Drying Herbs from the Garden

I dried the herbs I picked yesterday. Here's how it's done.


I use a dehydrator. This is the one I own - I have owned several over the years and this is a pretty good one for the money. I had a Ronco that I saw advertised on TV once and that thing didn't last at all - but that was years ago and they may be making them better now. They also have more industrial ones - but this one is fine for home use. It is made by American Harvest and is expandable to 20 trays. I use 6 trays with it.



First - wash the herbs. They may appear clean, but they have a lot of dust and dirt on them and you don't want that to end up in your food.


Next, dry them using a salad spinner - it will reduce the drying time.


One tray of oregano.


I did two trays of Basil.


One tray of Dill.



And two trays of Parsley.


Turn the dial to the herbs setting and plug in.


Here it is set up and running.


And if you think you can skip the washing step - look at how much dirt was left in the sink after I took the herbs out!!!!


And here are the dried herbs.

Hard mornings work in the garden....

but it still beats a good day at work - wait a minute, I'm unemployed - oops, guess it beats job hunting!!!!

I just don't know how to grow brussels sprouts in a small garden. They always grow so tall and lean over on top of other things that are still maturing. I have tried tomato cages and staking them in the past and all that happened was that they pulled the cage or stake over with them! This year I planted a variety that was supposed to not grow as tall - NOT! They were all over the cabbage and starting to lean into the bell peppers. So I took some old square tomato cages and opened them up and put them around them and kind of hooked them to the rabbit fence and then to each other. They seem study - we'll see. I also took the lower leaves off so I could work with them better. Hopefully they will be happier and I'll get some sprouts soon. A couple of the plants have some large enough to eat at the bottom, but most are just little bumps.

Here are 4 pics of the garden from different angles after I was done cleaning it up today -





It looks so much better now - and I'll have room to plant the fall garlic. I think I am also going to plant some radishes and some late season lettuce - but I'm too tired right now. We'll see if I get back to it....


And while I was out there, I cut some herbs - got a huge bowl of parsley, basil, oregano and dill. It is mostly parsley.


And I dug up a few rogue potatoes and onions (thought I had them all) and picked 5 bell peppers and 1 small head of red cabbage.

And what was Andy doing during all of this? At first he was digging in the area of the garden where there wasn't anything currently growing, but after awhile he got tired of that, so he went and grabbed his rope. Long time readers and friends will know that Andy has autism and his thing is strings, ropes, hoses, tape - anything long and slender - other kids on the spectrum spin wheels - Andy plays with strings - it's not as noticable as when he was younger - but it still takes up a lot of his time. Here is a pic of him with his rope creation this morning - he was so proud of himself and wanted me to take a picture of him.


So, that's life in my garden today. I hope everyone is enjoying a good gardening day.

In My Garden Wednesday June 27,2007

I took some pictures yesterday but didn't get around to posting them - so here are Wednesday's pictures on a Thursday.


This hot pepper plant looks like a goner. I saw him looking like this yesterday and thought it was just wilt from the heat, but I watered him and he did not bounce back. I lost several to the hail so I only have 2 more hot peppers if this one doesn't make it.


One of the other two surviving hot pepper plants


The coneflowers are starting to bloom and look pretty


The basil is starting to go to seed. Time to pinch back the ends or harvest some.


The oregano is looking healthy

My garden survived while I was on vacation

The currants ripened nicely this past week

Here is a close up of the currants.

Gee - I don't remember planting dill - nor did I plant any last year, but it comes up every year. You gotta love mother nature taking care of things naturally.

The beans are starting to trail up the strings.

The cabbage and brussels sprouts have totally recovered from the hail now and looking good.

The tomatoes are growing like weeds.

3 quart bags of currants ready for the freezer. They will eventually be made into jelly, but I don't have the time right now so I just freeze them and then thaw them on jelly making day.

It's good to be back home in my garden. We had a great time on vacation and it was nice to get away, but I always miss my garden when I'm gone.