What's New in My Garden This Year: Herbs Galore & Some New Fertilizer Options

Spring has FINALLY arrived here in Southern Ontario, and the planting has begun!

I have a surprising number of new additions to the garden this year - it wasn't something I really planned on, it just kind of happened :) The photo above is calendula seedlings which I was thrilled to see coming up; I was given a calendula plant by a local herbalist last summer and it did very well for me. I was hoping it would reseed itself vigorously and it seems to have done just that! If most of them thrive, I may actually be able to give a couple away myself. I dry the flowers all summer long to use for making salves and balms.

You may recall that I tried 2 new food plants last year: sorrel and ground cherries. While I loved the taste of the sorrel, it hasn't come back up this spring :( (it was a division from a friend last year). The ground cherries were a bit of a bomb, they didn't seem to ripen properly before the husks went all brown on me (they were probably in a less-than-ideally-sunny location, which may have contributed to the problem). They also took up a lot of space, and given that we didn't adore them, I don't think I'll grow them again.

Onwards to 2014 - here's a quick tour of what's new in my garden this spring:

Lots of herbs!

 On the top row are lavender and sage and the bottom are thyme and lemon mint (which was subsequently planted in the clay pot before putting it in the ground so it doesn't take over the entire bed!). The sage and thyme I picked up at the Mustard Seed seedling sale; the mint and lavender came from William Dam.

The lavender, sage, and thyme are all planted in my front bed that gets plenty of sun so I've got fingers crossed that they all thrive there! And I'm hoping these perennial herbs will finally fill out the bed along my front walk that's been looking a bit scruffy the past few years. The calendula seedlings are in the same bed with all these herbs, so I'm looking forward to a robust and great smelling herb garden along my front walk as all these plants fill in.

The lemon mint was selected by my 14 year old son - he requested a few plants of his own to grow this year and fell in love with this mint when we were at William Dam. He also picked out a few jalapeno pepper plants which are now in one of our raised beds. He has committed to doing all the care for these plants - we'll see how long it takes for him to get tired of the weeding and watering routine :)

I decided to give garlic a whirl last fall, and while it looks like critters got at a lot of it, I have 3 plants coming up strong. I was also given some lemon basil seeds by my lovely friend Roseatta, so a bunch of them have gone in the ground and I'm anxiously waiting to see how many of them germinate! The photo on the far right shows some of the perennial onions we were given last year by a colleague of my husband's. These are VERY robust - even after the brutal winter we had, they popped right back up in early spring and as you can see they are already producing huge amounts of green onion tops for us (which is good, because I put them in just about everything that isn't dessert).

For the first time ever, I broke down and got some lettuce seedlings so we could start enjoying our lettuce harvest a lot sooner. I picked these up at the Mustard Seed sale and I believe the variety is "Red Flame", but don't quote me on that because I have a terrible memory for that sort of thing :) I have direct sown some lettuce seed as well, so if all goes according to plan we should have a steady lettuce harvest for quite a few weeks (of course, things seldom go entirely according to plan in my garden!)

I was also gifted some strawberry plants, so in the ground they have gone, and a welcome addition they were, too. I haven't been tending to my strawberry patch very well since I transplanted them to another raised bed a couple years back, and the plants are looking far from robust. I am going to work on getting these guys back to good health this summer!

New Fertilizer Options

The plants aren't the only new thing in my garden plans this year. I'm going to be trying a few new ideas for fertilizing (something I've typically been not so great about). I have three new options I'm going to use, two of which are free and the third extremely inexpensive.

First up is this milk and molasses plant food recipe - super easy to whip up and something I might actually remember to do on a regular basis!

The next option is Freebie Fertilizer #1 and I might add I was quite relieved to discover this tip! As many of you know, I have been brewing kombucha for a couple of months now, and I am starting to get overrun with scobys (that's my scoby hotel on the left in the photo above). Of course, I am happy to give them away to friends who want them, but there are only so many takers (especially when each person who takes one starts getting overrun with them too, and my whole circle of friends is swimming in scobys). You can imagine my excitement when I discovered that people have had great success using them to fertilize their plants. Here's hoping my strawberries, tomatoes, rhubarb and raspberries all benefit from a little "scoby" treatment. Apparently many chickens go nuts for scobys, so if you are also overrun with them and know someone who has chickens, that might be another great alternative. I may just offer some to our egg farmer!

