Pickings

Gotta find new picking spots ...

We moved house a bit over a year ago, and all my old haunts are at the old place. And unfortunately, pickings aren't as easy here.

So I went out into the countryside last week and picked a few herbs. And I set all three of my dehydrators to hum, once I got home. They were completely filled up, one with nettles, one with horsetail and one with white deadnettle. I could've gotten other herbs, too, or more of these, but the mosquitoes were out in force, so things got too tedious to continue.

The St. John's wort will be flowering by midsummer this year, as we're still 2-3 weeks ahead of our normal summer schedule (which we've been since late March). I'll go picking a lot of other high summer plants around midsummer, too: all the ones which usually are ready for picking around mid-July.

It's funny, isn't it, how much less space the dried herb takes when compared to the fresh ... the baskets were full to overflowing, packed down tightly, and now things fit into 1- and 2-liter jars.