Windowsill Herbs for the Winter

A few years ago I tried growing several herbs indoors in my kitchen for the winter. It was kind of messy but I did enjoy having them. I saw these cute pots at Trader Joe's and decided to give it a try again. One has rosemary, thyme and oregano and the other is mint, stevia and I think another thyme, not sure.

I wanted the mint for tea and I've never tried fresh stevia before. I use liquid stevia in my tea and whenever I want to sweeten something. It's very sweet, my dd thought it had a bitter aftertaste, but I didn't notice it.

I'm noticing more and more that the taste of fresh herbs is so much better than the dried. I've gotten to the point that I rarely ever use dried herbs in my cooking. I have a few favorites, but definitely prefer the fresh.

Here's another fun idea, growing microgreens in tea tins. I pinned it yesterday, because I want to try this.

Linda

Winter Herb Garden

I've been cleaning up my back porch and pulling out all the dead plants. I decided I wanted to replant several of the herbs together in a container that I could pull back near the house when the frost comes. Last year I tried herbs indoors but that didn't work so well, so I'm hoping these will do better left outside but somewhat protected.                                                                                                                                                  

                

The signing party was lots of fun, unfortunately I forgot my camera. I made some new friends and we all enjoyed talking about our interests, several were Tasha Tudor lovers and of course they all knew and loved Clarice and her blog. Our dinner at the Tapas place was great. Everyone agreed the dates wrapped in bacon with a balsamic reduction was the best item. The next day were went to a friends for brunch and I continued to get to know some new friends. So it was a full weekend for me.                                                            

I made a great Asparagus soup yesterday I'm going to link it on my food blog here.                                       

I bought an extra comforter to put on the end of my bed so I'll be nice and warn come winter. I've noticed that I really needed a little more warmth on cold nights my red coverlet isn't really that warm and Penny's had them on sale, so I got a pretty robins egg blue one. I've been doing a little more shopping then usual looking for Christmas gifts and looking for bargains. I'm not usually a shopper, but I decided that once a week I'm going to go out and start looking. My dd is a great bargain hunter and I never have been so I think I need to learn, we've talked about that you have to know what's out there and what is a good price and when they have the sales. I knew that I would probably spend a little more just being in the stores so I have to watch myself. I saw this comforter last week and came home and thought about it before I decided to purchase it. 

Have a good weekend. I still have some clean up to do outside if it doesn't rain.                                       

Linda                                                                                                                                                       

                                      

My Back Porch

I've been working on getting my back porch pulled together. I've been planting a lot of herbs and flowers along with a few veggies. I decided this year to mix the plants together in some of the pots. So I have herbs and flowers in the same pots. I usually separate them. We'll see how that works. I use the old step stool as a place for some of my herbs.

I started thinking about how many herbs I had to buy last year for my teas and remedies I wanted to try. I can grow them all, but I'm definitely growing a lot more herbs this year. They don't get that big in pots and with our short summer, so I'm getting more than one of the ones I use a lot of like lemon balm.

I have a few veggies, but not a lot. I've done well with tomatoes and lemon cucumbers in the past so I'm doing those. I'm trying bush bean this year to see how they do in a pot. My garlic hasn't been harvested yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they did. My porch isn't very big as your can see so I can't do things that really spread like squash.

If the garlic does well I would like to try onions next time. So far we are having a cool year, but hopefully we will have enough heat for these plants to thrive.

Linda

More Puttering-Lavender Scented Draw Liners

This is wrapping paper. My gd helped me and we put new paper liner in my dresser drawers. Under the paper you sprinkle baking powder scented with essential oil, I used Lavender, of course. I got this idea from some old print outs from Brancante Home, it's one of her puttering ideas. Now I'm going to do the same thing in my bathroom drawers. I also decluttered and reorganized the drawers while I was at it. I wanted the drawers to not be too full so I could see my beautiful paper, so I put the extras in a storage box in my closet. If I don't end up using those things I will eventually get rid of them.

Linda

Puttering Around the House & Lavender Bouquets

I've been doing a lot of puttering, decluttering, simplifying and organizing. I just cleaned up my garage and reorganized things a bit. I decided to put little lavender bouquets on the nightstands in the master and the guest room, so you get that lovely relaxing lavender smell as you drift off to sleep. I'm enjoying using my lavender spray in the bathrooms. I spray it on after I've cleaned. I think it would be nice to put a little lavender oil on a cotton ball and push it down into the bouquet as this lavender is old. I'll replace it with new lavender when it blooms this year. The lavender scent never seems to go completely away. I had this bunch in a storage box and it smelled lovely when I opened it. Putting your old lavender in drawers would be very nice and everything in that drawer would smell so good. I love lavender. Using the oil in the bath is a great way to relax too.

Linda

Cold and Flu Herbal Remedies

I was watching some old videos I had of Martha Stewarts tv program and she had on an herbalist, Donald Yance. They were making a tea for the flu. It sounded kind of interesting.



