simple fare – preserving the herbal harvest

As the days grow shorter with the approach of Fall, prolong the tastes of fresh herbs from your garden into tasty treats that can be kept on the pantry shelf. Herbs are a wonderful boost to low-salt diets and are packed with minerals and vitamins.

It’s difficult to keep the goats out of the parsley…it’s packed with Vitamin C!

Unlike our grandmothers’, who pickled and preserved out of necessity, prepare a few tasty bottles of herb vinegar and oils to add zest to salads, sauces, marinades and even desserts! Remember, herbal vinegar and oil are also a wonderful hand-made gift!

HERB VINEGAR

Flavored vinegars are a simple way to add zest to salads, sauces, desserts or whatever you’re cooking without added fat, sugar or salt! Generally, a ratio of 1 cup fresh herbs to 1 quart of vinegar works well. The vinegar should be the best cider or wine variety available. Use only perfect, clean & DRY leaves and/or flowers. WATER WILL CLOUD THE VINEGAR.

Place herbs in a clean sterile glass bottle with plastic/cork lid. (HINT: Over time, metal caps will corrode from the acidity of the vinegar!) Pour the vinegar over the herbs & close tightly. Set the bottle in a sunny window for two weeks, turning frequently. Strain through a paper coffee filter & re-bottle the vinegar after steeping. You may add a fresh herb sprig to the bottle for decoration. Don’t forget to add a pretty label or tag!

Recycle/reuse vintage bottles! Basil makes an awesome vinegar…red basil adds a beautiful natural red color to the vinegar.  And don’t forget French tarragon!

HERB BUTTER

Add a little WOW to your butter! Herb butters can be kept frozen and ready to be sliced on grilled meat, pasta, steamed vegetables or fresh bread. All fresh herbs can be used, whatever is in season. Parsley, chives, sage, dill, basil and mint, to name a few, make delicious herb butters. (HINT: Perfect for Thanksgiving!) Try dill butter with grilled salmon or mint with lamb. The amount to use depends upon the herb, but a rough guide is 4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herb to ½ pound (2 sticks) of unsalted butter. Chop the herbs very fine and add to softened butter. Shape as desired. Add old-world charm with a butter stamp once the butter is hardened a bit. (HINT: Roll the butter in a ‘log’ with wax paper…it’s easy to slice a slab or two as needed.) Freeze up to 6-months. You’ll be back in the garden with fresh herbs by then!

HINT: Make plenty of lavender butter now, for baking sweet treats mid-winter.

HERBED OIL

Since oils tend to become rancid once opened, they can not be stored indefinitely as vinegars.

Choose one or two flavors to reflect the foods/tastes you prefer and make a small bottle or two. Use only perfect, clean & dry herbs and olive oil, peanut or vegetable oil. Place herbs in a sterile glass bottle (approx. ½ cup herbs for each pint oil). If you use garlic, remove it after two weeks or it will overpower other flavors. Cover all ingredients with the oil or mold will develop and let “steep” for 2 weeks. To avoid problems, strain herbs after they’ve flavored the oil. Don’t forget to add a pretty tag or label! Use immediately. They’re great for dipping fresh artisan bread ~ YUM!

NOTE: As an alternative to fresh-picked herbs, you may also use dried herbs & spices.

So, get outdoors and savor those herbs!!! Better hurry before the goats eat them all cuz they know what’s good for ‘em!

What’s for supper?

This evening is Spinning Guild. I often find myself preparing supper earlier in the day…due to an all-too-often hectic schedule! So, as we speak, boneless chicken breasts ‘seasoned’ with just picked fresh garden herbs (lemon thyme and dill), a clove of garlic and olive oil are roasting away on the stove top. Hubby brought home fresh croissants the other day, so I thought a chicken salad might be nice ~ and quick!

I’ll add some chopped onion, celery and perhaps diced apple, grapes or…mandarine oranges and a bit of Mayo served on a bed of fresh mixed salad greens? Yum!

The goat kids and lambs are all doing well. The youngest lambs (Snowy’s 6-day old twins) are already enjoying the warm days with older lambies in the field. We’ve completed the alley connecting the lambs pen and back pasture…so they have plenty of room to roam! Come evening, they ZOOM back and forth between pastures…giving poor mommy a real workout trying to keep up with naughty lambs! Such happy sheepies!

My kid doeling bottle babies, Cassiopeia and Orion, are 3-weeks old and weigh in at 16 pounds. They’re up to four 12-ounce bottles per day. They’re quite the little gardeners ~~~ ahem, I mean grazers, already! They’re constantly by my side. No wonder I can’t get anything done!!?? They have great fun running up and down the steps leading to the hay loft in the barn while I’m cleaning stalls - I fear they may fall! I’m such a nervous wreck!

I’ve been milking my does and making cheese with ‘extra’ milk. I sure could use another refrigerator…just for my goaties! 

Happy Day!

       

Simple Hand-Made Herbal Gifts

As the days shorten and the chill in the air turns our thoughts to home and hearth, take joy as winter approaches. It is indeed a more ‘peaceful’ time on the farm…gardening chores are mostly done, animals are ‘bedded’ down for the winter, winter woolies are taken out of storage…  It is a well-deserved quiet season to reflect on friends and family.

