As usual, both my garden and my garden blog were very neglected by the end of summer. But now that it's fall and I can be outside without thinking my brain is going to evaporate, I'm excited to be doing things with plants again!
First I picked leaves off the volunteer tulsi, then put them in a jar and poured jojoba oil over them. I couldn't find an exact recipe online or in any of my herb books, but I'm trying to make a tulsi oil to possibly be used in soap.
Then I dug up a bunch of dandelion roots. I washed them off and left them to dry overnight on a paper towel.
Then I chopped 'em up ...
... and drowned them in 100 proof vodka. (I'm glad that I remembered to move the burning white sage incense off of the counter where I was working before I started splattering high-octane hooch all over the place or my adventures this morning would've been way more exciting.)
First I picked leaves off the volunteer tulsi, then put them in a jar and poured jojoba oil over them. I couldn't find an exact recipe online or in any of my herb books, but I'm trying to make a tulsi oil to possibly be used in soap.
Then I dug up a bunch of dandelion roots. I washed them off and left them to dry overnight on a paper towel.
Then I chopped 'em up ...
... and drowned them in 100 proof vodka. (I'm glad that I remembered to move the burning white sage incense off of the counter where I was working before I started splattering high-octane hooch all over the place or my adventures this morning would've been way more exciting.)
Here's a close-up of the little drunken dandelions:
After cleaning up the vodka that I inevitably splattered all over the place, I went to pick the peppers.
The jalapenos and the one scrawny bell pepper were stuffed in an empty tequila bottle and covered with organic apple cider vinegar. We hope this will be yummy poured over greens.
I strung the itty-bitty Thai hot peppers on a piece of fishing line. I'm going to try to dry these guys out and then powder them. They look a lot bigger than they really are in this picture - the largest one is only 1/2" long. I left the needle (hanging in front of the peppers) so that I can easily add more to the string if they ripen before the frost kills the plants.
I also picked all of the green tomatoes I could find. I hope I'm not mis-remembering about tomatoes ripening on the window sill. :-/ The bunnies and/or squirrels have been nibbling on all of the tomatoes that ripen on the vine, so I decided to risk ripening them this way. I haven't eaten one of my own full-sized tomatoes all year because of the furry little bandits, and so it's time for drastic measures!
And finally I picked all of the happy basil leaves I could find.
I turned these into a puree according to Maki-san's directions on Just Hungry. If the green tomatoes do ripen in my kitchen, I plan to can them according to her recipe, also. I plopped dollops of the puree into ice cube trays. Once they freeze, I'm gonna pop them out, roll them individually in wax paper to keep them from sticking together, and stash them all in one freezer bag. This pile was enough to almost fill my food processor, but it turned into depressingly few spoonfuls of puree. Bummer.
All of my squash plants are dead, but the zucchini are carrying on. I left several zukes on the vine just to see how big they would get . Some of them are approaching the size of my thigh. o.O I gotta remember to take a picture of them ...
And my Nikko Blue hydrangea is about to bloom again. It must be confused. Very, very confused.
After cleaning up the vodka that I inevitably splattered all over the place, I went to pick the peppers.
The jalapenos and the one scrawny bell pepper were stuffed in an empty tequila bottle and covered with organic apple cider vinegar. We hope this will be yummy poured over greens.
I strung the itty-bitty Thai hot peppers on a piece of fishing line. I'm going to try to dry these guys out and then powder them. They look a lot bigger than they really are in this picture - the largest one is only 1/2" long. I left the needle (hanging in front of the peppers) so that I can easily add more to the string if they ripen before the frost kills the plants.
I also picked all of the green tomatoes I could find. I hope I'm not mis-remembering about tomatoes ripening on the window sill. :-/ The bunnies and/or squirrels have been nibbling on all of the tomatoes that ripen on the vine, so I decided to risk ripening them this way. I haven't eaten one of my own full-sized tomatoes all year because of the furry little bandits, and so it's time for drastic measures!
And finally I picked all of the happy basil leaves I could find.
I turned these into a puree according to Maki-san's directions on Just Hungry. If the green tomatoes do ripen in my kitchen, I plan to can them according to her recipe, also. I plopped dollops of the puree into ice cube trays. Once they freeze, I'm gonna pop them out, roll them individually in wax paper to keep them from sticking together, and stash them all in one freezer bag. This pile was enough to almost fill my food processor, but it turned into depressingly few spoonfuls of puree. Bummer.
All of my squash plants are dead, but the zucchini are carrying on. I left several zukes on the vine just to see how big they would get . Some of them are approaching the size of my thigh. o.O I gotta remember to take a picture of them ...
And my Nikko Blue hydrangea is about to bloom again. It must be confused. Very, very confused.
