February 5, 2010 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
Peter, Peter, couldn’t be sweeter
How does your garden grow?
With sage so fine…
And crops of thyme…
And sweet-scented o-reg-ano!
PS. Our herb garden is only three weeks old! Pretty good, eh?
PPS. I’d love any suggestions on what to do with all these herbs…
Friday, 8.40pm
This made me cry...
. . . . .
Friday, 6am
One of the nicest things about sourdough is how well it fits into our lifestyle. I fed my starter up last night, and have just kneaded up a 3kg batch of 50:50 bakers flour:wholemeal spelt dough. I'll leave it alone now until late afternoon, when I'll shape and bake rolls and loaves for the weekend and next week's school lunches. The boys are eating a loaf a day on top of what they take to school, so thank goodness the breadmaking process is simple!
Our hen Bertha is the wild woman of the chicken coop. She's a bit lopsided, with a bent comb and a puffy chest - Steve the vet once described her as "matronly". She's always dishevelled, with her breast feathers poking out at funny angles and she'll happily walk around covered in bits of food and dirt. She's certainly no show chicken, but she lays big eggs, and she's whippet fast and very smart. She's also downright ornery. :)
PS. Click on the photos for a better look at Bertie! :)
Those look gorgeous! I’ve even learned how to say oregano in the proper “Aussie” way, instead of my native American way! You can use the sage to make big logs of sage butter. Then you can slice off pieces to put on top of pasta and under the skin of chickens before roasting. YUM!
What a beautiful herb garden. Oh, I would sell “part” of my soul for a garden like that, my herbs just don’t survive indoors and they have no chance outdoors either. I simple adore fresh oregano. I have a little bush of sage though, it resist quite ok during the short summer-autumn season…
If I had such a garden I would use thyme and sage in practically all my meats, you can also make sage butter too, it is delicious. And fresh oregano tastes great in sauces, salads, grilled vegetables and cheeses… Well, sky is the limit.
My single pot of mint, which survived beautifully the winter (so far) started to give signs of exhaustion…
Claudia
Salsa verde!
Hi, I just found your blog last week and spent quite some reading back through the archives. Thanks for the inspiration.
I tend to get more herbs than I know what to do with and have recently started to dry them in a dehydrator. They have kept will and I am told they will keep better dried and then frozen. This certainly works for dried vegies.
My basil crop this year has been huge and apart from several jars of pesto in the freezer for use later on, I have been drying to use in stews, soup etc during the winter.
Wow, what a great herb garden! With the sage, I love it with browned butter and gnocchi. There’s nothing better than fresh herbs is there! :)
Tender baby herbs, how lovely! Duxelles freeze well and you can use a variety of herbs xx
SK, now you’ve made me curious how the Americans say it! Great suggestion – thank you – sage butter would be perfect both for sauce and stuffing!
Claudia, you must miss that, coming from Brazil! If I could, I would mail you some…
Great idea, Sue! That would probably freeze well too!
Bec, thank you, I’d never thought of drying them in a dehydrator. We’ve only ever dried them under the pergola outside, which was less than successful, as when we remember they’re there, they’re covered in cobwebs…
Lorraine, isn’t it just the best? I’m starting to think the brown butter and crispy sage sauce is an Aussie invention, since my overseas friends have never heard of it before. Of course, it was probably invented by the Italians. :) Our favourite use of it is over a slightly sweet filled pasta, like pumpkin or sweet potato.
Duxelles – I had to look that up, Jo! :) Which of the herbs would go with the mushrooms, I wonder?
Oooh, I meant to add that I’ve found a recipe for sage elixir – a liquour made with lots of sage, eau de vie (Jo has suggested I could use grappa instead) and a sugar syrup. It’s supposed to have restorative powers! I’ll let you know how I go.. :)
When I get my food dryer back from my uncle you can borrow it to dry some herbs – would make great Christmas presents.
Duxelles – mushrooms cooked with butter, garlic, maybe cream, herbs, all chopped up, I don’t chop it too fine, some people make a paste almost I think. I was thinking of your thyme I guess, it’s a really good way to freeze those special mushrooms you get from the market too! And then you can add it into all those wonderful italian dishes you make, or make beef wellington (never done that myself!) Are you going to grow parsley, that’s also traditional with the mushrooms? We are big parsley and coriander fans here. I have been known to get those fast grown pots of parsley from the supermarket, and plant them out in the garden and then they are so grateful!
You can do that lamb with potatoes in lemon and oregano now from the Falling Cloudberries book!
Try a variation on David Lebovitz’s herb rub!
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/08/my_stash_1.html
I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to start an herb garden and failed. I can keep flowers in a vase, but my green thumb isn’t so green…I can kill even bamboo.
A lovely young fresh herb garden!! A few years ago, I started out that way too,..I also added Italian flat parsley, slad leaves ( 4 sorts) & home grown tomatoes!!
There is nothing better then veggies, fruits & herbs home grown!
Fantastic….I can’t wait for our summer. The oregano is a great candidate for drying…..just tie bunches and hang them upside down. Apparently, it is one of the only herbs that tastes better dried than fresh.
I’ve stored excess sage in a jar full of olive oil in the fridge and have made a delicious sage pesto (you could use chestnuts and almonds).
As for the thyme – make thyme-scented honey….icecream…..LOL
Christina, Sophie and Jo, thank you! We will be growing parsley, basil and mint as well, although I think Pete’s planning to put those in pots. The sage, oregano and thyme enjoy similar growing conditions, so they’ve been planted together.
Julia, that sounds fantastic, and we have rosemary and fresh organic garlic as well, so might give that a go!
Cass, don’t give up. Or do what I did, and find a partner who does have a green thumb!
Oz, sage PESTO! Perfect, thank you…
LOL really? Isn’t that funny about the browned butter and sage. Maybe we can claim it as our own as we did pavlova lol
Lunch today – spinach and ricotta ravioli with brown butter and sage sauce!
It’s winter here so our herb garden is pretty sleepy. We have tons of citrus though, limes, lemons, oranges and tangerines.
Pete’s planted a lemon tree! And the herb garden has grown – we also have purple, lemon and classic basil, a bay tree, some rosemary and three more chilli plants!