Photo courtesy of pd4pic.com

Freebie Fertilizer #2 is another one I just discovered after being given a comfrey plant (my plant is still looking a little worse for wear after being transplanted, so that's a stock photo). Comfrey can be used for fertilizer in a variety of ways; here's a good summary. I'm most likely going to go with the mulch option as it's the least involved and I am, after all, a pretty lazy gardener :)

I'll be sure to share how my fertilizer experiments work out later in the season!

What new and exciting things are happening in your garden this year?

 

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Homemade Christmas: Lavender & Calendula Face Scrub

 

I'm back with another DIY Christmas gift suggestion this week. This lavender and calendula scrub rocks on many levels: you can whip up a batch in minutes, it's perfect for all the ladies on your gift list, it's extremely inexpensive to make, and oh-my-goodness, what it does for your skin. Especially in the middle of a Canadian winter :)

I have been using one variation or another of this scrub on my face for a couple of years now instead of any type of commercial cleanser or soap product, and I've never looked back. It's very similar to those pricey "cleansing grains" you see in upscale cosmetics boutiques. Apparently my skin still has a dewy, youthful glow as a stranger told me a couple of weeks ago that she thought I was about 26 - you should have seen her jaw drop when I told her I had a 16 year old son!

But I digress...

Seriously, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you make this face scrub. It lends itself well to lots of variations (for example, you could use rose petals and rose essential oil instead of lavender for another spin on the floral theme). I would definitely keep the calendula in the mix, as it's used more for its healing properties than as a contributor to scent or colour.

I specifically went with the lavender-calendula combo so I could pair it with this lavender-calendula lip balm!

I use a spice grinder to grind all the ingredients - don't use your coffee grinder or your scrub will smell like coffee and your coffee will taste like lavender :)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup finely ground oats
2 tbsp finely ground coconut
1 tbsp ground lavender flowers
2 tbsp ground calendula flowers
10-20 drops lavender essential oil

Instructions:
Combine the rice flour, oats, coconut, lavender and calendula flowers. Add the lavender essential oil and stir until evenly incorporated into the scrub.

That's it!!

To use: Put about a teaspoon of scrub in the palm of your hand and add enough water to make a thick paste. Gently rub on face in a circular motion, then rinse off (I find it easier to use it in the shower rather than trying to rinse off in front of the sink).

Where to find dried herbs for making scrubs:
If you have a local health food store with a bulk section, check there first! My local store carries both lavender and calendula flowers.

If you don't have a good local source of bulk herbs, I highly recommend Mountain Rose Herbs. They have great prices on high quality organic herbs (as well as culinary herbs and spices, tea blends and many other wonderful things!) Their shipping costs to Canada are fairly steep, but their prices are so good that the overall cost is still lower than anywhere else I've found for comparable quality products.

If you missed the first installment of my Homemade Christmas series, check out Create Your Own Tea Blends. For even more holiday ideas, you can find my whole Christmas on a Dime series HERE. 

Note: The links to Mountain Rose are affiliate links and I will receive a commission from them (at no cost to you) for any purchases you make after clicking these links.

 

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Homemade Christmas: Create Your Own Tea Blends

I'm finding it hard to believe, but Christmas is just 6 weeks away!

Even thought I feel like I haven't planned for the big day as well as I usually do (largely because I didn't hit all that many yard sales this year, one of my main sources for great gifts at super low prices) I do feel like I have things pretty well under control and I already have everyone on my list covered except my immediate family members.

That's mainly because I have some great DIY gifts up my sleeve. I'm going to share a bunch of them with you over the next few weeks so you can make them, too! These are all going to be quick and easy to make (as well as being easy on the budget). And those of you that are on my gift list, no peeking on these posts unless you don't want any surprises under the tree!

I'm kicking things off with this post on how to create your own custom tea blends. You can make your own herbal teas using high quality organic herbs for *much* less than it costs to buy the boxed varieties! For example, you can buy 4 oz of organic peppermint leaf from Mountain Rose Herbs for just $3.25 (that amount is enough to almost fill a quart jar and lasts me for months!)

I think an herbal tea blend is a perfect gift for the holidays for many reasons:

• it's easily customizable to the recipient

• it takes literally minutes to mix together

• just about everyone will appreciate a hot cup of tea in the middle of winter!

