Tag: Garden

Preserving Chamomile For Tea
DIY · Gardening · Herbalism · Urban Homesteading · Wildcrafting

Preserving Chamomile For Tea

Sarah

Last week, I popped into the food co-op closest to us and browsed the bulk-dried herbs and spices. As I walked by, I saw a jar of Chamomile and gasped—$29.99 a pound!

The bulk bins are often sourced from Frontier Co-op, a very ethical and real cooperative. For example, you can buy their products in large bags directly from them or even on Amazon. On Amazon, a 1-pound mylar bag of Chamomile sells for $1592 currently (its retail price is $44.50, but sells for less). While far more affordable (and the same product, with both being organic), it’s not exactly affordable, even at $16 a pound. And neither does one know how “fresh” it is. That bulk bin could have been filled the day before…or 6 months before. The co-op has windows that let in the sun, further degrading the color and aroma of their bulk herbs. That is something that frustrates me at that particular store, and nearly all stores selling bulk herbs and spices have them in direct light, be it LED or whatever they use.

Now, I understand that the cost also reflects picking of the flowers, but I have to think it’s been mechanized, long ago, to make it quick and simple.

While I often preach the beauty of bulk bins, they have issues. The biggest is turnover. The second is quality, which is part of the first problem. If a store doesn’t have a great turnover, you face buying stale products. Stale herbs make people think the herb doesn’t taste good when it is so old that the flavor has long departed the mortal coil. The lesser third problem is that as the stock dwindles down, you get smaller pieces. No full flowers, but rather sprinkles of dry material. That is an issue, of course, with tea bags, which are often nothing but powder.

Many herbs are easy to preserve. Chamomile is one of the easiest. In the early morning, walk along it and pluck the flowers between your first and second fingers. The flower head usually pops right off. I pick into a new brown paper lunch sack till I am tired of stooping over or I run out of blooms. Chamomile rewards you often with a ton of new blossoms within days after each harvest.

Chamomile is a “plant once, harvest forever” kind of plant. It self-seeds easily and grows with zero input from us, the gardener. You don’t need to water it; it’ll still grow nearly always. It enjoys disturbed soil and happily crowds out the actual weeds. I only plant chamomile seeds if it is a new area, or I had to fully retill and reshape a growing area every 5 or so years. Even then, I often find it growing feral in our fields. It blows on the wind; chickens scratch the soil, and such.

Pick them at their height when the blooms are full and smell incredible. And let them air dry in the brown paper lunch sacks you pick in. Protected from light, they dry quickly, preserving their color and aroma.I leave the bag(s) on the counter, turning gently every day or so, as I remember. Once dry I transfer gently into a mason jar and tuck away.

Do not use a dehydrator for herbs! The heat will destroy the delicate essential oils in the leaves and plant material.

Freshly preserved and ready to be tucked away, the flowers will lose their vibrancy of color as time passes, but that is OK. Just store them in glass mason jars, as I mentioned above, tucked into a cool, dry, and dark area.

Then, enjoy the tea you can make in fall and winter by infusing the dried flowers in a tea basket with hot water. Boil the water and let it sit for a minute or two before pouring it over the tea.

For me, it needs nothing, but a drizzle of raw honey also gives a delicious boost.

~Sarah

How To Grow And Make Paprika
Gardening · Herbalism · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

How To Grow And Make Paprika

Sarah

Paprika is a spice that isn’t used enough these days. In the mid-century decades, it was the go-to garnishment for your meals. Deviled Eggs without a sprinkle of the orange-red delight? What kind of heathen are you? Of course, back in the 1930s to 70s, it was cutting edge to use paprika. Food wasn’t quite as exciting as it is now. But it was a start.

But I digress; there is a complicated history behind how paprika became a staple of Eastern Europe.

The Hungarian Pepper (capsicum annuum) came out of the Americas after it was “discovered” by the Spanish, while they were destroying central Mexico, and Christopher Columbus himself brought back a ship laden with spices, and the peppers made it on that sailing.

The peppers are in the nightshade family, so like tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants they all were brought to Europe, and then wound their way back the Americas, showing up in North America for the first time.

It eventually came to Hungary due to the Turks, in the 1500’s. It only came to the United States via Europe in the 1930s (though you have to know it was here long before, tucked into immigrant’s things. Seeds always came with them, so they could grow the food they loved.)