As Christmas-tyme draws nearer, simplify your gift-giving with heartfelt hand-made gifts. If you favor ‘collectables’ as I do, such as crockery, wooden bowls & trugs, baskets, linens, anything made from tin – you get the idea - fill them with something that you’ve hand-stitched, knitted, ‘put up’ from the garden, jams and jellies, herb vinegar & oils with herbs from the garden…or whatever your particular talent or speciality! 

Here’s a few ideas to use as a springboard to get your creative juices flowing:

For that special cook, a mason jar filled with your very own herbal ‘bouquet garnis’ for flavoring soup and stews. Prepare a blend of your fav dried herbs. Place 1 tablespoon of the mix in the center of a square of cheesecloth, tie with kitchen string and attach a tag describing the contents and a recipe or two?

A vintage canister filled with a special tea blend – add some of your own dried herbs, naturally!

Herbal bath salts presented in a pretty recycled cut glass jar.  Use 1 cup sea salt, 1 cup Epsom salt, 1 Tablespoon baking soda, and dried lavender buds (a few drops essential oil optional) makes a relaxing bath. Or, add mint for a ‘re-energizing’ bath soak.

A fragrant potpourri in a bowl: 1 cup dried lemon verbena or lemon balm, 15 bay leaves, 1 crushed cinnamon stick, whole cloves, allspice and dried rind of lemons or oranges. Add a few sprigs of pine or cedar ‘greens’, pinecones, and such from the yard! Hint: Make sure they’re de-bugged – place in a zip-lock and freezer overnight!

An old stoneware bowl filled with new potatoes and your fav recipe for potato soup, potato salad, scalloped potatoes, etc.

Fill a bowl with spicy pomanders. To pomander fruit, select firm oranges, lemons, limes, apples, etc. Draw (or freestyle) a simple geometric design onto the fruit with a water-soluble pen. Use a wooden skewer if necessary to lightly pierce your design on the fruit, wash off the ink, and insert whole cloves. Add row after row of cloves until your design is complete. Makes a wonderful fragrant centerpiece or for wreath embellishments and lasts for weeks.

A bar of your home-made soap and a hand-knitted wash cloth, with or without a vintage ironstone soap dish, tied with ribbon or raffia makes a lovely gift! Who doesn’t use soap????

An old fluted tin lined with a pretty towel and parchment paper, filled with fresh-baked cookies! Don’t forget to add a tag with the recipe!

Pinecones dipped in bees-wax, add a cotton wick and arrange in an old wicker basket as fire-starters for the hearth.

No matter, it’s the heartfelt thought and warm sentiments in gift-giving…leave a comment if you have a special hand-made ‘gift’ idea or two to pass along!  

Bountiful blessings!

A Recipe for Parsley…

Do you recall all the parsley in my garden in a previous post (it’s actually about half of the parsley in my garden)? Well, if you have lots of fresh parsley, here’s a recipe that perhaps you’d like to try… TABOULI. First, a few facts about parsley. Parsley is a biennial – that means it comes back the second year and produces seed. But, I generally treat parsley as an annual and plant it every year. It’s not as prolific the second year because most if its energy is spent on producing seeds, not the leafy greens we’re after. If you’re a seed-saver, plant a fresh batch and save the seeds from the second year.

Now, I prefer Italian plain leaf parsley versus French or curly leaf parsley and most cooks will tell you the flat leaf variety has more flavor. While most folks consider it a garnish, it’s actually very nutritious, a rich source of iron and vitamins A and C. It’s also a natural breath sweetener! The goats, bunnies and chickens love any harvest surplus!!

Tabouli is a healthful Mediterranean dish traditionally prepared with cracked wheat (bulghur), parsley, mint, garlic, tomatoes, green onions, olive oil and lemon. I’ve substituted lentils for the bulghur and added a chopped cucumber. It’s great chilled or served at room temp, by itself or in a pita!

Prepare 16 oz lentils (or 2 cups bulghur) according to package. Drain any extra water and set aside. Chop 1 cucumber, 2 small tomatoes, 1 bunch green onions, 1/2 cup fresh chopped mint, 2 cups fresh chopped parsley and 1 – 2 cloves minced garlic (to taste).  Make the dressing: 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, 3/4 cup olive oil, salt to taste, 1 tablespoon pepper. Mix all ingredients. Makes about 8 cups.

For dessert, how about GOAT CHEESE TRUFFLES?

Ingredients: 8 ounces high quality Chevre goat cheese (preferably your own), 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, 2 teaspoons vanilla, cocoa powder. Method: Melt the chocolate chips and cool slightly. Cream the goat cheese and vanilla; add the cooled chocolate and continue to cream. When well creamed, use a melon ball to measure out the truffles. Place on a wax papered cookie sheet and place in refrigerator. When firm enough to handle, roll into balls and roll in cocoa powder. Refrigerate. Your friends won’t believe it’s goat cheese. HINT: The truffles freeze well – perfect for midnight snacking…straight from the freezer!  Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy Goat Lady Dairy