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Growing chili peppers
As many chili growers know, one of the most obvious and satisfactory use of the chili harvest is preparing hot sauces. Since I started growing peppers I've tried several sauces,...

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Harvest and Store
Marjoram blooms during the summer, and this is the right time to harvest it, preferably in the morning. Harvest the tender stems with flowering tops, usually 10 to 30 cm long...

Harvest and Store
Last month the wild thyme produced soft new shoots that were about to bloom. Harvest the thyme during bolting and flowering: cut the green shoots, wash and dry, then place them...

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Harvest and Store
I harvested the lemon grass to prepare some recipes (Thai chicken soup - Tom Ka Gai and Yellow Thai curry paste), and I took a few pictures. Lemon grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus)...

Harvest and prepare
My partner loves the broccoli rabe, and every year we bought them and prepare a traditional Italian pasta dish, Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa. He asked me to grow some broccoli...

Spices and aromatic herbs mixtures
Fines herbes is an herb mixture from South France. Typical ingredients are parsley, tarragon, chervil and chives, but also marjoram, balm and cress. Marjoram and tarragon can be...

Harvest and prepare
A friend gave me some giant cardoon seeds, and I tried to grow some of them. Giand cardoon should be sowed in spring and harvested in autumn and winter. Unfortunately only two...

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Harvest and Store
Sage leaves become more aromatic when dried, so it's better to harvest them during summer, choosing bigger and health leaves. During winter dormancy, it's better to not harvest...

Saving seeds
Sporigami are small paper bags, made as an origami, without glue or adhesive tape. They were created to harvest spores, but they can be used to store seeds, that in plastic bags...

Spices and aromatic herbs mixtures
During my personal harvest festival, before my summer holidays, I harvested many aromatic herbs to store them. I dried some of them in a mixture, to have herbes de Provence...

Harvest and Store
My family loves sun dried tomatoes, and my partner prepared this lovely jar with them. My grandmother dry the tomatoes, and I can tell you that is a long work. You have to cut...

Growing Chili Peppers
Freezing chili peppers This is the easiest way to freeze chili peppers: remove the stems, cut them into slices (like the Jalapenos in the picture) and put them in a plastic...

Harvest and Store
As many of you already know, the best way to store basil is freezing it in ice cubes. During winter, a basil cube will be like a summer sunbeam added to your ragout, soups,...

Growing Chili Peppers
Chili peppers are ripening, and it's time to harvest the seeds. Some tips to harvest and store chili seeds. 1. Choose ripe pods: seeds from unripe pods will not sprout. Cut...

Harvest and Store
You can harvest rosemary and use it fresh all year long, except in coldest months when it's better to let the plant rest. It's possible to harvest in summer and store it: here...

Harvest and Store
Dandelion is a spontaneous herb, and it's all edible: leaves, flowers, roots... even buds. Some people say that they were similar to capers... I tryed them and it's not true:...

Harvest and Store
Chamomile flowers should be harvested before they fade, washed and dried in a ventilated, not humid, dark place. Then you can store them in a container, away from light and heat...

Harvest and Store
The previous post about storing mint is turned soon into one of the most popular, so I decided to post about another way to store mint and other herbs: dried. The picture in...

Harvest and Store
All mint plants are producing new leaves after winter dormancy, like my favourite, this White Mint. It's better to harvest often the leaves or they will become dry and...

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Saving seeds
Last month I bought some strawberries. As many of you will know, strawberry haven't seeds inside, but on the outside. I put some thin slices from the surface of the fruit on...