But there is an odd side note in it all. Hungary loved peppers. They didn’t have the best land for farming mono-crops, but they could grow peppers well. They mostly raised livestock and used paprika to flavor their meat stews (goulash).

Under the Soviet Union’s rule, every state and satellite state (Hungary was a satellite state) had to grow something, so they became excellent farmers.

If left to grow in a nice warm environment, they are yellow at first, then turn orange, and finally a deep red.

I grew ours in buckets in the greenhouse. In early summer, I had them outside with the tomatoes and brought them inside in August. I noted they were not doing well this year. This summer, it was below 60* every night. There were no warm summer evenings this year.

Once in the greenhouse, they started producing in large quantities. Peppers are still growing on the plants, even midway through October.

There are many paprikas one can purchase. The most common is sweet or mild paprika, made with peppers that have no heat.

There is smoked paprika, where the peppers are smoked before dehydrating, over wood smoke.

Then there are the spicier paprikas. These are often labeled “Hungarian Paprika. ” They can be mild to quite spicy. You can be as hot as a Jalapeno using a Hungarian Wax Pepper! There are so many choices.

Once the peppers were fully ripe, I picked them and let them air dry in a wire basket in our kitchen.

You can also split the peppers, remove the seeds, cut them into strips, and dehydrate them.

Once dehydrated, process in a coffee grinder or small mill, or, for authenticity, use a tiny mortar and pestle. Dried peppers are best kept whole and processed to powder as needed. They will be that much fresher and more vibrant in aroma and flavor.And enjoy adding it to your dishes, especially a good beef stroganoff.

Commercially processed paprika quickly loses its potency in aroma, taste, and even color. Within a month of opening, the color often fades into a light brick red.

So next year, consider growing some, either from the start (they do exist if one searches the fun growers) or one of the many varieties online in seed form—a nice spicy/hot one or this one, a sweet paprika.

~Sarah

Developing A Kitchen Garden
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Developing A Kitchen Garden

Sarah

This summer, as I worked on the patios around our house, I decided I wanted a kitchen garden—one close to the house, where I’d be more likely to come out and enjoy it and grab produce for dinner.

When we moved here in 2018, I had a small kitchen garden, all in large pots, on the lower patio that first year.

After I developed the lower gardens, which are 2 acres below the house, I quit growing food by the house because I had large in-ground beds to grow in.

My arm injury taught me a lesson. Even if the distance doesn’t seem long, you won’t go down there enough, especially if you need a lot of help.

While the gardens did grow this year, I couldn’t water or weed enough. The central bed I had the tomatoes in was overrun by Voles, which destroyed ¾ of the crop by chewing the plants at the base. It stayed alive for the first ten weeks, only for the kids to water it here and there for me. Even now, as I clean up for winter, I can only do so much by myself. There are only so many hours I have help from them, with school going on.

But up by the house, that I can work on. By myself. Thoough help is appreciated of course.

Off of the lower patio, there is “grass,” which is flat and then goes downhill. There is a major retaining wall, and I don’t want to use that part. I will put in a low fence to keep the deer away from wandering in. I see them once a week, on average, on the cameras, but all they do is eat grass. They leave the bed and greenhouse alone, though they are nearby on the grassy area.

But I want to lock off their access to the lower patio area (they use the steps near the red building to get up to the grass). Putting in a fence with 3-foot-high metal fencing and lightweight U posts will be quick and easy.

The pop-up greenhouse sits on the patio. It will stay. With two carts getting full of soil, I am going to reuse as much of it as I can and finish breaking down the bed. Waste not, want not.

I think I am going to lay down farm fabric across the flat areas to smother the weeds and “grass.” I picked up six small 4-foot raised beds and am considering putting them with a couple more beds made of the stones I am pulling apart.

With walking paths between the beds and wood chips put down. I need to of course measure it all, and plot it out on paper, before I start building beds.

I can fit two beds along the house, with a strip behind, for access on all four sides. It is an area we have never used, in nearly seven years here.

The biggest issue was waiting for the growing season to wind down, so I could start tearing down this 8-foot raised bed, The boys stacked many of the paver bricks, to the side, and started digging out the soil.

