May Flowers and Herbal Oils

Nothing says spring quite like daffodils!

And hyacinths...
Oh that smell, that wonderful smell! I've got one hyacinth in front of my kitchen window and you catch just a faint whiff of it when the wind blows. It's like perfume in our home.

I must say that every spring I am happily reminded of how beautiful the subtle colors of spring leaves are. Just as they begin to open they have that lovely shade of green with that hint of yellow. I just love that color!

Today was a cool and beautiful day. Still no black flies at our house so outdoor time is still a joy. I did a lot of weeding especially in the strawberry bed. I also planted a second planting of beets, radishes, spinach, lettuce, and carrots. I plan to start to "harden off" my leeks and shallots that I started indoors about a month ago. "Hardening off" is a process that helps the plants that have been inside in a warm protected environment transition to the harsh outdoors. The way to do this is to put the seedlings that were started indoors outside in a sheltered spot during the day and move them back inside at night. Do this for a week and then they can stay out over night for a few days to a week and then they are "hardened off" and ready to be planted in the garden. Here's a pretty easy to read primer on the process:
http://www.ehow.com/how_12176_harden-seedlings.html

Note to self: I need to buy onion bulbs and spearmint plants this week! Also need to get fencing for the peas.

Speaking of peas, they are up; here's a photo: Aren't they cute!?

Forsythia and dandelions are beginning to bloom. That means it's almost time to plant potatoes. Potatoes go in when the dandelions bloom. Next weekend is the second weekend of the FEDCO Tree Sale. I love that sale! This weekend was the first weekend of the Tree Sale. If you preorder trees you get to go this first weekend. Those of us lazy gardeners who can't quite seem to get it together early in the year to place their preorder miss out on this weekend. Oh well; some year I'll get my order in on time. I plan to buy 2 peach trees and asparagus plants. The peach trees are for a dear friend who died yesterday morning. She lost her very long battle with breast cancer. I was with her the night she died and she was fairly unconscious but before she died she opened one eye, looked at me and said, "I smell peaches." So for Rosemary...peach trees! May she be in a place that has all the fresh peaches she could ever want.

Violets are also beginning to bloom; here is a photo of some that are blooming under my rose bushes.


Indoors the tomatoes and broccoli are beginning to look like the plants that they are. I may actually begin to harden off the broccoli soon too. Broccoli, leeks, and shallots are all cool season crops so they can handle the cooler temps outdoors. I won't begin to harden off the tomatoes and flowers for a while yet since they are warm weather crops.

Here's the broccoli:


and the first indoor planting of cherry tomatoes:


I think I'll end with a picture of and information about chervil. If you've never grown and used chervil you MUST give it a try!! Chervil is an amazing herb. The flavor is a hint of anise and there is nothing like scrambled eggs with chervil in them! Heaven on Earth! You of course can put chervil on salad, in stir fries, on sandwiches...anything! And another thing about chervil is that it self sows. That means it makes a ton of seeds that fall on the ground and then they grow into new chervil plants the following year! I've had my chervil bed for 4 years now. And it all began with one plant.

This year I'm going to try making some chervil oil. In the past I've been leery of making herbal oils. That whole botulism scare.
Let me add here that I just took a class on canning and our extension service does not recommend that there is any way of making herb oil safely. There, that's my disclaimer.
But last summer I read several articles on making herbal oils and I read that the the most common culprit of spoiled and dangerous herbal oil is the garlic that is often steeped in it. But again, disclaimer, oil is alkaline and so are herbs. So there is not enough acid for extension to consider this a guarantee safe thing to do. Ok...back to......So last summer I made a variety of herbal oils without any garlic and I have to say they were wonderful; it was like having the herbs all winter long! I put maybe about 1/4 of a jar's worth of herbs and filled the rest of the jar with a good grade extra virgin olive oil. Whatever you do don't use "lite" olive oil and don't put too many herbs into the jar! Use extra virgin olive oil and none of the herbs should be above the oil line. This year I had to throw out a lot of tarragon oil that I was making because I put too much tarragon in and some was above the oil and it molded! Let the mixture sit for a day or two (out of sunlight), strain, and then put some more fresh herbs in the jar and do it again for another day or two. I did that until I could get a good whiff of the herb even when the plant material wasn't in the jar. Maybe a week or two depending on how much fresh herbs I had from the garden and until I got tired of doing it. My favorite was french tarragon oil. Ohh laa laa! I used that oil to cook my morning eggs (local free range of course; never eggs from those god forsaken factory farms!!) and the tarragon oil gave just a slight and delicious hint of tarragon to the eggs. I also made a yummy Mexican/Thai oil with a dried hot pepper, coriander,and oregano. It was delicious! I also made basil oil and Italian oil. Remember not to put too much herb in the oil. You also don't want watery herbs in the oil, that's why I dried the hot pepper before I infused the oil with it. And also be sure to strain ALL plant material out before you store the oil. I did notice some oils had a funky film in them after a while but I used a fine strainer and strained them again and put them in clean jars and they came out crystal clear and tasted fine and I'm still here to tell you about it.

It's neat to notice how not only do the different herbs impart different flavors and smells but also differ net colors. Experiment and try different herbs. Will definitely try mint oil this year! That would be good in a salad dressing and on cooked beets!
Here's the chervil plant.
Next week compost, rototilling, asparagus, and I'm sure black flies!

But first... a friend sent me this poem this morning and it seems to capture this time of year and time in my life. Maybe it will resonate with you too.

In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.