Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Kitchen Tip Tuesday



My Kitchen Tip today is kind of an update on the drying herbs tip I did a while back. Here is a link to that post. It explains how I dried my herbs.
Today's tip shows you the end result of all that herb drying.
Here are all of the bags we had hanging up drying.


And here they are all put up in different sized jars. The tall jar in the back is a quart jar absolutely crammed full of thyme. I think I may have to seperate them into two jars. That's a lot of thyme! Next to the thyme in the back row is the parsley, sage, coriander seed, & peppermint.
The front row is dill seed, dill weed, basil, spearmint, & chamomile.

Here's a close up of the parsley. I was surprised at how green it stayed during drying!

Here is the sage. And it was delicious in the Thanksgiving dressing. :)
And the spearmint:
I have found that one little spearmint leaf crumbled up in my morning hot tea is very good! And so is just one chamomile flower (not crumbled, just immersed).

And here is that quart jar crammed full of thyme!
I have saved thyme in a bottle.....LOL..... I know those jokes are just sad. But I can't help myself. LOL

Here's the dill seed & the dill weed (or as I just refer to as dill). I only got a little bit of dill, because I wasn't on the ball with the dill & didn't get it harvested before it went to seed. That's why I have so many seeds! But we had a brief Indian Summer in October & a few dill shoots started sprouting. I left them alone until the night of our first freeze, then I went out & picked them so I would have a little to dry.

And lastly, here's the basil:
This was my first year having an herb garden, & I really enjoyed it. I loved having fresh herbs to go pick during the summer & fall. I really enjoyed drying them too. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball this coming year, & start harvesting a little earlier. I didn't get any cilantro harvested. It went to seed before I realized it was time to do it, hence all the coriander seed! (cilantro produces the coriander seed)
I would highly recommend growing your own herbs. It is very cheap, especially when compared to buying them in the store! I spent .59 on each packet of seed (although I did buy a few plants, but realized later that I didn't need them), & each packet produced a lot! And having the garden & drying the herbs is a lot easier than I realized. I wish I had been doing this for years!
You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

9 comments:

Sandra said...

I would LOVE to know how to do this. I don't know anyone who grows and dries their own herbs. Would you PLEASE email me?
strivingforthemaster@yahoo.com

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

How neat! Love the "Thyme in a bottle"! :D LOL!

Anonymous said...

I love fresh herbs and have lots that needs to be cut and dried right now (I'm in Texas, so we're still able to grow things). My herb garden is overgrown! In fact, it looks healthier in the dead of winter (here) than it did in the summer.

Anyway, thanks for the inspiration! I love your pictures of your herbs. I'm gonna go check out the other post on drying.

Lori L said...

What a wonderful post, Jane! I always loved growing and drying my own herbs and look forward to the day when I can do this again!

Lori L said...

Did you plant lavender last year? I just love the smell of lavender. Some day I'm going to try to make lavender ice cream.

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this. I have wasted alot of fresh herbs in the past. No more. I am determined to dry them.

Donna said...

Great job!
I love herbs!

Anonymous said...

Did you punch holes in the bags?

Jane said...

Hi Sandra, I emailed you. :)

Thanks Sherry. I can never resist the thyme in a bottle joke. I just can't. LOL

Thanks Anonymous. That is great that your herbs do so great in the winter! Wow, fresh herbs all year!

Hi Lori! Yes, I did plant lavender, but I tend to forget about it because that is the only seed that didn't come up. None of it did. :( I have seen lavender ice cream on tv, I think, & that might be neat to try! I may try planting lavender in a different spot next year. I'd also like to plant oregano. I use that often enough & didn't think of planting it last year.

Hi Beth, I have wasted herbs in the past too. Not anymore!

Thanks Donna!

BarbaraLee, yes, I did punch holes in the bags. I used a 3-hole punch, but then found that a regular 1-hole punch worked better on those little brown bags. :)