I never did get my vegetable garden in this year, and I really missed gardening. I did get a few herbs in, and when I heard that we had a frost warning for last night, I ran out to pick and preserve what I could so that I had at least something to show for this year’s growing season.
I pulled some sage, calendula flowers, lemon verbena, and basil. I also brought the rosemary plant inside, though I’ve never had any luck overwintering rosemary.
The lemon verbena and sage are bundled up and hanging to dry. The calendula flowers are in the colander drying to make calendula oil. All the basil went into the food processor to chop up and mix with olive oil. I use a lot of basil in my cooking and I’ve seen tubes of basil at the store. It’s really expensive, but it does last for quite a while, so I thought I’d make my own. I put mine in the freezer so I could just break off a piece here and there as I need it. I hope it will last through the winter, but I probably need more.
A nice bonus to processing the herbs was that my kitchen smelled pretty amazing.
Another nice bonus was that I was doing one small thing to make our little part of the world nicer. There are days when I get overwhelmed with all the troubles our world faces, and in the last couple of years I’ve decided that I need to step away from some of it. I don’t understand how human beings can treat other human beings the way they often do. I can’t figure it out, and I certainly can’t fix it, but I can make my corner of the world a little prettier, a little kinder, a little more loving. And I can do small things, one at a time.
A friend recently reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from one of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies (I don’t recall which one it’s from).
“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” ~ Gandalf
Small acts can make very big differences. I’m holding onto that these days.
~ Tanya
(smile) I was going to say that I recently have been thinking about this subject too! It really is an important thing – small acts of kindness.
I imagine your kitchen was smelling just lovely! Glad you were able to harvest your herbs!
Pingback: Lists, Floors and Paint Colors - Ever After Cottage
Mmmm … I can just imagine how wonderful your kitchen smelled. I have in the past frozen pesto in snack size ziplock bags and it works perfectly.
And the thought about small things, one at a time … what an encouraging thought!
Comments are closed.