• unlike many other food gifts, instead of contributing empty calories, it's likely to have health benefits (depending on what herbs you use in your blends)

As noted above, the actual act of blending a few herbs together doesn't take long at all. The more time-consuming part of preparing this gift will be researching what herbs you want to include (if you don't want to use any of my suggestions!) I think good blends for winter are those that include warming spices (such as chai teas), those that include a floral element such as rose, hibiscus or lavender (hints of beautifully coloured flower petals in the middle of winter will boost anyone's spirits!) and those that contain mint (a flavour we already associate with the holidays, and a helpful digestive aid as well as a general pick-me-up).

Here is the floral tea blend I will be making for gifts this year (pictured above). It's from the Book of Herbal Teas by Sara Perry and is very similar to the Hibiscus High Tea blend offered by Mountain Rose Herbs.

Floral tea blend:
1 part hibiscus flowers
1 part lemon verbena
1 part dried orange peel
1 part rosehips
1 part peppermint

Many recipes for herbal blends call for "parts" instead of specific measurements. This means it's really easy to customize the amounts to suit whatever quantity you want to make. I used one cup of each herb to make a large batch for multiple gifts, but you could use 1/4 cup of each or even 1 tbsp of each to make a much smaller amount.

Some other ideas to get you started:

Relaxing blend: lemon balm, chamomile and oatstraw

Lemon Lovers: lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon grass and dried lemon peel

Lavender mint: 1 part lavender to 4 parts mint

Chocolate mint: 1 part cacao nibs to 4 parts peppermint

Beat the Winter Blues herbal tea from Frugally Sustainable

New Moon Tea (raspberry leaf, chamomile and lavender) from At Home Om

Calming Herbal Tea from Country Living Magazine

Lemony Chamomile Spearmint Tea from Fiskars

Tea Blending Guide from Mountain Rose Herbs

To brew a cup of tea, use 1 tsp of herbal tea blend to 8 oz boiling water.

If you create a particularly pleasing blend, I'd love to hear about it!

Where to find dried herbs for making teas:
If you have a local health food store with a bulk section, check there first!

I buy most of my herbs for tea making from Mountain Rose Herbs. They have great prices on high quality organic herbs (as well as culinary herbs and spices, tea blends and many other wonderful things!) Their shipping costs to Canada are fairly steep, but their prices are so good that the overall cost is still lower than anywhere else I've found for comparable quality products.

Note: The links to Mountain Rose are affiliate links and I will receive a commission from them (at no cost to you) for any purchases you make after clicking these links.
 

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My "Afternoon Pick Me Up" Herbal Tea

I started a new daily ritual back in the spring that I somehow never got around to blogging about: my afternoon herbal tea! Now, that might not seem like anything special since many of us drink herbal teas on a regular basis (myself included). What's special about this one is that I purposely chose to make this blend more for its health benefits than its taste (although it is a very pleasant tasting tea).

My "special blend" is a teaspoon each of dried oatstraw and lemon balm, plus about a teaspoon of finely diced fresh ginger and a quarter of an organic lemon. I put this all in a pint sized Mason jar, then fill with boiling water, cover, and let it steep for about 20 minutes. I then strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a large mug and sweeten it with a bit of local honey.

How did I arrive at this particular blend? 
Well, for starters, a friend of mine had recommended oatstraw as an herb with a lot of health benefits that she thought would be useful to me, so when I placed an order with Mountain Rose Herbs I added some to my cart even though I wasn't sure how I was going to use it! I was placing a large order that day and so I didn't notice that I'd accidentally ordered *two* 4 oz packages of oatstraw instead of one! Now I was even more motivated to find a way to use it on a regular basis.

I decided to try it in a tea blend with lemon balm, an herb that's known for its ability to relieve tension and anxiety while also perking you up (as opposed to some other relaxing herbs that sedate you!) In other words, it's just about perfect for providing an early afternoon boost to help me get through the rest of the day. I added the lemon and ginger for both taste and further therapeutic benefits and the combination tastes great while delivering some powerful health benefits:

Oatstraw:  This herb is considered a full-body tonic that can strengthen your immune system and boost your energy. It's also said to have antibiotic and antidepressant properties. Like lemon balm, it is good for relieving stress, tension and fatigue. In addition, oatstraw is packed full of nutrients, including vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, calcium, chromium, iron, magnesium and selenium. 

