!

The Salads and Sauces Container Needs a Harvest!

A Nice Little Herb Garden!

I just can't seem to blog these days.  I think I am struggling taking and uploading photos from my phone and then getting the time to post something.  It rained so much that I lost herbs in the ground and now it is so hot that I have lost more herbs in the ground.  I'm at a loss for words.  So we have turned to the herbal containers that I made in May for the class with the Long Vue Acres Garden Club.  Ladies and gentlemen, the containers are looking pretty good.

Sage, Rosemary & Thyme Container

Salvia officinalis 'Tricolor'--Tricolor Sage (Used it fresh or dry it for herb blends, teas or potpourris.)
Rosmarinus officinalis 'Barbeque'--Upright Rosemary (Use it fresh or dried in herb blends, teas or potpourris.)
Thymus x citriodorus--Lemon Scented Thyme (Use it fresh or dried in herb blends, teas or potpourris.)

Hopefully I can bring this container inside and it will survive in a south facing window for the winter.

Herbs de Provence Container

Thymus vulgaris 'Narrow-Leaf French'--Narrow-Leaf French Thyme
Ociumum basilicum 'Spicy Globe'--Spicy Globe Basil
Satureja hortensis--Summer Savory
Rosmarinus officinalis 'Prostratus'--Prostrate Rosemary
Lavandula angustifolia 'Thumbelina Leigh'--English Lavender

I think I will make a little blend of Herbs de Provence to give as gifts.

A Pot of Silver Herbs Container

Helichrysum italicum--Dwarf Curry Plant
Salvia officinalis 'Berggarten'--Berggarten Sage
Thymus vulgaris 'Hi Ho Silver'--Silver Thyme
Thymus pseudolanuginosus--Wooly Thyme

I think the only thing I would say about this container is that the wooly thyme was overtaken by the Berggarten sage.  So it was not as good as I thought it would be.  Otherwise the other herbs were outstanding.

Salads and Sauces Container

Allium schoenoprasum--Chives
Anethum graveolens 'Fernleaf'--Dwarf dill
Poterium saguisorba--Salad Burnet
Artemisia dracunculus var. sativa--French Tarragon

There was also a choice between Anthriscus cerefolium chervil or Coriandrum sativum cilantro and neither of those survived for too long in the container.  They are both short lived even in a container.  You can dry everything remaining in this container for winter use with the exception of the French tarragon that I would preserve in vinegar and then you can use the tarragon in the vinegar like you would use fresh.

So as you can plainly see, my herbs in containers were a success.  BTW, they do get morning sun and afternoon shade most days.  Most of my mints did very well too.  That is the only place for mint is in a container!

As August (Wow!) approaches, you should have been harvesting in your herb garden and your herbal containers throughout the season.  If you are just starting now as it looks like I am, never fear just take it container by container and look for recipes on this blog or another favorite herb site.  Here is a post I did in August last year with a lot of links you can use called Herbal Harvesting and Preserving Again!

Around the middle of August you should start thinking about herbs you would like to bring inside (lemon verbena, rosemarys or scented geraniums) in containers that will not survive winter.  It is tough to dig them out when they are going so well, but you should at least have a game plan.

So that's your pep talk, herbally speaking!  That was what I needed!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  We are still hot here, but it is finally summer!  Tomatoes are finally ripening and the 'Fish' pepper that we are growing for the Herb Society of America and the 2016 Herb of the Year finally has multiple peppers on it finally.  I will talk about that next time or maybe the 2015 Herb of the Year, Savory.  Talk to you later! 


 

Haven't Had Much Thyme to Blog!

A Bit Overgrown and Wild Herb Garden!

Please forgive for not blogging these days!  It is all I can do to pick raspberries and make jam!  We have old 'Heritage' raspberries and they are producing like crazy.  That usually doesn't happen this early.  We think it is the combination of the cold winter and all of the rain.  I had yesterday in my herb garden by myself and I did get some weeding done and found some impostors trying to take up space.

So hope you understand.  I have had some rot of herbs because of all of the rain and hopefully I can talk about that in a future post.  Back to picking raspberries!  We have one beautiful dry, sunny and not too humid day, so I'm going out to enjoy it!  Talk to you later.  P.S. I am always here to answer your herbal questions if you need it.  And if you are growing garlic and you are starting to get some browning of the leaves, you had better start to dig it up!

Trying Blogger from My Tablet!

Really An Herbal Jungle!  Very Wet and Wild!

I can't believe that I am blogging from my tablet and not my laptop.  I never thought this would happen.  We are in the midst of serious storms at the moment.  So I don't want to write a whole lot in case we lose power.  We were working outside to get some tasks done like trimming spent blossoms of dianthus, sage and salad burnet.  Cut some more chamomile blossoms.  Going to have a banner year with those.  I didn't take any photos with my tablet.  So I will add a photo or two when I can.  Have some exciting news that I will share with you soon.  So hope you had a drier day than we did.  Talk to you later.

