Preserving Herbs: Drying & Freezing

Last year I managed to dry some thyme successfully and ruin some chives in an attempt to preserve both. This year the results were far more tangible.

back: dried sage, marjoram, & rosemary.
front: ground sage, mint, &  rosemary in jars

Michael Ruhlman's simple tip to place herbs in a wooden bowl and let the air circulate and dry them, naturally works incredibly well. We've got little buckets of sage, marjoram, rosemary (see above photo) along with jars of dried mint, ground sage, rosemary, and a rosemary/marjoram mix. This also works well with thyme and oregano.

Along with drying herbs we even freeze some. Granted herbs taste MUCH better when they are fresh with over 1.5 lbs of chives harvested this year, there is no way we could eat all them as we picked them. Throughout the season as I would cut chives I would freeze them in individual layers on cookie sheets and then put them in a freezer bag. We also freeze dill, a tip from my mother, which is great for soups and hearty potato dishes and freeze easily.

We keep a jar of 'fresh' pesto in a bit of oil in our fridge, but we also have baggies full of both basil and garlic scape pesto cubes that we freeze and use all year round. They are a great attention to fresh and canned tomato sauces!

What other herb preservation methods do you use?? Add them in the comments section, if I get a good list going, I will post it for posterity.

Dill Pickles & Beet Relish

With an abundance of pickling cucumbers and beets showing up at our local farms/markets Gail and I decided to take advantage. On Saturday afternoon we made 8 quarts of Dill pickles and 2.5 pints of Beet relish.

For the sake of variety we made 3 quarts of whole pickles, 3 quarts of pickle spears, and 2 quarts of pickle 'chips'
Dill Pickles
8 pounds 3-4 in long pickling cucumbers
4 cups white vinegar
12 cups water
2/3 cup pickling salt
16 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
8 sprigs fresh dill
8 heads fresh dill
Preparation:
1. Wash cucumbers and place in receptacle with cold water and lots of ice. Soak in ice water bath for at least 2 hours but no more then 8 hours. Add more ice as necessary. While soaking cucumbers sterilize 8 quart size canning jars and lids.
2. In a large pot over medium-high heat, combine the vinegar, water, and pickling salt. Bring the bring to a rapid boil.
3. In each jar, place 2 half cloves of garlic, one head of dill, and enough cucumbers to fill the jar. Then add 2 more half cloves of garlic and a sprig of dill to the top of each jar. Fill the jars with hot brine and seal the jars.
4. I found many conflicting ways to process the sealed jars in a hot water bath to make sure the seal. I processed them upside down in a sauce pan so that only the lids were covered with boiling water for 10 minutes. 6 of 8 jars sealed this way.
5. If jars have sealed store pickles for 8 weeks in a cool dry place before eating. Refrigerate after opening. Any jars that have not sealed can be kept in the refrigerator. Pickles will keep for up to 2 years if stored in a cool dry place.
We added mustard seed and/or red pepper flakes to some of the jars. We used Dill from our garden, while the cucumbers came from Keown Orchards and the garlic is from Red Fire Farm both by way of our local farmers market.
The real difficulty is having to wait 8 weeks to eat them! We decided we couldn't wait so last night we opened one of the jars of spears just to give them a taste. After a few days the pickles were crisp and tasted good, but certainly needed more time.



Some of the extra Beet relish was eaten the next day in a sandwich.
Beet Relish
3 lbs raw beets
1 tsp superfine sugar
1 lb shallots, finely chopped
2 cups cider or white wine vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
1 tbsp pickling spices, place in a cheesecloth or spice bag
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
Preparation:
1. Place the beets in a large saucepan. Pour over enough water to cover them, and add the superfine sugar (I used plain granulated sugar as it would be dissolving so to me it doesn't matter). Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour or until the beets are soft and cooked. Drain and leave to cool. When cool enough to handle peel and dice the beets into small, even pieces.
2. Put the shallots and vinegar in a pan and cook for 10 minutes over low heat. Add the chopped beets and the bag of pickling spices. Stir the mixture, add the granulated sugar, and cook gently until the sugar has all dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook at a rolling boil for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 40 minutes or until the mixture thickens.
3. Remove the spice bag, then ladle into sterilized mason jars, leaving 1/4in (5 mm) head space and making sure there are no air gaps. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Remove jars and let cool. Store in a cool, dark place. Allow the flavors to mature for 1 month and refrigerate after opening.
Relish should keep for up to 9 months.
We were expecting 4 jars of relish but ended up with 5 so we decided to set 4 aside to mature for a month as the recipe calls for and enjoy one right away. Gail enjoyed some on a veggie burger and I've had it with chicken salad in a sandwich. We used 5 of our own golf ball sized beets, the rest of the beets as well as all the shallots came from Allandale Farm.


Pickle recipe can be found at AllRecipes.com & the Beet Relish recipe is from Preserve It! which is a very visual excellent introductory cookbook to food preservation full of great tips and recipes for novice canners and preservers covering everything from fruits and vegetables to herbs, fish, and meats.

