The House Smells Wonderful!

I'm an avid gardener. Just a few steps away from the kitchen door -- which is the main entrance of any country house -- I have an herb garden. This year, in an effort to curry my favor, my husband took some planks from the old chicken coop and made me a fairly nice little bed for my herbs.

I expanded the usual parsley, mint, thyme and oregano to include basil, rosemary and something called "candy" mint. Since they all were a bit too much green, I also planted a package of nasturtiums. They're edible, too, but I've not gotten that hungry.

Today was harvest. So far I've dried a tray of mint and have basil, rosemary and thyme in the oven now. There's no great trick to drying herbs. Wash the cuttings, arrange them on a cookie sheet, and put them into the oven at 200 degrees for twenty minutes or so. You can store them in a recloseable sandwich bag -- they can crumple up nicely there.

But the little labled jars are so cute, aren't they? Someone comes into your kitchen and sees them and marvels at how clever you are. You glow. Weeding was worth it!

Oops! There goes the timer!