My first goal will be to get the first fabric down, build the beds, and fill them under the window along the house. Then, I will finish breaking down this bed. Any leftover soil will be spread out onto the land to even it out a bit more. Then, I will cover it with fabric and make new beds over it.

I aim to have ten raised beds, each one for a different vegetable. Depending on placement, I might be able to have more. We shall see!

Today, the rain returns for the next week, but I hope to get outside between storms (and windy days often blow the rain away, and I have time to work) and start building the new beds this week.

I will update once it is all built. But for now? I feel like I can see it, and I will soon have it done.

~Sarah

As Summer Slips Into Fall
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

As Summer Slips Into Fall

Sarah

Most years, I feel sad as we slip into September and see the harvest nearing its end. But this year, I am OK with it. I am 12 weeks post-injury on my arm and feeling glad I don’t have to water anymore for the season. With school back in, my helpers haven’t been helping the past two weeks. Normally, I wouldn’t miss them that much during the school season, but finishing work has been challenging without them there to assist me.

So I bought myself a new sweater for the cooler temperatures. That made me happy.

I wandered through the orchard this past week, when the sun came back out.

The Honeycrisp Apple Tree has grown a lot in the past 2 years, and this year put its first apples on. They are hand-sized.

This year, while sucky for some items, our orchard is growing apples well in general. The figs did well also, but the early rain wrecked them. The chickens happily ate them, so in the end, they were not wasted.

The native Evergreen Huckleberries are in season. The crop on our land is huge this year. The wild animals are eating well.

This one was very frustrating for me. I had bought this grape on a whim and planted it in the ground, in the orchard area. We have many grape plants growing in the ground in the berry bed next to it. Yet, in the orchard, I had a rabbit that kept squeezing in (when it was young) that nearly destroyed the plant. I dug it up and planted it in a medium pot with nothing but a prayer and hopes. It returned with a few leaves in the past month or so. I will need to baby it till next year, but I feel it survived, and I didn’t lose $13.

I put it in the upper greenhouse by the house today, getting ready for fall.

I saw this sign the other day. Maybe I need it. Hahahaha.

~Sarah

Building My Patio Garden
Gardening · Homesteading

Building My Patio Garden

Sarah

If I could find a positive outcome of my arm injury this summer, it is that I reclaimed the patios around our house. I would look out and sigh at the mess it had all become, but getting started on it never happened until I couldn’t work in the big gardens on the homestead. And suddenly, I had the time to get going on the mess just outside our home.

Seeing this area become liveable has brought me a lot of happiness.

Part 1 is when I found a tool that let me go from “I can’t” to “Wow!”.

In part 2, we did the upper patios and started moving plants up from the lower gardens to around the house.

That is when I noticed something. Nearly every plant I brought up suddenly grew faster and better than the ones down below in the homesteading gardens. This summer has been a struggle; so far, not a single night has been over 59*. In-ground growth is highly affected by that. Up on the patios, the paver stones bake in the sun all afternoon and radiate heat as night settles back into the plants. Our strawberry crop has boomed due to the extra warmth.

I have had one lonely 8-foot raised bed by the lower patio that I often ignored over the years. However, since my injury, I paid attention to it this summer.

It’s been highly productive this year and is still putting on peas, even at the end of August. A huge mess of Swiss Chard and four tomatoes also grow in it; all are doing great in this off-summer.

After the growing season is over, my plan is to tear it down (it is made with excess paver blocks I found in the woods), remove the soil, and store it. Then, I will put 4 to 6 raised beds next to the lower patio in a grassy area next to it. I have decided I need a “kitchen garden” to walk out to and harvest easily from. With moving up all the potted alpine strawberries, I have noticed how everyone is eating them. It’s right outside the house, so whenever people walk by, they get nibbled on. Convenience trumps for sure.

To add to this, I had seen a plant stand on Amazon for under $34. At that price point, I figured I would try it out.

Alistaire opened the compact box and assembled it in 15 minutes or so. It was very easy to put together and seems of decent quality. I found another version without the hanging part that I am considering getting so I can stack the plants up high and have more growing. It’s 5 foot 4 inches in height, and yes, it has occurred to me that it would be great for use in a greenhouse as well.

More dreaming, planning, and getting projects done in the dwindling days of summer as fall approaches.

~Sarah