How to Make Your House Smell Amazing

Step 1: Plant a bunch of different herbs in your garden.

monarda

dill

basil

chives

parsley

Step 2: Harvest said herbs, load into a food dehydrator, and let them dry out for a day or so.

basil ready to dry

dehydrator loaded and ready to go

Step 3:Inhale deeply as you crush the dried leaves into pleasantly fragrant bits.

dry dill

dry parsley

Step 4: Pour dried herbs into labeled jars.

dried basil in a recycled/reused jar

the grand assortment

 Step 5: Enjoy!

bunny butt approved

Harvest Time Has Begun

The weather has heated up considerably and the garden loves it! Harvest season has begun in earnest now. After a steady stream of asparagus early on and enough rhubarb to make a pie and a cake, there is now a wonderful variety of things to pick and enjoy.

My Garden! Glad I didn't neglect it this year.

The first big harvest of the season was Swiss chard. Suddenly, we had so much of it that I thought I might have to start freezing some right away. We were able to use it all fresh, though, in the form of chard and mushroom galette with goat cheese; pasta with vegan sausage, chard, and beans; a lovely chard and tahini dip that went well with tortilla chips and was equally nice mixed into spaghetti; and a Swiss chard frittata. It’s ready to pick again but I think I’ll let it stand another day or two as there are so many other tasty vegetables that need more immediate attention.

A few pounds of rainbow chard

The zucchini is now coming in fast and furious. At first, I didn’t know if I would get any. It was quite a saga, really. I planted the seeds in one of the beds where we had spread last season’s compost. Well, the compost had various squash seeds that decided to sprout on their own while the ones that I had planted were taking their sweet time. So, as insurance, I purchased a zucchini plant off a rolling rack outside the grocery store. As soon as I planted it, my seeds decided to grow like crazy. By that time, I didn’t have the heart to thin them as heavily as I should have so I ended up with six plants in the 4’ x 11’ bed. The plants seem to being doing well despite the close quarters and I’ve picked eight zucchinis so far.

So, that's a full bed of zucchini!

The cucumbers are coming on strong as well. There’s nothing like a fresh cucumber straight out of the garden with just a little sprinkle of salt. The purple green beans are starting to bean, though it is far from overwhelming. I’ve almost picked enough for a serving.  

Yesterday evening's harvest

I spent this morning harvesting and processing herbs. Three years ago, I went to the Mother Earth News Fair in Burlington, Vermont. This year, with covid-19 going on, they decided to have a virtual fair. I bought a ticket and have been enjoying dozens of videos on a whole range of topics from fermenting to beekeeping to breadmaking. So, this weekend, I decided to try out a couple of the things I learned.

Herbs!

I started by setting up our solar dehydrator. (Here’s a post from four years agoabout the fun, useful tool.) I put sprigs of wild bee balm on the bottom screen to dry for tea. On the top screen went dill, thyme, and just a little bit of lavender.

Loaded dehydrator

Within just about four hours on this lovely, sunny, hot day, the dill and thyme were completely dry and ready to be bottled. The bee balm and lavender needed just a smidge more time. I’ll probably do more batches of herbs as the summer goes on.

Jars of freshly-dried thyme and dill

The fresh basil that I picked got chopped up and went into a bowl with a pound of rhubarb that I had frozen last year and ¾ cups of sugar. This is the base for a rhubarb-basil shrub. I’ll mix in some vinegar after it has set for 24 hours, let it sit again for three more hours, and then combine it with some gin and lemon juice for cocktails tomorrow evening.

Rhubarb-basil shrub in the making

Finally, I made my first ever tincture. I found out that California Poppy could help with sleep and I just happened to have some growing in my un-Shaker garden. My husband and I tried it fresh as tea. There were all sorts of warning online about how bitter the tea was, but I thought it was quite nice. He said he slept really well after a cuppa and it gave me vivid dreams. Fun. One of the Fair workshops was on tincture making so I thought, why not try it with the California Poppy. I put 3.5 ounces of chopped up plant plus 7 ounces of 100 proof vodka into a jar. After about a month, I’ll see what we got.

A tincture to-be

I’m very glad that I pulled myself together this year and am actively working with my garden. I’m not sure if the rabbits who found a home in last year’s garden would agree, but that’s their problem.

Solar Food Dehydrator

Several years ago, when we still lived on the mountain, my husband and I saw a solar food dehydrator in Mother Earth News. (You can find a diagram of it online now at http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/solar-food-dehydrator-zmaz06aszraw.aspx?SlideShow=11) We thought it was a fantastic idea and decided to build one of our own. The magic of living at a lumber mill was that there were always leftover bits of wood and other materials lying around. We managed to construct the entire dehydrator out of scavenged pieces, hinges and all. We did have to buy a kit to make the two drying screens but that was all.

Homemade solar food dehydrator

The dehydrator is basically a big wooden box with a piece of glass on top. We started with an old window and then built the rest of the box around it to fit. Somehow, we found a sheet of metal that was nearly perfect for the reflector inside. We added screened holes for ventilation and doors on the back that could be opened to load the screens full of food and for ventilation. I’m pretty proud of the way it turned out since it was cobbed together from found parts. Best of all, it works wonderfully!

View from the back with bottom door open

Interior with two drying screens in place

Side view showing screened vent holes and top door propped open for airflow

We used the dehydrator quite a lot back then drying strawberries, blueberries, cherries, zucchini, yellow squash, and herbs. Since moving to the southern tier, we’ve used it once to dry a batch of wild hops but otherwise it has remained tucked away in the garage. That is until about a week ago. I had gone blueberry picking and thought it would be fun to dry some. My husband pulled it out of storage and gave it a good cleaning then I loaded it with some washed blueberries.

Blueberries loaded and ready to start drying

It was just my luck that I picked some of the only cloudy days so far this summer on which to get the dehydrator going. It needs extended, direct sunlight to function. You’ve got to turn it throughout the day to keep it facing the sun. After the first day of partial sun, the berries were just starting to dry.

Berries on the morning of day 2

Day two was actually sunny, so quite a bit of moisture was pulled out of the berries. Day three, however dawned completely overcast. I don’t like to keep anything in the dehydrator for more than three days. I worry that if the food isn’t dry by then that it might start to spoil. So, I brought the berries in and finished them off in the oven for about four hours. After all that effort, the blueberries had turned into just over a cup of dried berries and they taste great! It was very much worth it to drag our homemade dehydrator across the state with us.

Chewy, yummy dried blueberries!