Eco-friendly living for the practically minded.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Preserving herbs, results from winter

Well, I did learn a little more about this. Parsley, oregano, thyme, and basil all dried well. I tried drying on the branch and off the branch; off branch was better. Somehow it was more colorful and flavorful. Plus, they dried faster.

Don't dry chives though, they were terrible. I've realized it's not worth it anyway, they were still growing in the snow and they came back over a month ago. (And with a vengeance, too...anyone need chives? I have like 7 plants now.) I was only without for a couple months, so no big deal.

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It's Spring!

Ten days ago, we walked outside and crocuses were blooming! I declared it the beginning of spring and spent the next weekend planting peas, lettuces, and spinach. My neighbor says the timing was perfect; according to her, all of those are supposed to be planted on St. Patrick' Day. Nothing has germinated yet, but I'm hopeful. I think it's partly because I'm not watering it enough; you would think that it would have rained, but it hasn't really yet.

I am also not going to have too much lettuce this year. Really. I split seed packets with Emily, Kami, and Michael, so I only have .... 400 lettuce seeds....ok, I'm still going to have too much lettuce.

I'm always surprised at how depressed I am in winter and how much happier I get when we finally have some sunlight and weather above freezing. One of my neighbors was laughing because he still considers it winter right now, and I was out flipping the compost pile, raking leaves, and planting! I did try to prevent planting too much this year though. I'm spacing out the lettuce, and there are no radishes this year. That should help some.

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