nerdsorrow:@graveyarddirt #hagging out!Sorry I’m late, the end of June had a lot of unavoidabl
nerdsorrow:@graveyarddirt #hagging out!Sorry I’m late, the end of June had a lot of unavoidable responsibilities for me.Here’s the top highlights of my preserving from late June:1. Herbs for drying. While I’ll check where the planets are in the sky for entheogens, the cooking herbs get harvested for ongoing drying whenever the plants look bushy. I get about this much every two weeks, but it’s only a small porch planting. Tarragon, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme.I’m always aware of Tarragon’s connection to the legend of the Tarrasque, yet I just don’t have a lot of good recipes for it… 2. Strawberry mead! Everyone should make mead. It’s set and forget, kitchen clean is plenty sanitary, don’t let the beer nerds make you think homebrewing is hard. Here’s a tumblr classic about how easy it is. (Link) I cooked the strawberries to semi-break them down first, and will strain them now that fermentation is slowing down.3. Parsnips and jalepenos? First of all I pretty much only make fridge pickles. I try to give them away and use them at an equal rate to how I make them, and it means I can make smaller batches with less planning and less precision. These ones, I was trying to not waste – parsnip is my most hated vegetable, and I was experimenting with cooking pickles rather than eating them raw. SO MANY pickles are great chopped small and added into whatever you’re making, and then it doesn’t matter if their flavor is only OK. Tragically, fresh jalepenos and the “pickling spice” mix from Frontier Co-op (more avoidance of planning or precision, on that one…) made parsnips delicious. They’re in the least snackable shape possible. 4. Mustard Greens Flowers: I haven’t tried this one yet! Mustard greens feature in the Yunnan version of sauerkraut. Chinese village life youtubers are my main pickling teachers. Them and Sandor Katz.I’m lucky to have gotten all of this (from honey to parsnips and much much more) from farmers’ markets, and to have farmers’ markets that take food stamps, and even beyond food stamps, have a wildly successful grant program called “double dollars”, where grant money matches any food stamp dollars you spend there. Nothing’s too good for the working class, as they say. -- source link