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| Drying Chamomile for Tea |
In the height of preserving season it's challenging for me to stay in the moment and enjoy each session of canning, freezing, or drying. My mind is often bouncing ahead to the next item in my garden or fridge that requires attention. This week has been especially crazy with preserving and I'm striving to focus on one project at a time. Once again, the kitchen has been used and abused. Ben's comment tonight was "it's pretty intense in here," which was met with the the stink eye from me as I wanted him to just be patient with my temporary mess. Between yesterday and today my freezer, pantry, and fridge are really filling up. Tuesday was one of those days that I just kept moving from one project to the next and kept my food processor particularly busy. Not all of these were preservation projects, but just attempts to get bump up my par stock: carrot and onion purees to portion and freeze (with chopped veggies left over from my knife skills class last week), fava bean hummus (for a quick fruit/veggie dip for me and Vera to nibble on this week), summer squash and zucchini to shred and freeze (from our garden...it's already backing up in my fridge!), homemade mayonnaise (to use the bulk of local eggs currently on hand). Today I canned black currant juice to add to the pints of blueberry juice I processed over the weekend. I love making juices because they are fairly simple to cook and there's no waste because I freeze the "mush" that's left after straining the juice and can use it for baking (think cobblers and crisps) in the winter. Next on my list this week/weekend is dill carrots and pickled beets all from our garden. I can't even begin to think about tomatoes yet, but I know they will be rolling in very soon, especially as this intense heat carries on.
This past week I've also been drying lavender and chamomile on the countertop to stock my tea supply.
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| Drying Lavender from our garden |
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| Drying German Chamomile |
Stay tuned for more recipes this week/weekend.
In the height of preserving season it's challenging for me to stay in the moment and enjoy each session of canning, freezing, or drying. My mind is often bouncing ahead to the next item in my garden or fridge that requires attention. This week has been especially crazy with preserving and I'm striving to focus on one project at a time. Once again, the kitchen has been used and abused. Ben's comment tonight was "it's pretty intense in here," which was met with the the stink eye from me as I wanted him to just be patient with my temporary mess. Between yesterday and today my freezer, pantry, and fridge are really filling up. Tuesday was one of those days that I just kept moving from one project to the next and kept my food processor particularly busy. Not all of these were preservation projects, but just attempts to get bump up my par stock: carrot and onion purees to portion and freeze (with chopped veggies left over from my knife skills class last week), fava bean hummus (for a quick fruit/veggie dip for me and Vera to nibble on this week), summer squash and zucchini to shred and freeze (from our garden...it's already backing up in my fridge!), homemade mayonnaise (to use the bulk of local eggs currently on hand). Today I canned black currant juice to add to the pints of blueberry juice I processed over the weekend. I love making juices because they are fairly simple to cook and there's no waste because I freeze the "mush" that's left after straining the juice and can use it for baking (think cobblers and crisps) in the winter. Next on my list this week/weekend is dill carrots and pickled beets all from our garden. I can't even begin to think about tomatoes yet, but I know they will be rolling in very soon, especially as this intense heat carries on. 
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