Stocking Up ~ Freezing and Dehydrating ~ Herbs ~ Bag Holding Hack (if you have a jar lifter for canning)

 

Our last 87°F day was yesterday.  Woke up to find one of my older hens has passed away.   We are on the downward slide to cooler weather, with a pretty chilly weekend coming up.

Feeling a bit better, I took advantage of the heat, and washed bed covers, bedding and other laundry.  I mostly washed the large bed covers, so they could dry outside.  The bedding smelled so good too!  

Someone else wanted to enjoy the sunshine.

I even unpacked (and washed) our holiday bedding, which I forgot about, and had not used for 2-3 years or so.  I mentioned it to my husband, and he was all for using them the next few months.

Okay, now on to other happenings here. . .

I don't see the price of any culinary herbs and spices going down any time soon.  I am busy putting my herbs into storage for winter/spring.

Bag Holding Hack:  Use a jar lifter to hold your freezer bag in place while you snip away or fill your bag.  I used a quart freezer bag in this photo.  Worked great!  I haven't tried this with heavier fillings, but if I do, I will update.

I dice and freeze my green onion and chives.  These two do not dehydrate well.  They just blow all over inside your dehydrator.  Trust  me on this, as I have tried it.  I am freezing these two in freezer bags this year, due to freezer space.  Otherwise, in the past I have used freezer containers.

I am dehydrating sage, yarrow, spearmint, peppermint, and more oregano, and thyme.  The peppermint this year is limited, as the plant is not that big.  I have my mints in pots this year.  I have yet to convince my husband for a medicinal/wild growing weed garden somewhere around this homestead.

My cilantro has gone to seed, so I am saving the seed.  My outdoor basil is still going strong, so I have taken a cutting for propagation, and the same with parsley.  My dill has also gone to seed, so I am saving dill seed as well.  Not one store in our area sold dill seed (for culinary uses).  We had to travel 3 hours to the Amish area stores to find any.  I will be sure to dry as much of our own as I can.

Mullein that grew up in a flower bed, but has not gone to seed/flower yet.  I will harvest it before our fall frost arrives.

I have been making notes in our garden journal, on new herbs to grow next year.   A few that I used to grow and for some reason just didn't get them planted, like Tarragon and Marjoram.

Freezing Apples ~ Learned Something New ~ Apple Crisp ~ Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

 Something I learned about preserving apples. . .

You can freeze them!  I'm so excited to find this out.  Am I the last to know this method?  If I knew, I have totally forgotten. You can find instructions at Freezing Apples.

I've canned apple pie filling, and canned apple sauce, but never froze any.  I'm keeping these instructions, in case I need to do this.  We do not have a root cellar.  A fridge will keep apples only so long, so I'm sharing this today for those who did not know.

There may not be an apple pie right now, but I managed an apple crisp.  It's smaller, less sugar, and flour carbs for my husband too.  I'm not saying I won't bake a pie, it's just not happening right now.

Honestly, I think these would be a great idea to freeze for those days you just don't have time or don't feel good.   The recipe states you can freeze them up to 2 months.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes (Lemon and Zest recipe online).  It makes 8, and I used 2 small apples from our trees.  It calls for one apple, but I'm dwindling down in supply.

I have found an apple pie (actually several) in one of my pie cookbooks I have.