Lemon Balm: Along with its tension-taming qualities, lemon balm is also antiviral and antibacterial (Caution: regular use of lemon balm is not advised if you have hypothyroidism)

Ginger: I have been a fan of ginger for a long time! It has warming properties, which is nice for people like me who are always cold :) It is also anti-inflammatory, which is useful if you have seasonal allergies or conditions like arthritis.

Lemon: In addition to giving the tea a flavour boost, lemons are antibacterial and help remove acid wastes from the body. I use organic lemons as conventional lemons have a lot of things on the outside of them that I don't want ending up in my tea!

Where to buy the ingredients:
You might be able to find the oatstraw and lemon balm at a local health food store that sells bulk herbs. I buy mine from Mountain Rose Herbs - their quality is fantastic!
It's not too hard to find ginger root or lemons :) I buy 2 lb bags of organic lemons at Fortinos, where they sell them for a reasonable price.

Note: I'm an (extremely) amateur herbalist, and I'm just writing about something that I've found beneficial for myself. I encourage you to do your own research and consult with your healthcare practitioner before using these or any other herbs. This post contains affiliate links to Mountain Rose Herbs and I will receive a small commission from any purchase you make when using those links.

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Ten Things To Do with Fresh Herbs

When I talk to people about starting to grow some of their own food, herbs are one of the things I encourage them to start with. They are generally really hardy and will survive with less-than-expert care, they can be grown in containers (even small pots on a sunny windowsill), many of them will tolerate shadier conditions, and, most important of all, they provide meals with some major pizazz with little time or money invested.

In a good growing season, you will likely end up with way more herbs than you know what to do with!
The herbs in my garden all seem to be getting bigger by the minute with the onslaught of heat we've had the past few days. While sharing them with family, friends, and neighbours (or your produce cooperative) is always an option, there are plenty of ways you can make use of them in your own kitchen.

Here are some of my favourite ways to use fresh herbs: 

1. Salads and salad dressings: You can toss chopped herbs into just about any kind of salad, whether it be a leafy green salad, a grain-based salad like my Southwestern-Spiced Barley and Vegetable Salad, or a chunky vegetable and bean salad like my Build a Bean and Cucumber Salad. Of course, fresh herbs are perfect for salad dressings, too and can be tossed into almost any kind of dressing - they are delicious in my Buttermilk and Herb dressing or my Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.

2. Egg dishes: Eggs and herbs are fantastic together. Fresh herbs are an absolute must in a summer omelette at our house, and they are also a wonderful addition to a quiche.

For both of the above purposes, I'm particularly fond of using a random blend of parsley, chives, basil and oregano.

3. Teas: Fresh mint makes a fantastic tea and couldn't be simpler to make. Stuff a few large sprigs of mint in your teapot, fill with boling water and steep for about 15-20 minutes (for lots of other ways to use mint, check out this post). Other fresh herbs good for making tea are lemon balm, lemon verbena, chamomile, catnip and raspberry leaf (if you have raspberry canes in your garden). If you want to try making your own herbal sun teas, check out this YouTube video.

4. Pasta toppers and pestos: Many pasta dishes can be elevated to a new level of deliciousness with a sprinkling of fresh herbs over top. Creamy sauces such as Alfredo or other cheese- or cream-based sauces are particularly tasty this way. And of course, there is the classic heavy-on-the-herbs pasta dish: pesto. You don't have to make it just with basil, though! There are many recipes for pestos using other herbs. Try using parsley and toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) in place of the basil and pine nuts in your favourite pesto recipe!

5. Meat marinades: Adding fresh herbs to marinades is a great way to enhance the flavour of all types of meat and poultry. For a really easy chicken marinade, stir about 1/4 cup of chopped herbs (thyme and rosemary are particularly good with chicken, and parsley, chives, basil and oregano will all work, too) into 3/4 cup of buttermilk and pour over 8 chicken thighs, turning to coat. Let sit several hours or overnight in the fridge.

6. Fancy iced drinks: Make herbal lemonade by using one of your favourite herbal tea blends in place of the cold water in any basic lemonade recipe (you can find an easy one here). You can also freeze herb leaves in ice cubes to add to your cold drinks, or simply toss a fresh sprig of mint or basil right in the glass.

7. Vinegars: Herbal vinegars are an easy way to add the taste of fresh herbs to your salads throughout the long winter months. They are quick and easy to make, too - check out this post where I show you how I make mine (I'm going to try making them with apple cider vinegar rather than white vinegar this year).

