Choice Morsels

  Today's Garden Pic is a harvest of Sweet Basil & Greek Oregano laid out in dryer trays for drying! Temperatures outside are getting cool, so since the Basil will freeze and I only have the one plant, I decided yesterday to hop-to and get it picked for drying! The Greek Oregano I can get anytime as it's winter hardy here in Florida. So, I tray Basil & 3 Trays of Greek Oregano. Once dry, I separate leaves from stems, crush up the leaves with my fingers on wax paper, then slide the herbs into a recycled glass herb bottle. Since I had so little Basil, I combined them in one bottle labeled "Italian Seasoning." Consumer Reports tested a number of common commercial herbs & spice brands for arsenic, cadmium & lead. Popular brands including Walmart Great Value, McCormick, Spice Islands, 365 Whole Foods, Badia and many others for particular spices & herbs: basil, oregano, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, etc. The report is not encouraging. A lot of them ...

We had a hard freeze the past 2 nights, but I covered the tomatoes, lettuce and peppers and a few other things a day ahead, so they're okay.  I was surprised to see a sparkle of frost glittering on some plants in the front yard. Funny thing. The Vinca weren't effected. I guess it wasn't freeze enough for them.   T oday's garden pics: New Butterfly Weed: This butterfly weed is something I just planted this fall. I've already seen a few Monarch's visiting the flowers, but it's fall and they are really on their way migrating someplace else. So it was just a snack-stop. Tray of Basil for Drying: Knowing a freeze was expected Monday night, I scurried about collecting Basil to dry in my electric Presto dryer. Because the frost will kill the Basil. It's the only herb effected by frost. This is just one tray. I did 5 trays just like this.

Today's Garden Pic:  A Dragonfly on a Basil bloom! I just snapped this shot today, a few minutes ago.  I was just looking out the sliding glass door at the Hummingbird feeder, where a Hummingbird was sitting, when this large Dragonfly swooped in and landed on this  Basil flower that's in a container on my patio. I ran for my camera.

Here in North Florida, our autumn begins in mid to late November as soon as temps cool enough to cause deciduous trees turn orange, yellow and burgundy! It's also time to harvest Basil and dry it before a freeze comes along! This is colander full is what I harvested today! It's a mix of Sweet, Thai and Red!  Basil will self-sow readily, if you let them go to flower, so I plant the spring volunteers in beds and containers everywhere. Here, they bloom well into the cooler weather as long as it's warm and sunny during the day and feed the bees until a freeze comes along. This is what  prepping it for drying looks like: The dryer has 5 trays. I filled 3. It's a basic model that's on when I plug it in and off when I unplug it, so I prefer to do drying while doing laundry, since it's out in the garage. That way I'll remember it's on!  The garage is sooo fragrant right now! Because Basil freezes, I have to dry it. I like to dr...