Garden's End

My plans for the weekend had been to do some cleaning, make a dump run on Saturday, go to the last farmer's market, and then spend Sunday writing. The Saturday schedule went about as expected, and I had a lovely time walking around the market, eventually coming home with these goodies:

Purple cauliflower, the last of the corn, fresh local apples, a pot of basil, organic bacon & sausage from local farmers

I came to find a large, fun box on my doorstep. Gods only know what my mail carrier thought when she delivered it. The lovely Robert Skinner, who made a special broom for me earlier in the year The Broom sent me a box full of broom-making supplies, so Blue Moon Circle could make one of our own together. He's even going to make me a "how to" video. We'll probably bless and consecrate the supplies at Samhain, even if we don't have a chance to make the broom itself until later.

Acme Broom Company--Contains 1 Flying Broom Kit

 My plans for Sunday changed when I woke up to this:

Kale with frost. Luckily, kale is hearty, and once the day warmed, it was just fine.

That's the kale, which is one of the few things left in the garden, covered with frost. It was the second serious frost of the season (and the second morning when the temps hit below 29 degrees), but it got really nice in the afternoon, so that made it Time to Put the Garden to Sleep for the Winter. I called my stalwart pal Ellen, and we spend a sunny afternoon clearing the remaining beds of debris, planting next year's garlic, and harvesting the herbs. (Plus the less appealing chores like rolling up and putting away hoses and such.) The lovely weather and good company made the work go quickly, and there is always something satisfying about having the garden all neat and tidy. The end of the season is bittersweet, but this too is part of the Wheel of the Year.

You can't see it now, but this is where the garlic will come up next year. And there's the kale, looking fine.

The fish pond, with the filter & fountain removed. A heater will keep it from freezing over later.

Lemon balm, chocolate mint, thyme, and rosemary for drying.

Miraculously, I even managed to get 2,100 words written later in the day, but boy, was I tired.

Still, it was a very satisfying weekend, for the most part. What did you do with yours? Did you put anything away for winter? Harvest anything good?

The Herb Harvest: Basil Uses, Magical and Mundane

We are in the midst of harvest season now. The Fall Equinox (also known as Mabon, and the 2nd of 3 harvest festivals on the Wiccan Wheel of the Year) is either the 22nd or the 23rd, depending on which calendar you look at. Either way, in most parts of the country, the harvest is in full swing, and most gardens are beginning to slow down as the nights grow cooler and the days grow shorter.

One of my favorite things to harvest at this time of year are herbs, so I've going to do a short series on a few of the ones I use the most. I tend to grow herbs that have multiple purposes: culinary, medicinal, and/or magical. Many herbs fall under this category, and they often have lovely flowers that attract bees and other beneficial insects. They're usually easy to grow, and you can harvest smaller pieces all through the growing season simply by snipping off the amount you need.

One of my basil patches in the garden.

 Basil is one of the herbs that tastes immensely better fresh than it does dried, and although it can be grown in a pot on a windowsill, I've always found it does much better outside. It's very sensitive to frost, so once it gets cold, you need to do something with whatever basil you have left in the garden. For me, that means PESTO!

Pesto is a simple sauce made from a few ingredients. There is no cooking required--just put them all together in a food processor or a blender and whir them together until you get the consistency you like. If you don't have a machine, you can do it by hand, but this involves a lot of chopping...

Pesto freezes extremely well, so you can grow or buy fresh basil, and put up a big batch at the end of the season. When you pull a container out in the middle of winter, it is like having a little bit of summer on your plate.

Basil's magical properties are love, protection, and prosperity, which means that it pairs well with the other ingredients in pesto. The traditional recipe calls for pine nuts, which are actually the seeds from inside a pine cone. (prosperity, love, strength) and they impart a nice creamy taste that helps to cut the strong flavor of the basil. But pine nuts are expensive and can be hard to find, so you can either mix them with or substitute walnuts (protection, intellect). Along with these you will use olive oil (sacred in many cultures, and used for health, peace, and spirit), garlic (protection and health), grated Parmesan cheese, and salt. (I also use a tablespoon or so of lemon juice, although I've never seen a recipe that calls for it. It's my secret ingredient, so shhhh...)

All the other ingredients for pesto. Just add fresh basil.

Various recipes will call for different proportions of these ingredients, but I never measure. I just start off with a lot of basil and a little bit of everything else, then tweak it as desired. If you are working a little love, protection, or prosperity magick with your cooking, remember to focus on bringing out these qualities as you blend and stir.

The finished product, ready to toss with pasta, put on top of little red potatoes, or, anything else your little heart desires.

A Herbal Harvest

Most of the garden has been put to bed now, other than one last batch of lettuce and spinach which will last until it snows (or maybe beyond, if I cover them). So this weekend I took care of the last harvest: clipping various herbs and bringing them inside to dry.

This is the small new herb patch by the back door. Most of the herbs are grown in a larger section off to the left of the main garden. They don't have to be fenced in because very little bothers them.

I use my herbs for a number of purposes, primarily culinary (cooking) and magical. Luckily, most common herbs can serve both purposes. For instance, rosemary is great in chicken or lamb dishes, but it is also used in protection magic, or for remembrance. (We often throw it in the Samhain bonfire for that reason.)

 Here's this year's harvest: starting at the middle left, you can see parsley, thyme, rosemary, purple sage, common sage, lemon balm, and chocolate mint. There are some chives tucked in there too.

 Magic and Angus are investigating, but I believe they were unimpressed, since there was no catnip.

Here are the herbs hung up to dry in my mudroom, over the shelf holding the garlic, boxes of small potatoes, and a few lovely squash that my friend John grew.

I love rosemary (and garlic, which is used as an herb, although it is actually a member of the onion family). I have a great rub that I use on leg of lamb: combine 12 cloves of garlic (yes, really), some rosemary, thyme, and oregano with a couple of tablespoons of sea salt or Kosher salt and some pepper. Throw it into a food processor with enough olive oil to make a paste and smear it on your roast. It forms an amazingly flavorful crust, and keeps the meat really moist. (Thanks to my friend Bobbie, who gave me this recipe years ago.)

What is your favorite herb, and what do you use it for?