8. Honey: Herb-infused honeys are delicious, and can also be medicinal, too. I make a lemon-thyme honey that I pull out whenever we've got a cough or cold - it could also be used for culinary purposes, too. If you have lavender growing in your garden, it makes a wonderful infused honey perfect for stirring into tea or drizzling over pancakes

9. Oils: Herb-infused oils can be used for either culinary or medicinal purposes. When using fresh herbs, simply combine about 3/4 cup chopped herbs and one cup of oil (I prefer olive) in a clean glass Mason jar and let steep for 2-3 weeks. Strain the oil through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth. A lavender or chamomile infused oil is great for making an all-purpose salve or adding to your bath water; use your favourite combination of culinary herbs to make an infused oil you can use for dressings and marinades.

10. In the bathroom: Fresh herbs elevate a hot bath to new levels of relaxation! Lavender, mint, chamomile, lemon balm or lemon verbena are all wonderful additions to the tub. They also make great room fresheners - simply gather up a bouquet of fresh herbs and place it strategically in a vase in your bathroom.

I'm sure I could find many more uses for fresh herbs, but I'm going to stop there for now! At least I hope I've conveyed just how versatile they can be and given you some new ideas to try.

If you find yourself as hooked on herbs as I am, I highly recommend the book The Herbal Kitchenby Cami McBride, which is just packed full of recipes using both fresh and dried herbs (yes, that is an affiliate link!).

What are your favourite ways to use fresh herbs?

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Small Yet Satisfying #2: Making Dandelion Salve

A whole lot of Dandelion Salve!

I set myself a little goal this weekend: I've decided to take a cyber-free day once a week all summer - most likely on Sundays. When I've taken completely unplugged days before I've found I can be really productive or really relaxed (whichever I had in mind for the day) as I don't have the constant mental pull towards checking my email/Facebook/the internet in general.

While my main purpose in doing this is to feel like I'm getting more downtime to read, ride my bike, chill out on my front porch and spend time with my family, I also thought it would be a good time to focus on getting a few more "Small Yet Satisfying" projects completed as it's amazing how much more time I seem to have in a day when the computer stays off!

My project for this past Sunday was to make myself some Dandelion Salve. I've been meaning to get around to this for ages! I saw this recipe on the Nerdy Farmwife blog when she posted it back in April and was immediately intrigued. I'm always a fan of a recipe that uses a main ingredient I can get for free! I picked a ton of dandelions when they were at their peak earlier this season, and dried them out thoroughly. I even got them infusing in some olive oil and heat-infused them for a couple of hours. They've been sitting in a jar on my kitchen windowsill ever since and it was more than high time for me to get around to actually making the salve.

I've made salves a couple of times before, and found that a ratio of 1 cup olive oil to 1-2 ounces of grated beeswax will make a salve with the consistency I like (in general, it's better to use a bit more beeswax during the summer or if you live in a hot climate, so that the salve doesn't get too soft in the warmer temps).

So, this is roughly how I made the salve:

Infusing stage:

• Fill a pint jar about 2/3 of the way full of dried dandelion flowers

• Pour olive oil over top until it covered the dandelions with a tiny bit to spare on top

• Heat the jar in a saucepan of simmering water for a couple of hours

• Remove the jar from the heat, let it cool and then let it sit on my kitchen windowsill for ages (a week or two should be more than enough if you want to get this accomplished on a quicker schedule)

 On salve making day:

• Strain the oil through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a glass measuring cup (2 cup size or larger)

• Once all the oil has drained through, wrap the cheesecloth tightly around the dandelions and squeeze firmly to get out any remaining oil - you'll be surprised how much extra you get!

• Pour the oil into a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until warm

• Toss in 1-2 ounces of beeswax per cup of oil and stir occasionally until beeswax is totally melted

• Quickly pour salve into prepared containers (it will start to set very soon after being removed from the heat) 

I used a variety of containers to hold the finished salve:-repurposed Burt's Bee lip balm tins
-a purchased stainless steel tin from Mountain Rose Herbs (largest tin pictured - that's an affiliate link!)
-another repurposed stainless steel tin from previously purchased salve (medium tin pictured)
-a couple of 125 mL Mason jars

Reusing tins is, of course, very frugal and environmentally friendly; however I will be the first to admit that cleaning them up is a big pain in the rear end! If your tins have previously held lip balm or salve, it can be a sticky gooey mess of epic proportions (especially if you have an old tin of salve that got pushed to the back of the cupboard for the better part of a decade to fester - not that I'd know anything about that ::grin::)

To clean up my tins:

• I use a spoon to scoop out any old contents that are no longer useable (i.e. festering salve noted above). I then take a small piece of paper towel and rub out as much remaining salve or balm as possible. 

