A Wee Spring Harvest

Earlier today, I harvested some lovage. The leaves are in the dehydrator. The stems have been blanched, and are now macerating in an organic cane sugar syrup. 

Once dried, the leaves will be jarred up to keep on hand as a dry alternative to the fresh stuff. The stems have a couple more days of processing to soak up that sugar syrup, and then they’ll be put on a tray to dry for a sweet treat of lovage stem candy.

Then I wandered the little acre to do some more harvesting...

The dandelion heads are sitting on a tray in the shade to dry ‘n’ wilt a bit, as well as to let any ants and other potential vermin crawl off and be on their way. These little flower clusters will be jarred up, covered with extra-virgin olive oil (because that’s all I have at the moment), to be processed for making an infused oil for my aches’n’pains 'n' such.

A handful of mint has been gently rinsed, and is resting on an absorbent towel to dry a bit. This will be made into a mint sauce to keep in the fridge. I’m actually scolding myself in this moment because I didn’t think to do this the other day, when we had lamb for dinner. Ah, well. 

And last but not least, beautiful Equisetum arvense, commonly called horse tail around here, is in the dehydrator with the lovage leaves, so that we can have dried horse tail to add to our nutritional teas throughout the year. I’ll likely harvest a little more tomorrow to dry, but I don’t need/use that much. This botanical - like so much of Nature - reminds me to take only what I need.

Peace. 🕊