It’s been a while since an update and all my little plants have been growing. The weather has continued to not cooperate quite as well as it did last year, rain- and temperature-wise, but still well enough. I just have to remember to go out and water on the many days rain was predicted and but then never turned up, and several plants don’t love the weird cool/cold couple days here and there that keep interrupting the usual summer weather this year.
I lost my dill and one of my three basil plants from cold snaps back in the spring and the other two basil plants and my chamomile are having a hard time recovering. Looks like it’ll be a small and late harvest, but still a chance of one.
The catnip and sweet mint and parsley and rosemary, though, are all thriving. It’s been one of my focuses this week has been starting to pick and preserve some from them before they end up so tall and dense they steal all the sunlight from my recovering stuff. Besides, I notices last year that a lot of leaves died off over the early summer without any benefit to the plant from leaving them and replenished over the autumn when I was regularly collecting small batches of leaves and things to use…so seemed was no reason to wait so long.
I’ve been saving like I did last year with catnip and basil, washing and cutting the leaves and then freezing them in olive oil. Then they’re in perfect portion sizes to thaw and use searing meat or fish or veggies or adding to noodles or sauces or whatever. And they keep nearly the whole year that way.
This week’s batch was some catnip, sweet mint, lemon balm, flat parsley, and rosemary. I think I’m most excited about the last two, since I cook with them so much but have never tried them in this method before. Yay! 🪴
Spiraling Labyrinth: Adventures of an Otherworlds Expatriate 