These are the herbs they used- elderflower, ginger, peppermint, boneset and yarrow. He said that except for the rosemary they induced sweat. In the cup with the tea they also put in a wedge of lemon that Martha squeezed, some pieces of orange peel and a dropper of echinacea and honey. His recommendation was to take a couple of cups of this and then take a hot bath, then jump into bed and it should help you to sweat which will help you to get over the flu.



I haven't tried this and so I don't know if it works, but just passing the information along in case you want to try it. I noticed in Rosemary Gladstar's book she used some of these thing, but didn't use them all together. So I would think if you don't have everything it might still be helpful. He said the boneset was for that achy feeling and rosemary is good for the brain.



The other one was a steam for head colds. You put chamomile, lavender, mint, rosemary and eucalyptus in a bowl and then boiling water. Be careful that it's not too hot before you lean over and make a tent with a towel over you head and bowl. Then just let the herbal steam hopefully clear your head. He was saying that all these herbs have anti viral, anti bacterial, and anti fungal properties and this is another way of using them instead of a tea, they will help your body fight off sickness and support healing. You can use essential oil also.



Obviously if you're really sick you should see your doctor, but these remedies might make you feel better and help to shorten you illness and also help to ward off an illness.



I just love the smell of herbs and Martha was saying the steam really felt good on her skin. I would proceed cautiously though. I've had some allergic reactions to herbs, so I always start out cautiously and see how I react.



Linda

Herbal Tea Blends

I've been trying some herb tea blends. The Herbal Tea Garden book has a chapter about herb tea blends. She talks about after the Boston Tea Party someone suggested they try some of their native plants and she gives several suggestions for 2 herb blends, then 3 herb blends and multi herb blends. So I'm experimenting.

This book doesn't really talk about medicinal properties so much as just having herb tea to enjoy. I've had a hard time finding herb teas in the grocery store that I like. So the first one I tried was rosemary and lavender. I liked it. I love rosemary. One of our favorite black teas from Eastern Shores Tea has rosemary in it. I wanted to try combining this duo with some other herbs. In Rosemary Gladstar's Family Herbal I found a blend of several herbs to use as a nerve tonic and for depression. So I tried that today it has a lot of chamomile in it and I'm not crazy about chamomile although it's not too bad, but I decided to add the rosemary along with the other herbs in the remedy lemon balm, lavender and roses and it toned down the chamomile flavor.

I want to try sage and lemon balm. A 3 herb blend I want to try is thyme, rosemary and spearmint. Then a multi blend is rosemary, lavender, lemon balm, spearmint and cloves. Most of these recipes are a tablespoon of each herb and a cup of tea is made with a teaspoon of the blend. I steep for 5 mins. It's all according to taste unless you are doing a medicinal mixture. Rosemary has you steep the medicinal blends more like 20 mins. I do look up the medicinal purposes of each herb because I don't want to be drinking something all the time that may cause a problem.

As I said before I don't grow all these herbs, but I've bought dried herbs. I harvest some of my herbs today. I was told in the nursery that they like to be trimmed regularly, it helps them to grow more. So I cleaned up all my plants and pruned them back and I'm drying all the herbs. I'm hanging the bigger ones and just laying out the smaller bunches.

Rosemary was a friend of Tasha's and she says some very nice things about her and says she was a very good herbalist. As I was pampering my plants today and cleaning them and gave them a good soak I thought of Tasha and how she loved her plants and loved to groom them.

Linda

Herbs Pt. 2

As you can see I started an Herb binder to gather information about herbs. I'm enjoying having my herbs inside, I find that I do use them more.

The main thing I've been studying is "The Kids Herb Book" that I mentioned before. It's mostly talking about medicinal uses of herbs. I found that herb tea is the most used preparation, but the book also shows you how to use many others.

I realized that I wasn't going to have enough fresh herb for some of the preparations and don't grow many of the medicinal herbs, but I found a shop where I can buy dried herbs. I can also buy herbal teas, but found that buying the individual herbs is cheaper.

Cinnamon is not what we think of as an herb but has many uses medicinally. The book says a medicinal herb is anything that can be use as a remedy so cinnamon qualifies. It is used for colds and flu, mild fever, coughs, abdominal complaints, so I think it is one I will try. A suggestion that appeals to me is cinnamon milk. Cinnamon is also suppose to be good for diabetic so I'm trying to remember to use it in my tea and coffee. It's good in both as well as things like yogurt.

I've been having a lot of nausea problems and have been using the mint I'm growing. I found that if you bruise it it really brings out the oils. I read a caution in using too much ginger and so I'm using less of that and more mint for nausea.

I'm growing lemon balm. It's still small so I got some dried. It is good for fevers, cold, flu, coughs, wounds and sores. I have problems with congestion and a lemon balm herbal steam is recommended also eucalyptus which would also be good for sinus problem so I want to try this.

