You Grow Girl™

I just completed stage 2 of project "Winter Prep & Cleanup" and I have to say it is times like these when I'm kind of glad I DON'T have a large, abundant garden.

I went out this morning and harvested the remaining basil and quite a few of the other herbs. Despite having harvested, dried and freezed basil periodically throughout the summer and more fervently towards the end, I still had a lot left. At this point I don't have anywhere to dry it so I'm a bit undecided about what storage method to take. I prefer to make it into pesto and then freeze, but I don't have enough of some varieties (remember I have 13 types) to bother making pesto. I also don't have one of those mini food processors that one would use to chop up small amounts of fresh herbs. I do have a mortar and pestle but I'm not in the mood to spend hours grinding. Any ideas? Remember a while back when I was complaining I might not have enough basil to get me through the winter? I'm really not concerned at this point.

I cut back quite a few herbs and brought in a few that wouldn't make it through this recent cold snap. I didn't wear gloves and my hands are still cold. Wow do I have alot of sage! I cut back sage a few times this summer and still haven't even touched the previous bounty. Thankfully I had the forsight to dry them in bunches with thin string wrapped around. No one could possibly eat that much sage. Even if I stood on the corner and gave it away I would still have some left, so I thought burning it as smudge sticks made more sense.

My stove and counter tops are currently littered with paper bags full of herbs. The smell eminating from them is delicious. I don't have time to process this mess until later so they're going to have to wait. I actually enjoy the work but miss the days when I could sit outside on the deck and do it.