Even the Slug Wanted Out of the Garden!

A Question About Dried Lemon Verbena!

Don't Store Your Dried Herbs in Plastic Bags!

First and foremost I am always here to answer your herbal questions at any time.  I love doing research about herbs particular my favorite, lemon verbena.

Over the weekend I got an email from a new reader who googled lemon verbena uses and came up with my blog.  She had purchased dried herbs from a reputable source, lemon verbena and lemon balm.  She was disappointed with the scent of the dried lemon verbena in particular.  It had no scent.

As you can see by the photo I have excess dried lemon verbena, and I didn't take my own advice and at least date it to know how old it is.  It's old!  I will be using these leaves as filler in potpourri.  I told my reader that old lemon verbena loses its scent.  She purchased it as new product.  So I told her to grind some leaves up and see if that would bring out the scent.  If that doesn't help, I think she should try to get her money back because I know that dried lemon verbena is typically not cheap.

So I am suggesting to you that if you are going to buy dried herbs make sure that the company you are purchasing from are known for their dried herbs.  If the herbs do not have scent, you should return them for your money back or if there is a no return policy, at least get a credit for some other product besides dried herbs.

I will also tell you to use your dried lemon verbena leaves promptly.  Get your recipes or thoughts together once they are dried and start mixing!  If you can't use all that you have dried, place them in a  glass jar with a tight lid.  I was reminded by my friend on Facebook, Denise that plastic can cause mold if the leaves aren't very dry and have some moisture to them.  In fact I wrote about it just last year!  The mind is failing me!  I think I need a boost of rosemary!  Here is a link called "Been Busy in My Herbal Work Space."

Lemon balm is typically not the best lemon herb dried.  I will suggest that if you dry lemon balm that you use it right away.  And lastly, you always need more than what you expect.  So make sure you have a lot of plants producing because potpourri or even tea blends take a lot of leaves to make the right mixes.  Here are links to my favorite potpourri and tea blends.

It is a beautiful day here in the 'Burgh.  The temperature is close to 80 degrees.  Rain later today and a bit cooler tomorrow.  Will be out in the garden cutting herbs back in my next post.  Hope you are having a fabulous day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.
 

Didn't Know A Fig in a Container Could Produce So Much!

111 and Counting!

Two of Our Figs Almost Produced 200 Figs!

The Brown Fig Getting a Bit More Sun

One of the First Brown Figs of the Year!

Neither of Our Figs in the Ground Produce Any Figs!

Really these are The Herbal Husband's babies.  We have a green fig, a brown turkey fig and he just bought an LSU purple fig from Well-Sweep Herb Farm that has not yet produced.  He first nipped a cutting (the green fig) from a famous garden in Washington, DC to start our first fig.  No, not the White House!  Figs in the mid-Atlantic or Northeast need a southern exposure or a south facing wall to grow against for best results.  We have tried everything sort of burying our plants and that's what they really recommend.  We had an elderly Italian gentleman who buried his fig tree every year and got plenty of figs.  Then he passed away and his widow tried to duplicate his efforts and it wasn't as successful.  We have tried many combinations of trying to get our trees through the winter and we have just given up.  The Herbal Husband turned to containers.

Well, I guess The Herbal Husband has finally come up with the correct combination of fertilizer, water and temperature to produce figs.  He has also read an article published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Susan Silverman called You Also Can Grow Fig Trees in Containers.  Because she lives in our area, it works for us.  The Herbal Husband tends to baby his containers especially the figs.  If it is too sunny, they go into the shade and if it is too windy, they go into the garage for a timeout. The brown fig which I had at breakfast this morning was small but had such intense flavor.  It was very delicious!  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We certainly did.  Cooking the turkey is a process and we only cook it once a year, so it is worth it!

Have a lot to say over the next couple of weeks.  Hope I get it all accomplished.  It is very cold here today, but sunny.  Warmer over the weekend.  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.    

The Perfect Containers for Drying Herbs!

The Perfect Container for Drying Herbs!

The Perfect Size for Branches of Tansy!

The herbs that were drying on my worktable are almost put away.  I'm getting ready to put together some more tea blends for the winter and some other crafts for Christmas.  I stumbled across this container in the thousands of containers we seem to horde and have found that it is the perfect size for drying herbs especially tansy branches.  Ziploc calls it a large rectangle.  Of course, this year's models are just slightly different, but they are perfect for storing herbs or I'm sure you can come up with your own ideas, herbally speaking.

We had a wild day in the weather department.  It was 70 maybe even more with 50 mile an hour wind gusts!  And I spent it in the grocery store buying groceries for Thanksgiving!  The garden is pretty much done any way.  Hope you have had a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

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.