Category: Herb Gardening

Today’s Harvest & A Late Summer Seed Splurge

Yesterday’s haul. Two types of cucumbers. The curled ones were of a variety that curled after all of the rains we received last month. The straight ones are Slicers by Burpee. I don’t think they are heirloom, but they have weathered our heat here in NC and the rains very well, and taste pretty good.

So, one thing that is great about drunk shopping when you like plants is that you can go crazy on Etsy buying seeds, and still end up spending less than $100. Wine + Etsy + Me on a weekend in PJs has proven to be quite the combination! Also, instead of ornamentals I usually buy food plants, so I rationalize that I’m actually investing in my family’s grocery future.

The cukes in the above photo were from several of my cucumber plants this weekend. My squash were taken out by squash bugs a few weeks back, but luckily squash bugs aren’t much for cucumbers, so I still have those.

I was disappointed that the heirloom cucumbers started curling. I am currently attributing it to the pretty constant rains we received a few weeks ago, but I am also pumping up the fertilizer just in case it was a feeding issue. I’ve learned that plants in this family tend to be heavy feeders.

The green tomatoes are of a few different varieties. I was disappointed to have to trim them back, but I didn’t provide a ton of spacing in the bed they were in. I’m learning to pay close attention to the spacing guidelines, because while they seem aggressive when you plant your started plants, they are typically right on! On the positive side, I’m going to have some fried green tomatoes for lunch. The larger one is from my Cherokee purple, and I cannot WAIT to get some tomatoes off of that bush! If they were closer to red I’d put them in a sunny window, but honestly, I’ve been looking for an excuse to have some yummy FGTs!

Other things I’ve learned:

  • I didn’t plant enough of my corn this year. While we grilled it this weekend and it was delicious, it wasn’t fully pollinated, so the top bit and a few interspersed kernels on each were left unpollinated. Since researching, I’ve decided next time I plant it I will do a full block, so pollinators can navigate between the stalks easier.
  • I didn’t plant enough okra, either. While I’m improving on my yield planning (Google is getting tired of my How much *** do I need to plant for a family of four searches), I miscalculated my Okra as well. I’ve ended up with a handful of pods every day. Almost enough for a meal, but not quite! I’m going to use this year’s crop for seed and plant them next year in another block.
  • I have a great seed organizer. Proud to say I saw it highlighted in Mother Earth News this month after I’d had mine for a bit (link for reference, but unfortunately, the product was only highlighted in the print edition). If you want one as well, I bought mine from Amazon here. (Commission Link).
I actually have two of these – you’d be surprised how fast you collect seeds as you learn how!

On the seed front, even though they are cheap, I have a challenge to myself to only buy what is critical for my homestead. I buy seeds that are hard to replicate, or for new plants I don’t have. I’m not a fan of reusing grocery store produce as most of the time they are hybrid varieties and have been around pesticides. That being said, I’m not offended by non-organic produce, but I do try to limit exposure, and I do try to stick with heirloom when I can.

Why are they in the fridge? Well, I have several extra, and am constantly picking up spare coriander from my cilantro plant, etc, and I want to save them until next year. If I put them in the fridge they will keep longer. Cross your fingers for me – this is the first year I’ve tried this!

It was a tongue in cheek moment when my hybrid cucumbers came out so pretty and my heirlooms curled, but they taste the same and I think I figured out how to fix it going forward.

Lemon Balm Iced Tea Recipe

As I was cleaning my front garden up this week, I noticed my lemon balm made it all winter, and was thriving. Unlike my parsley, which also lives a few years but tends to be tough and more for seed collecting in the second, my lemon balm (a member of the Mint family), was thriving and happy.

I am a bit unstructured in my garden. My grandparents were farmers, but I grew up with horses and ornamental gardens, and I am a painter by hobby. The idea of a straight garden plot is fantastic, and I have a few small raised bed plots in the backyard, but I love incorporating my vegetables and herbs into my surrounding ornamental gardens as well. To me, it is a form of creativity, and it also helps me use the space I have more efficiently.

In my mind, every plant has some sort of purpose, even if it is to be ornamental. Why should I separate my food plants from my roses, etc? While on that note, you can use rose hips, so the whole idea of ornamental and food plants being completely different is not really something I think about when planning (unless, of course, something I plant would be dangerous for people or animals, but I try to make sure I don’t plant anything poisonous anyway, as I have littles and chickens and dogs and kitties running about at any time).

This is lemon balm. Similar to mint, the leaves are perpendicular to each other and when you bruise the leaves you get a faint smell of lemon.

According to my research, lemon balm is anti-viral, is a natural anti-depressant and soothes anxiety, helps with allergies and has several other benefits. That being said, I’m not a doctor, but I figure that with the current atmosphere, some lemon balm seemed like a good idea! You can read more about the benefits here.

I decided that based on what I read I would start infusing some lemon balm into my iced tea. Since lemons are in short supply in the garden (my one and only attempt at raising a Meyer lemon ended in a litany of pests and a tree that begged me to let it die), I thought I would use the lemon balm to infuse just a bit of that lemon taste to our regular iced tea.

Make your iced tea as you typically do. I threw in a generous handful of lemon balm, after I used my mortar and pestle to wake up some of the juice and taste.

I have had a mortar and pestle on hand for years. It’s great when using live herbs, because you can bruise the leaves and wake up the smell and taste of any herb you are using. For this, I first lightly bruised the leaves, then threw them in my tea pot along with my tea of choice (a regular black tea is fine, or spice it up with your favorite tea).

I boiled some water. My British father insists on grabbing the kettle just as the water turns to a boil. Why? Not sure, but he makes wonderful tea and I am not arguing with an expert. I place a tea bag per person, and a tea bag for the pot (again, thanks, Dad). Pour the just boiling water over your tea bags and lemon balm, and leave to steep to your preference. It’s not a rigid guideline. I like weak iced tea with no sugar, so I leave mine 5-8 minutes or so. Keep in mind you will be adding ice and water, so make it a little stronger than you prefer.

Once the tea has steeped well, I put a dash of baking soda in a pitcher along with some ice (about 1/4-1/3 of the pitcher), pour my iced tea in, and I add water and the bruised leaves from the pot to fill it to the top, without making it too weak. Discard the tea bags.

Lastly, I throw it in the refrigerator to chill. It’s pretty tough to mess up, and my whole family runs through it in no time flat. I usually make a pitcher every day or two now, at the same time I’m making our bread. I’ll work on that post next! Here is our loaf from today. Yes, I use a breadmaker, and I will share that model with you as well (I make some breads by hand, as well, but I use the maker for our sandwich bread).

YUM.

If you have any tips or questions on your family iced tea, let me know. I would love to hear them!

Katie