Using Fresh Herbs:Infusing Oils

If you have ever grown mint or Lemon Balm you know how crazy and fast it grows! I only plant one of each plant and have of a lot more of  it than  I know what to do with!
 I have recently found a few recipes for infusing your own oils at home. Now that  I am making my own skin care products I see where this is going to come in handy. Any of the oils that you would use to make lip balm  for example, can be infused with the herb of your choice and then use way less (if any) essential oils. It is very easy to do, it just takes a little time. So this is how I am doing mine.

Items needed:

Dried Lemon Balm       I used mine that I  dried for about 24 hours (or you could buy it)
A glass jar with a lid     Make sure they are clean and dry, before you start.
Olive Oil                          I like Olive Oil because it has a low rancidity rate

I filled my jar about 3/4 full with the dried Lemon Balm and then poured in olive oil until it just covered it. Put the lid on and date it with a done date of 4 weeks from the day you make it. Store in a cool dark place and shake once a day or whenever you remember. At the end of 4 weeks you will take it and strain it through cheese cloth into a jar. Make sure you squeeze out all the oil from the leaves in the cheese cloth, waste not want not! If it doesn't smell as strong as you want you can repeat the process using your finished oil and adding in more dried Lemon Balm and let sit for another 4 weeks. Two months is a long time to wait for the finished product, but it will be worth it!. I should have started doing this earlier in the summer and it would be ready now for winter crafting Store your oil in a dark container if you can other wise a cool dark place is good.

Happy Crafting

Welcome to My Garden:Happenings in the Garden

Last weeks load of tomatoes is going to be made into tomato sauce and stored in the freezer. I am just not getting enough tomatoes at on time to can them. It is so much work that I really want a larger haul of those little beauties before I bust out the steamer/caner again.So far I have only gotten about 6 pints of tomatoes canned and that was in two batches of three pints each and a couple jars of salsa and of course the tomatoes from last week. 

These tomatoes made me 2 quarts of freezer tomato sauce that turned out yummy! I just cooked down the tomatoes all day in the crock pot with about 6 cloves of garlic, a whole yellow onion, a couple handfuls of fresh basil and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Today's harvest includes a couple of jalapeno peppers that I will put into some fresh salsa I am going to be making later. The rosemary will go into the freezer for seasoning dishes throughout the winter months and with all the cucumbers I have gotten and ones from friends I will be making a cucumber salad.

Love harvesting out of the herb garden! Today's haul is a whole bunch of lemon balm and that's not even close to how much I actually have!!! I planted two lemon balm plants in the herb garden and have many baby lemon balm plants in the back yard from before when I just had one plant in a pot and kept moving it around my flower beds!!

The lemon balm is going to be dried for use later in lip balm and tea. Right now I am infusing some of the lemon balm I previously picked in some Extra Virgin Olive oil so I can make some cold sore lip balm. I will post more on the lip balm later! I still have to get the mint picked and prepared to dry. Maybe I will fit that into today's chore list.  

Happy Gardening!!