• At this point I dump all the tins into a boiling pot of water for about 5 minutes, then pour out the water (which will have some oily stuff floating around in it that came off the tins).  

• I refill the pan with hot soapy water and scrub off any remaining sticky stuff, then rinse well and reboil again for another 5 minutes. After the second boil I drain the tins then dry them thoroughly with a paper towel (there will usually be a little bit more salve/balm residue that comes off). 

It is a bit of a production and the cleaning usually takes longer than the actual salve making, but I have a bunch of nice clean tins to reuse in the end!

I now have a whole lot of dandelion salve as you can see from the photo above! The smaller tins will all be gifts and the large tin and two Mason jars will be our household supply. I am pretty sure we will not run out before the dandelions reappear next spring :)

This salve is supposed to be excellent as a gardener's balm and on any really dry chapped skin in general. It is also said to be effective as a sore muscle rub and for arthritic joints although I can't personally attest to its effectiveness for those uses. I've been rubbing it into my hands and cuticles every night before bed and it's defnitely helping my "gardener's hands"!

Anyone else out there making salves? Do you have a favourite combination of flowers or herbs to infuse in them? 

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An Effective, Cheap and Natural Way to Treat Seasonal Allergies

There are so many things to love about spring - the warm sunny days, the return of garage sales, watching the garden burst into life again. One thing that tends to put a damper on all this goodness is the sniffles and sneezes of spring allergies. Three out of the four members of my family deal with this issue (my younger son is the lucky one who's been spared). For years I have been looking for a natural treatment that was both affordable *and* effective. This year I think I've finally found it. A friend of mine had been urging me to try nettles for at least a couple of years now, and while I was a little slow to follow her advice, this year I made a point of brewing up some nettle tincture before the allergy season started. I wanted to use the tincture for a while to see how well it worked before sharing it here. It has been very effective for all three members of my family that use it, so now that I've gotten good results I feel compelled to pass along our experience. While it does take some time to brew up a tincture, you can have some ready to deal with those later-in-the-season allergies!

Nettles grow wild across North America and most of the rest of the world, too, so if you know how to identify them, you can gather them for free (always be sensible when foraging and never ingest anything unless you're certain you know what it is!) They are also available for purchase at many health food stores and online at Mountain Rose Herbs (yes, that is an affiliate link). Mountain Rose sells 4 ounces of organic nettle leaf (enough to roughly fill a quart Mason jar) for just $3.00.

Nettles are a plant that herbalists believe to have extensive health benefits; if you want to learn about their many other uses there is a good summary here. And remember that, even though they are a natural substance, nettles do have the potential to produce side effects and interact with other drugs and natural treatments, so always consult your healthcare practitioner before using them.

While you can make nettle leaf tea, it's far too "green" tasting for me! I decided to make a tincture instead, which is very simple to do. A tincture is defined as "a medicine made by dissolving a drug in alcohol". In this case, our "drug" is stinging nettle. When making an herbal tincture, you can use precise measurements, or use the "wing it" approach (I chose the latter). This is so simple to do it will only take you about 2 minutes - I got mine brewing while I was talking to my herb-loving friend on the phone!

The simplest way to make a nettle tincture:

•  Fill a clean quart Mason jar half to 2/3 full of nettle leaves (I used about half of my 4 oz bag) 

• Pour vodka over top until it just covers the nettles (make sure all the nettles are under the vodka)    

• Cover and place in a dark, cool cupboard. Check it after a couple of days to make sure all the nettles are still below the vodka, and add a bit more vodka if needed.   

• Let the mixture "brew" for about 4 weeks.  

• Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth and pour the mixture through the strainer into a clean glass measuring cup. Once all the liquid has been poured out, gather the cheesecloth around the nettles and squeeze to get out any remaining liquid.

If you have a glass dropper bottle (like the one pictured above that I got from Mountain Rose), this is the best thing to keep tinctures in for dosing them. The remaining tincture can be stored in a clean Mason jar placed back in that dark, cool cupboard.

