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Saturday 29 November 2008

"Is that all there is ? ...."


Does my title sound whiny or what ? .. I had a lot of little paper bags on the go .. you know the type .. lunch bags, as we used to call them .. heaven knows what they are used for now.
I dry rosemary,thyme,dill,fennel,sage ... well you get the idea that I dry herbs in small paper bags which are placed in various areas for ideal dry, warm conditions for herbs to dry out with .. aka .. the top of the fridge and the cupboard above it .. fancy eh ?
Well .. I finally got round to the second lot of bags and realized .. why isn't there more to this than there is ?????? I thought I had way more herbs than this lot ..
Yes .. this is a second batch but jeez ! this isn't much at all .. 2 rosemary, 1 thyme and half a dill .. good grief !!!
My pledge for next year is to grow a lot more herbs and not bother too much with potted flowers .. I have lots in the garden so I really should behave better with my pots .. so I won't whine next season ?
Therefore I declare "Pot Management" as my target for next season ! ..
OOPS .... that may sound a bit suspicious ?

14 comments:

Zoƫ said...

freezing them in icecubes works well too, although with Bay and Rosemary, I pick fresh from the bush as they are both evergreen here.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hi Zoe .. yes ! I have heard that as well .. just haven't gotten around to it yet. To have those as evergreen all year round .. that is so wonderful. I love the smell of the rosemary oil on my hands after brushing the leaves off .. one of my most favorite scents : )
Bay .. it is so pretty .. I think of it more around Xmas time, wish I had a wreath of it : )

Nola said...

I have a rosemary bush on either side of the front walk; I love to brush against it, it leaves such a wonderful scent. It stays green all year, so I just run out with snippers when I need a little rosemary!
About 10 years ago (different home) I had a wonderful little herb garden, about 20x20 ft square. I miss it; now I just have them plunked into the flower beds with all the "bloomers".

Brenda Pruitt said...

I've never dried my herbs. I keep planning to. But I don't cook much, so they would probably go to waste.
Brenda

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Brenda .. I really don't cook much at all .. but there is something so satisfying about drying and jarring them .. I do use a bit of rosemary but the rest goes to friends .. it gives you one more breath of the garden when you do this !

Nola ! you are so lucky to have rosemary all year round girl ! the smell is almost intoxicating to me .. I love it so : )
What you almost have now is a Potager garden .. mixing herbs and a few veggies with flowering plants .. shrubs etc .. it is a great way to garden and I wouldn't be able to not do it this way now !

RURAL said...

I use ours fresh almost year round also. I had cut down the garlic chives, and they are regrowing. During the cold spells we sometimes get, we use "frozen herbs". LOL

Jen

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

Joy, you might be surprised at how far those dried herbs go. I had what looked like a bale of basil and it does not even fill up a one quart jar dried. Still, it will make a lot of pesto.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hi Debbie .. yup ! dried herbs do go farther because they are concentrated .. but it always makes me laugh when I have what I think is large in volume but small in content ? haha
I do love this though, it is almost the last "see ya' later garden" of the season .. and that smell of rosemary on my hands .. is wonderful ! sniff sniff .. haha

Jen .. good one girl ! haha
I miss that west coast type gardening .. things stay alive there .. but then again we start "fresh" here after the big freeze/thaw thing .. so it makes us work in overdrive (which is good for the BIG projects) we are so happy to get "at" it again : )

Gail said...

Hi Joy, It is amazing that such big plants produce so little...helps me appreciate the high cost in the grocery store... (not really!);-)

Rosemary, bay leaf and thyme are evergreen here...well I bring the bayleaf in when temps go below 30F..it's about 5 foot tall now! Have you grown bay leaf?

Gail

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hi Gail .. I'm so jealous of the people that have these all year round ! .. I would love to grow bay leaf .. I haven't seen it around here .. or am I looking in the wrong places ? LOL .. yup those stores are almost as mysterious as the gas stations and their prices ? haha

Anonymous said...

Hi Joy, I love your jars of herbs, they look so welcoming and gardeney, even if they are scant, to you only, it looks like a bounty to me. I do believe we should all appropriate more of our garden space to edibles though, just for the sake of society! :-) Maybe you will be motivated to do more cooking. HA
Frances

Admin said...

I don't think the title sounds whiney, in fact I heavily relate. You have many more herbs than I do. I harvested some basil, but I forgot to get it all before the frost did, so I don't have nearly as much as I want, it really does shink as it dries too. The difference is amazing though, I'll never buy a dried "herb" from the store, they're as useless as dust.

WiseAcre said...

I like your herb drying methods much better than my wife's. She pots hers from the garden and brings them indoors. It only takes a couple of weeks for them to die and dry out. Our house is a 'Little Shop of Horrors' in some ways. No plant makes it out alive.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Dear Mr. WiseA** .. I am still laughing here about "no plant makes it out alive" .. good grief that is a scary notion ; )
I like my little brown bags .. must be the kid in me ? LOL

Hi lzyjo .. too right ! .. the difference is amazing .. but once I hooked my friends on them .. they keep asking for more ! haha

Frances .. girl, I will never be that motivated to cook ! haha .. But I have always liked the Potager way of gardening .. the mix just seems right and actually more natural .. planting fragrant herbs by roses etc .. does help keep the bad bugs away : )