Chamomile along with lemon balm and fennel makes a tea for helping you get to sleep. I've used chamomile before as a sleep aid with mixed results, but I want to try adding the lemon balm and the fennel. They also suggest taking a chamomile bath first. I wanted to make the bath bags, but found they take a lot of herb and it could get expensive if you did it regularly. I also want to make a dream pellow, but I don't have a lot of faith in it's actually working, I just think it would be fun to make one. Also would be a fun gift.

The thing I like about this book is because it is written for kids the herbs are all pretty safe and the preparations are simple.

The next thing I want to look into is essential oils. I already have a few I just don't use them and so I want to look into how to use them. I know about putting lavender in the bath to relax you and I've use lemon with baking soda to use as a scrub for the kitchen sink.

So my quest is to do this frugally and to see if these things really work. Tasha was friends with Rosemary Gladstar and my dd has her book, which is suppose to be one of the best herb books, so I'm going to study that too. I found her recipe for the rose cream Tasha uses on line and it would be fun to make that.

Linda

Tasha Tudor Lifestyle Pt 5 Herbs

Tasha had an herb garden and she also grew herbs in her greenhouse for the winter as well as drying them in her attic. Apparently she used herbs a lot for cooking and she made salves and creams. I've been wanting to do more with herbs and I read an article about growing them indoors. They had some suggestions about the easiest ones to grow inside. Yesterday I got garlic chives, regular and Italian parsley and curly mint. I have a rosemary on my porch that winters through. I'm thinking about bringing in my other herbs that are in pots, Greek oregano, sage, pineapple mint. I usually just leave them out and they die back, but come back in the spring. So I'll experiment. I'm leaving them out until frost.

Keeper of the Home is doing a year of herbs and I want to join her in learning more about herbs this year. My best resource for that is I Refuse to Recede. He does wonderful posts about herbs. I will be looking for other resources too, any suggestions? I'm going to start a list on my side bar for easy reference as I find web sites or blogs.

So I plan to try and find out how many ways I can use each herb. I would like to learn to use them in homemade cleaners as well as bath and body products. and medicinal use. I noticed that Tasha uses mixtures of herbs in most things that she cooks and made up her own herb tea blend. Her mixture is chamomile, spearmint, rose petals, rosehips, and blue malva, pretty as well as tasty. She does everything so well, I don't plan to try and emulate her, but just use her as inspiration. I don't have room for a big herb garden and so I think I may buy some dried herbs and medicinal herbal teas. I also have some essential oils in lavender and rosemary and lemon to use in the cleaning products.

Linda

Talking About Herbs

I love herbs. I don't know why I don't do more with them. I love growing them and getting that herbal fragrance in the garden when you brush by them. I'm growing regular and lemon thyme, a couple of kinds of sage, marjoram, Greek oregano, pineapple mint, chives, rosemary, anise hyssop, and cinnamon basil.


I want to make cinnamon basil flavored vinegar and so I went looking for a how to and found this at About.com. It sounds pretty easy. I use to buy vinegars made by a local person flavored some with berries and some with cinnamon basil. I loved it. It has a wonderful colored and flavor, slightly spicy. Raspberry vinegar would also be fun to make. We may be going picking raspberries this week.


The Thrifty Country Woman tells how to make your own Herb De Provence which is my go to herb mix. I like it because I like the Mediterranean flavors. I've never tried making my own, but would like to. She also introduced me to a new to me blog on herbs called I Refuse to Recede that has a lot of useful information about herbs.


I think I should be doing more with herbs and want to focus on finding some ideas and trying some things. I love the herbal fragrance in bath and body produces and I have essential oils that can be added to homemade cleaning products. I'm using up my store bought products and then will be making my own.


I have used herbal teas for many minor health complaints and find them useful. I've never made my own but used store bought, but with frugality in mind I will be seeing what I can make. The anise hyssop I have was given to me and I'm not sure exactly what you do with it, but I do know it's a medicinal herb and the person that gave it to me said they thought you could make tea out of it. I have a lot of books and info. it's just that I haven't used herbs this way for a long time. I'm taking so many medications now that I feel I have to be careful about mixing them with medicinal herbs.


Cooking with herbs is of course the most enjoyable way to use them. They are wonderful in salads, herbed butter, just about anything really. Using them in place of dried herbs requires a little trial and error. Some herbs, like rosemary can be quite strong, so I've learned to be cautious. One of my favorites is thyme, I love the flavor it gives to meat dishes.


Using herbs in beverages like lemon aide is a lot of fun to experiment with. I'm not a big fan of store bought herb teas except for medicinal purposes, but I love them mixed with regular tea. One of my favorites from Eastern Shores Tea Co. is Rosemary Hill Farm. It is a Earl Grey tea with rosemary in it and I forget what else, maybe lavender. We order it in bulk we love it so much. They have decided not to make this tea anymore, why do companies do that. They do have a lot of other interesting teas like Pear Ginger, Watermelon Kiwi, Green Peach. The Watermelon is great for ice tea.

Linda

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