This is a picture of my garden in its heyday this August. This was my first year of gardening and I got very attached to my "plant children." I planted basil, lemon basil, rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, cilantro, cayenne peppers and ten kinds of tomatoes. I'll probably cry like a little girl when I have to say goodbye to my precious garden. Chicago will go into deep-freeze mode any day now, and we won't see any vegetation for at least 6 months.
One thing that's cheering me up slightly is my friend Karen's great idea for saving herbs over the winter: Pesto ice cubes! Basically you puree your basil leaves, parsley, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, and olive oil, pour the mixture into ice cube trays, and freeze. Put all your frozen cubes into zip lock bags and save them to use all winter in soups, pasta sauces, and whatev!
I found a good
site that describes the process in more detail. I'm going to try making rosemary-cayenne-lemon basil cubes, too.
Other herbs like lavender and sage can be dried. They'll be going into a new line of exfoliating herbal
soaps this winter :)
I will be out of town this week for my husband's an art exhibition at Hotel Tides in Asbury Park, NJ. I haven't been there yet, but they say Asbury Park is epically beautiful. If you happen to be in town, stop by the show. I'll have a little table of soap, lotion, and lip balm for sale, too.
