Now a Little Preserving

Well I have made a tentative start to my preserving with dehydrating some herbs that would not have dried as well in natural drying as in the dehydrator.

I have added Sprig Rosemary, Garden Mint, Common Thyme, Parsley to the dehydrator this evening and had them on for a short while. I have left them overnight in the machine to cool down and they are now in bowls conditioning ready for decanting into their storage jars.  I am not sure about the Dehydrator though as the instructions are a little sparse although on the face of it the machine seems sturdy enough.  Just need to get to grips with the controls.  It is not like normal dehydrators in that it has three levels of function which I think relate to the temperature bands (although that is not strictly clear).  I think I am going to have to get G to have a look at it to un-taffle it for me.  It did not cost a lot of money.  A Temu offer (so some you win some you loose) approximately £35 and it took over a month to arrive by land.  This is the machine athough the one I have, mine is silver in colour.  Currently £79.06.  Hopefully will get the instructions sorted soon so that it is more streamlined for my use (and I know what I am doing).  It certainly has quite a few trays.

First thing this morning, before I officially got up. I have checked the herbs.  I am  reasonably well impressed with how they have come up and they did not take long to dry at all. I am always amazed that some herbs produce a lot whereas others like mint go down into very little so long term you have to process more. Very pleased with the Parsley.  I chopped the little florets off the stem so that I did not have any tougher stems to deal with and also delay the drying.  I have also prepped up stem Thyme and stem Rosemary (drying on the stem) and keeping the herb whole.  From there you have the option to strip the leaves off the stem if you just want a little flavouring. However I have prepped on the stems for more robust meals such as stews and roasts where you need a bit more flavour.  I think it gives you a few more options.

It is now Saturday morning.  I have had another good lay in, not by design just what has happened - obviously what my body needed.  We had a rough night last night.  The weather is gorgeous, all is well as far as I know in life, and I am just taking the time out to simply be, pottering doing familiar routine things that are soothing and just being in the moment.  Things like preparing G's breakfast and my own.  Whilst down there getting side-tracked and preparing more items for the Dehydrator.  This time prepping up some sliced mushrooms for either adding to Quiches on top or for crumbling down to make Mushroom powder to add flavourings to gravies, stews, casseroles that sort of thing.  Mushrooms are supposed to be good for Vitamin D and I like all sorts of powders to add a bit more flavour and a bit more goodness to the meals that I cook.  With good home cooking, for me flavour is everything. It is those flavours and tastes that we miss when a loved one passes over.  Comfort food.  My Mum always used to say that she wished she could taste her Mum's Meat and Potato Pie again as did one of my Uncles.  With my Mum, and I think my brother would agree with me it would have for me to be her pastry and also her Roast dinners (particularly Roast Beef). I was very lucky in that my Mum was such a good cook.  With my Nan Ellingford it would have to be her Roast Pork Dinner and her homemade Chocolate cake (as well as her wines, ciders and lots of other things like her Pickled Shallots and chutneys). Oh and her top of milk cream that was always lightly whisked up and added to fruit.  Made something out of nothing.  There was always a meal available at my Nan's.  She was good at making a meal out of relatively nothing and no matter what else happened we always ate very well.

I have more mushrooms to prepare for the Dehydrator and some Sage from the garden as well as some Chives and Black Peppermint. At least a little bit of work is going on at long last.  The Mushrooms are in at the moment and I will pop in some Sage and Chives and Black Peppermint a little later and maybe some Lemon Verbena as well.

At the moment I have some long-keeping Mint Sauce started for the Pantry shelf.  I am in the middle of hand-chopping a couple of bunches of garden mint.  As the saying goes every little helps at the end of the day.  

G is one who uses sauces etc. not exactly the way everyone else does and he puts mint sauce on everything.  I prefer Mint jelly and will also be making some of that in due course.

I have not done that much yet, however it is a start and at least a little bit has been done after weeks of not being able to get there.

I am also making Hunter's Chicken for tea tonight to be followed by Strawberries and cream. 

Tomorrow we have Lamb steaks and veggies for tea.  A proper tea for tomorrow night followed by Melon slices for afters.

The mushrooms are now done, well at least the first batch.  I have been out and bought some Chestnut Mushrooms to process as well.  Cucumbers have been purchased to start the first batch of Pickled Cucumbers.  Pickled Cucumbers are like Sweeties to G because of his Diabetes.  I have also bought in some more Ginger to start off a Ginger Bug, some for making wine and some for use in cooking. I have also bought some more Garden Mint to make another jar of Long Keeping Mint Sauce.

 I will go into the garden tomorrow to see what I can retrieve from there, but definitely some Lemon Verbena.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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