The total cost for a batch of nettle tincture is roughly $15-20 dollars depending on what brand of vodka you're using (no need to get a pricey one for this purpose!) It will last for quite a while as you take it in small doses. I'm guessing this amount would probably get one person through most of allergy season (4-5 months or so). Compare that to the cost of over-the-counter or prescription medications (or even standard homeopathics or other natural alternatives). It's quite a bargain :)

I have been taking one dropperful of tincture 3 times a day diluted in a small glass of water, which seems to alleviate my allergy symptoms quite well (the effect seems to wear off after about 6 hours, which is what usually prompts me to take another dose!!)

Anyone else out there have experience using nettles to treat allergies? Or have you gotten any other health benefits from using them?

Two Easy Things to Do with Fresh Herbs (Before the Frost Sets In)

Aside from a few straggling tomatoes that I'll leave on the vine until we officially get a chance of frost in the forecast, I've harvested just about everything from the garden that I'm going to this year. One exception to that is my herbs, most of which are still growing enthusiastically.

Knowing that I don't have much of a window left before the frost hits, I got myself outside to pick a pile of assorted herbs. Aren't they pretty?

I promptly did two things with them:

1. Packed a couple of clean quart jars with a mix of garlic chives, purple and green basil and oregano. I then poured white vinegar over them and will let them sit for several weeks.

2. Packed a smaller glass jar about half full of lemon thyme to make a honey infusion. I added honey (local, unpasteurized stuff from Dutchman's Gold) to cover the herbs completely, stirring it around a bit to mix. It's now sitting on my kitchen windowsill, where I'll let it brew for a couple of weeks before straining out the herbs. This infused honey will be saved for use as a cough syrup this winter (both honey and thyme are know to help calm a cough).

 

With only a few minutes of effort on my part, in a few weeks I'll have a Christmas gift (herbal vinegar) and a natural cough remedy all ready to go!

What are your favourite end-of-season uses for fresh herbs?

Local readers: If you're reading this in your email or feed reader, I'd like to make sure that you know about my next upcoming "Cheap Appétit" presentation. OPIRG McMaster has kindly sponsored me to speak on the university campus on Wednesday October 10th from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in MUSC 230. Once again I'll have books for sale for $15 each. Please join me if you can!

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My Garden is Springing to Life!

Yesterday was an unseasonably warm and sunny day here in Southern Ontario and I sized the opportunity to soak up some warm sunshine and do some spring garden cleanup. We had such a mild winter this year that the plants are all growing well ahead of their usual schedule. I was treated to quite a few signs of life as I removed leaf mulch from my garden beds:

My parsley overwintered! This is the first time I can *ever* remember that happening in all my years of gardening.

Not to be outdone, several other herbs are poking their way out, too:

 Chives

(blurry) Oregano

And the Freecycled lemon balm I planted last year is really going to town already!

The strawberries are raring to go, too. If this mild weather keeps up, we may have one of the earliest strawberry seasons in my lifetime this year! I think we'll need to be jamming well before our traditional Canada Day session.
 

The rhubarb is starting to make an appearance, too. Aren't those itty-bitty rhubarb leaves adorable?

I guess I better finish planning this year's veggie garden pretty soon - at this rate I'll be able to start planting some spring greens in the very near future.

How is your garden growing this spring? Are you going to be planting something new this year, or going with the tried-and-true?

Six Natural & Cheap Ways to Freshen Up Your Home

Photo by Suat Eman/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Since it's officially "spring cleaning season", my local store flyers have been filled with ads for all manner of home freshening products for the last several weeks. Not only are these products expensive, they're filled with some pretty nasty chemicals that I have no interest in bringing into my home. Plus, I'm really sensitive to artificial scents - even some "green" cleaning products have given me severe headaches! So, I much prefer homemade, inexpensive and natural options when it comes to keeping my home smelling fresh. Here are my favourites:

1. Break out the baking soda: What would I do without baking soda? I use it nearly every day for some household application or another. Obviously, it's great for reducing odors in the fridge, but you can use it in other areas of your home, too. Sprinkle a bit in the bottom of garbage cans to keep them from getting stinky. To freshen up carpets, sprinkle them with baking soda mixed with a few drops of essential oil (lemon is particularly nice for a fresh scent, lavender is soothing in bedrooms). Leave on for 10-15 minutes, then vacuum it up.