Harvest Monday - July 5th 2010

We harvested more greens and herbs on Thursday:

(Top: Basil, Mint. Bottom: Romaine, Dill, Mesclun)

I was off to Cape Cod for the long weekend so did not get much gardening work done. We came back late Monday afternoon and made a quick stop at the plot so we could water everything after 3 days of 90F and higher temperatures they needed it. We were finally able to harvest some non-greens as well! We pulled the 2 surviving carrots from the poorly germinated first seeding as well as a test beet to see how things were looking:

(2 Baby Carrots & 1 Baby Beet)

Totals for the week:

Dill - 2 oz/56.70 g

Mint - .5o oz/14.17 g

Basil - .90 oz/25.51 g

Mesclun - 2.75 oz/77.96 g

Romaine - 5 oz/141.75 g

Beets - .70 oz/19.84 g

Carrots .95 oz/26.93 g

Weekly Total: 12.80 oz / 362.86 g

Season Total: 1.975 lbs/31.60 oz/895.84 g

Tomato Watch: As of 7/5/10 62 tomatoes have set fruit

Harvest Total and Tomato Watch widgets in the right-hand column have been updated!

If you want to see what others are harvesting or share in your own bounty, stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Doorstep of Summer Garden Tour

With summer officially starting yesterday I thought a pictorial of my plot would be nice. So here is a photo tour of plot Z-1(aka my plot) at the Fenway Victory Gardens on the eve of summer. Photos were taken Sunday afternoon.

Walking through the gardens, below is the view as you approach my plot:

(Z-1 is the first plot on the left)

When you arrive at the gate you will notice the hi-tech security system:

(intruders beware!)

Upon entering the plot, to your left, along the front fence bed 1 - Broccoli, Carrots (poor germination), Leeks, Cabbage, and Onions (poor germination):

(Broccoli, Carrots, & Leeks in the front. Beyond the nasturtium is the cabbage and poorly germinated onions)

Moving on to bed 2 - A mishmash of Broccoli, Mint, Mesclun, Carrots (much better germination), Cucumbers, Sunflowers, Romaine and Spinach:

(The first half of bed 2: Broccoli, Mint, Mesclun, Carrots, & Cucumbers)

(2nd half of bed 2 - Sunflowers, Romaine, Spinach. The blank spot on the left housed the first planting of mesclun greens)
Bed 3- the center bed is home to the Tomatoes, Peppers, Basil, more Sunflowers, and more Nasturtiums (most of them are between the tomato cages):

(the view of bed 3 from the front of the plot)

(Basil at the back of bed 3)

(Looking from the back of bed 3 towards the gate down the row of tomato cages. You can see the Nasturtium flowers between each cage)

Bed 4 is the home of the Potato Trench & Pole Beans:

(The potato trench is filling in nicely, and the trellis' are starting to fill up with pole bean vines)

Behind the 2nd bed is a small batch of chives and then the herb bed (bed 5) - Garlic Chives, Dill, Parsley, Cilantro, some Sage, more (but smaller barely visible) chives, and borage:

(patch of chives between bed 2 and the herb bed)

(the main herb bed. Garlic chives in the front left look like grass. Dill, Parsley, Cilantro, some Sage growing close to the Cilantro)

Next to the Herb bed is the usual home for 2 of the 3 tomatoes in buckets. I move these around at my whim, but generally 2 of them sit between the herbs and the final bed.

(no such thing as enough tomato plants)

Bed 6, the last bed sits in the back right corner of the plot. There are 2 rows of Beets, Zucchini, and more Sunflowers in this bed:(Beets in front, Zucchini in the middle, a few Sunflowers and Daylily's in the back)

Here is a view of the plot from the backside. The gate can be seen in the back of the photo:

(plot Z-1 in all of its glory)

Finally, the last shot is a view from the front left corner as you approach the plot:

Thus concludes the tour of my plot on the eve of summer.

31 Days of Gardening

I've been gardening at the Fenway Victory Gardens for 4 weeks now. Here is what the plot looked like the day we picked it out:

(April 25th-Day 1)

Here is the drastically improved look 4 weeks later:

(May 22nd-Day 28)

After this weekend I really felt that the garden was coming together and starting to show some real signs of life and future vegetables! Here's a peek at what is springing to life in plot Z-1:

-Broccoli-

-Leeks-

-Greens-

-Beets-

-Peppers-

-Tomatoes-

-Herbs-

Missing form the photo's: Cabbage, Onion, Carrots, Spinach, Potato, Kentucky Wonder pole bean, Ottawa Cranberry pole bean, Garlic Chives, & Sage.

For the Beans, Potato, Garlic Chives & Sage seedlings have not sprouted yet or are just beginning to sprout. (A trellis and a pair of makeshift trellis' have been installed for the beans and await their arrival)

The Cabbage, Onion, and Carrots have developed very slowly so there isn't even enough to take pictures of.

The Spinach is another story. Some piece in the row are starting to look like spinach, others have clearly been bothered by the encroaching bindweed which we are doing our best to keep up with.

I suspect some of the seedlings which are slowly to develop were either planted late or are the victims of soil which developed a crust after a few rough rain storms. It's still early and there is plenty to grow so stay tuned!!

We have liftoff (and bindweed)!

Gail and I headed to the plot Friday afternoon. When I arrived I found Gail happily weeding with a large pile serving as proof that we will be fighting an uphill battle against Bindweed (Calystegia sepium). Lots of serious hand weeding is ahead of us!

Besides the Bindweed springing up everywhere it can we saw signs of a garden coming to life.

I am extremely ecstatic to report numerous Beet and Mesclun mix seedlings emerging from the ground a mere 6 days after planting! I looked very carefully in the rows next to the Mesclun for Spinach and Romaine seedlings and believe I saw a few, however the Mesclun mix and Beet seedlings were easily visible in abundance so I will only confirm those for now. No visible seedlings from the Onions, Carrots or Cabbage yet but I will be back Sunday afternoon and hope to find more signs of life.

To celebrate our growth we began planting our herb bed. Garlic Chives, Dill, Sage and Chive seeds were planted in short rows before we left on account of darkness.