I picked a big bowl of thyme the other day. My thyme patch has grown rampant in the past year and is overtaking the blueberry and bean space. I let the bunch dry about a week and now I am working on separating the dried leaves and stems. I'd like to have enough for my for winter use (and maybe for holiday gifts in pretty little jars.... I found some nice jars at Ikea....).
Thursday, November 15, 2012
thyme harvest
I picked a big bowl of thyme the other day. My thyme patch has grown rampant in the past year and is overtaking the blueberry and bean space. I let the bunch dry about a week and now I am working on separating the dried leaves and stems. I'd like to have enough for my for winter use (and maybe for holiday gifts in pretty little jars.... I found some nice jars at Ikea....).
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Your "drying bowl of thyme" looks pretty much like what mine did up til this past weekend. I found a nifty trick for the stuff you're keeping for yourself (I don't know if it's really gift worthy). Once it's all thoroughly dried up, rather than spend thyme (ha) picking all the leaves off, I just stuffed it all down into a clean mason jar, screwed on a lid, and kept it in the pantry til needed. Then when I need thyme I'd take off the lid, clasp my hand over the mouth of the jar leaving some space between my fingers, and shook the jar upside down over a bowl, or over eggs I was cooking, etc. I'd say 95% of the time I got plenty of dried leaves and no stems.
If it looked like there weren't a bunch of loose leaves, and instead they were all stuck to the stems, I'd just shove some fingers down in the jar and give a swirl - the dry leaves fell off the stems, and sat in the bottom of the jar.
I was talking about this with a friend the other day, and was thinking about trying the same thing but with a glass jar with a shaker lid - like maybe for parmesan? I don't know if I'd need to worry about dust getting in the jar when it's in the pantry?
I will say that I've only JUST finished using up the jar of thyme that I harvested summer 2011, and I've been going light on it's usage because I didn't want to run out. The good news is I just filled TWO jars with dried thyme/stems this past week, and am considering doing a third!
Do share the ikea jars. I'm also considering some garden gifts but the small (1/2cup) jam jars are quite pricey ($9 for 12).
I've got some thyme ready in my garden as well. Drying in a bowl is a great idea! Maybe I'll get around to harvesting it now; knowing that I can just lay it in a bowl for a few days.
I have Rosemary, sage, and coriander too for my little gift jars. The Ikea ones I found are about 75 cents each. I thought this is a great buy. They have stainless cap and nice clear and etched glass. I only have a small number of gifts to make. (plus some for me!)
Home made gifts are great. How about herb oil? Or Herb and chilli oil, that would go fab with your lovely home made Pizza's!
I hope to find time to make individual Christmas cakes and Panettone for Christmas gifts.
Marian (LondonUK)
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