2. Make an essential oil spray: Mix water in a spray bottle with 20-30 drops of essential oil and lightly mist the area that needs freshening (don't go so heavy that you're starting to soak curtains, bedding, etc!)

3. Create a concentrated deodorizer by putting several drops of essential oil on a cotton swab. Place this in a musty smelling closet or cupboard, and it will work wonders at freshening it up.

4. Simmer citrus peels on your stove: Cut up lemon, orange or lime peels and simmer then gently on the stove (make sure not to let it boil dry!)

5. Make lemon & rock salt deodorizers: I learned this trick from Crunchy Betty. Cut a lemon in half, then scoop out the flesh (I usually wait til I'm going to juice one anyway, so I don't waste the flesh). Fill the empty lemon "shell" with rock salt, and place in an area that needs freshening (behind the toilet or beside the cat's litter box, for example). These deodorizers will remain effective for about two months or so before you need to make new ones.

6.. Bring in the mint: As I mentioned last summer in my post about the many uses for fresh mint, it makes a wonderful air freshener! Fill mason jars or vases with a bunch of mint sprigs, add a bit of water in the bottom, and place in strategic areas around your home. I have one on the back of my toilet tank, and it does a great job of keeping my bathroom smelling fresh (I need to replace the mint about once a week or so).

What about you? Do you have any tried-and-true natural ways of keeping your home smelling fresh that I haven't mentioned? If so, I'd love for you to leave a comment and share them with us!

A Quick Gift from the Garden (that will keep until Christmas)

Over the last few days I've taken some time to cut herbs from my garden to dry or freeze for the winter (I dry basil, parsley, and mint and freeze snipped chives in ice cube trays). I also made up a couple of jars of herb vinegar for Christmas giving. This is a simple and inexpensive gift that only takes a few minutes to do.

All you need is:
-assorted fresh herbs from the garden
-white vinegar
-quart size Mason jars with lids (you can reuse old lids for this project as they don't need to vacuum seal)

Simply fill the Mason jars with a few sprigs of herbs and top with about 3 cups of white vinegar. Put the lids on and let stand for about 4 weeks or so (you can test the flavour at this point and let them brew a little longer if you want it a bit stronger). Strain the finished vinegar into decorative glass bottles for gift giving.

You can do an endless number of variations on this basic recipe. You can do single-herb vinegars (basil vinegar, oregano vinegar, etc) or come up with different herb blends. You can also add garlic cloves, mustard seeds, or peppercorns to the vinegar mixture to jazz it up a bit more. Get as creative as you want!

My recipe books say that these herb vinegars will keep for at least a year, so you can easily make them now and tuck them away for Christmas gifting.

Do you have a creative way to use the last of your garden herbs? I'd love to hear about it, so please share in the comments.

Making the Most of...MINT

This is the first article in a new series I plan to add to once a month or so. I'm always looking for new uses for foods and household items and finding ways I can do more with what I already have. I've grown mint in my garden for years, and I know I'm not "making the most of" it right now. If you have mint, you have a lot of it, so I'm going to kick off the series exploring the many uses for this very prolific herb!

1. Male fresh mint tea. This is my favourite use for fresh mint. We drink this almost daily in the summer months. Place several good sized sprigs of mint in your teapot and add boiling water to fill it. Let steep about 10 minutes before pouring. You can refrigerate any leftovers and serve over ice (garnished with additional fresh mint, if desired).

2. Boost the flavour of chilled drinks: Add fresh mint leaves to lemonade or other fruity cold drinks. If you want to get fancy, you can make minty ice cubes by placing a mint leave in each compartment of the ice cube tray then filling with water and freezing.

3. Enhance your summer salads: add chopped mint leaves to cucumber or fruit salads.

4. Make a refreshing dessert like mint ice cream or sorbet.

5. Preserve it: making mint jelly or peppermint marmalade is a great way to use a lot of mint, and will make a lovely hostess gift!

6. Take a refreshing soak: tie a few sprigs of mint together and add to your bath.

7. Soothe an itchy scalp by making a mint hair rinse.

8. Use as an air freshener: make bouquets of mint in vases or mason jars and place throughout the house.

9. Keep bugs away: mint is said to repel ants, flies and mosquitoes. You can even make your own natural insect repellent spray using mint!

10. Soothe stomach aches and headaches: try chewing on a fresh mint leaf or sipping some mint tea to get relief.

Do you have a use for fresh mint that I haven't mentioned? Please share in the comments!