Category: Gardening
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How to Label Your Homemade Herbal Preparations
You will remember what’s in that jar. At least that’s what you tell yourself. Then six months later you’re standing in front of three mysterious jars of brown liquid wondering: Was this calendula? Lemon balm? Did I make this last year? Label everything. Seriously. What Should Be on an Herbal Label? At minimum, I like… Read more
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How to Preserve Peppers for Winter
Pepper plants can keep producing surprisingly late into the season. Then frost appears in the forecast and suddenly there are peppers everywhere. Thankfully, peppers are incredibly versatile when it comes to preservation. Freeze Them For many cooked uses, freezing is the easiest option. Wash and prepare the peppers appropriately, portion them and freeze them for… Read more
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How Much Dried Herb Equals Fresh Herb?
We’ve all done it. You find a recipe calling for fresh herbs… and all you have is a jar of dried herbs. Or your garden is overflowing with fresh herbs while the recipe calls for dried. Can you substitute them? For ordinary culinary cooking, there’s a useful starting point. The Common 3-to-1 Rule A frequently… Read more
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What to Do With Too Many Zucchini
If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you already know. You don’t really harvest zucchini. Zucchini happens to you. You pick everything you can see and somehow return two days later to find a vegetable approximately the size of a baseball bat hiding under a leaf. So what do you actually do with all of it? Eat… Read more
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Fresh Herbs vs. Dried Herbs: When Should You Use Each?
You walk outside and harvest a beautiful handful of herbs. Then the recipe you’re following says: Use dried herbs. Can you just use the fresh ones? Sometimes—but fresh and dried herbs aren’t always interchangeable. Fresh Herbs Contain Water Fresh plant material contains substantial moisture. That affects its weight, concentration and shelf stability. It’s also why… Read more
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5 Ways to Preserve Fresh Herbs Before Winter
Fresh herbs are one of the easiest things to overlook when you’re rushing to prepare the garden for cold weather. Then frost arrives. And suddenly all that basil you meant to harvest is gone. Before cold weather settles in, here are five ways to preserve herbs for winter. 1. Air Dry Them Air drying works… Read more
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Tincture vs. Tea vs. Salve vs. Infused Oil: What’s the Difference?
When I first started learning about herbs, one of the most confusing things wasn’t the plants. It was figuring out what I was supposed to do with them. Should you make tea? Put them in oil? Make a salve? What’s a tincture? Here’s the simple version. Herbal Tea Herbal tea uses water to extract compounds… Read more
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How to Preserve Your Garden Harvest Before Frost
The first frost has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute, you’re picking tomatoes and peppers in the sunshine. Then you look at the forecast and suddenly realize: It’s time to get everything out of the garden. Instead of scrambling at the last minute, I like to think of the weeks before frost… Read more
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Herbalism for Beginners: Where Do You Even Start?
Herbalism can feel overwhelming when you first start. Tinctures. Infusions. Decoctions. Salves. Herbal oils. Then there are hundreds of plants you’re apparently supposed to recognize. But you don’t need a cabinet filled with 100 herbs to start learning herbalism. Start with a few plants and learn them well. What Is Herbalism? Herbalism is the traditional… Read more
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What to Do With an End-of-Summer Tomato Harvest
There comes a point every summer when the garden seems to decide that every tomato needs to ripen at the exact same time. One day you’re waiting impatiently for the first red tomato. A few weeks later, your counter is covered in them. That’s one of my favorite problems to have. Instead of letting an… Read more