What am I doing in the garden now?

Dear friends,

I guess the question should be, what am I NOT doing in the garden now. We've had a bout of cold weather, cold enough to kill off the larger-than-ever basil plants, and then warmer weather, with huge fierce, blustery winds that make me shriek "Auntie Em! Auntie Em! It's a twister!"

I never could stand brisk wind.

However, the wind did help us harvest an amazing crop of pecans this year. We have two ancient pecan trees in our back yard, and so far we've collected a five-gallon bucket.  That's just a fraction of the amount laying on the ground, waiting to be picked up.

In spite of the short freeze, the rosemary is very happy and blooming now--and is attracting tons of honey bees. We do love those bees around here!

Honeybees on Rosemary in November

Luckily, Husband harvested most of the basil before the freeze, and the house smelled like THAT for days. Don't get me wrong--I love basil, but can't eat or smell lots of it at once without getting a headache. He's a great kitchen helper, and whirred the leaves with olive oil and froze them for future use in pestos, etc. And I'm drying some for my Super Secret Italian Mix.

Sweet Marjoram

 The sweet marjoram is growing happily in a large galvanized tub, away from the regular oregano since they tend to cross somehow and end up all tasting the same.  I use small amounts of it in the afore-mentioned Secret Mix and it really makes a difference.

Since we have tons of fresh evergreen rosemary year-round here, I don't rush to harvest it before a freeze. I try to wait until after it blooms, though, but it's not really necessary.  It seems to taste the same, but I like to leave the flowers for the bees. Did I mention we love bees? ;-)

In a former garden in the Texas Hill Country, I grew rosemary as a border around other areas and it did fine on the solid limestone underneath. In my current garden, on the Blackland Prairie soil east of Austin, the bushes grew twice as large in the first two years. Gotta love having "real" dirt!

I do dry some, though, because the flavor is different from the fresh rosemary. A teeny bit of it also goes into the Secret Mix.

As soon as this wind dies down, and I've pulled the bush-that-was-my-hair out of my face, I'll take more photos.

In the meantime, if you have a harvest of your own, check out the short article on How to Dry Herbs in Your Microwave. Bottle some up and give as holiday gifts. People love homegrown mixes!

And if  you're feeling creative, here's how to make a rosemary topiary, from Susan Wittig Albert's Pecan Springs Journal blog.

Happy digging,

bobbi c.

How to Dry Herbs in your Microwave

Dear friends,

Waaay back in 1999 and through 2001, I published an herbal newsletter, The Country Cottage Herb Gardener. I've recently found copies of those files on an old back-up disk (yippee!) and decided to share some of the short articles with you.

This one explains how to dry herbs in your microwave. It's timely because many of us have an over-abundance of things like basil and rosemary right now. It's a good time to harvest it and dry it for winter use.

A honeybee loves the blooming rosemary

When the weather just won't cooperate enough to let you dry your herbs outdoors, or when it is too humid indoors, you can dry some herbs in your microwave oven.

Some herbs that can be dried for cooking or crafts in the microwave include basil, dill, mint, rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, lavender, tarragon and others. The basic instructions are simple. Simply place two paper towels or an old cotton towel on top of a flat microwave-proof plate or tray. Place the clean, dry, individual herb leaves flat on the paper towels in one layer. Cover the leaves with another paper towel.

Place the plate in the microwave and cook on high (100%) power for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the plate from oven and allow to cool. Check to see if leaves are thoroughly dry by crumbling some between your fingers. If they won't crumble and still seem to be moist, microwave for an additional 30 seconds at a time until they are dry.

In our experience, a handful of herbs (or about 4 or 5 short stalks) of basil, rosemary or sage will dry in 3 minutes. Of course, allowing for differences in individual microwave ovens, yours may dry the herbs in more or less time. Experiment a little and see what happens!

Nice fresh rosemary, ready to be dried

This is certainly faster than the other drying methods, and the flavor seems to be consistently good. Try it sometime! Aunt Jewel, an imaginary friend who lives in Nameless, Texas, loves to use her microwave because she says it gives her more time to watch her soaps on TV! ;-)

Happy trails from HOT Texas!

bobbi c.