Take a Peek Inside The Homestead Herb Cabinet
My favourite of all homesteading things is gathering plants/flowers & herbs for my culinary / witchy apothecary collection. We use a lot of herbs in our food as well as skin care, salves, tinctures and other remedies. Plants and herbs are truly multi-purpose and we can be a little bit greedy and indulgent in our use of many of these items because we grow most of them.
I thought I would share some of the contents of our herb cabinet and maybe give you a few new ideas for things you can grow, gather and store with ease.
Everything pictured here is from the garden/forest. Rose petals, rose hips, dill, sage, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, mint, oregano, basil, chard, nasturtium leaves (provide a peppery flavour to dishes also good in teas to sooth coughs), Crushed tomato skins (give a nice roasted tomato flavour to dishes) sunflower petals, dried fireweed leaf and flowers, Labrador tea & juniper berries.
Here's a closer photo of some of the herbs. sometimes I just open the jars, smell the contents and then close them up again. They just smell so good. Is that weird?
We don't grow everything we use. I have some bulk herbs such as: Ecinacia, Hibiscus (I make lemonade with it in the summer, infuse it in vinegar and use it as a dye for soaps), St Johns Wort & Eucalyptus on hand.
And there's the common household spices that we purchase in bulk as well. A friend once told me with authority that you are supposed to only buy what you can use within a year because they lose their potency. I've had some of these for three years and they are still working fine by my accounts. I store them in dark, dry location in well sealed containers. If they loose their strength - use more! :)
Turmeric, cayenne, peppercorns, sesame seeds, mustard, nutmeg, bee pollen, caraway, gara masala, poppy seeds, anise & chilli powder.
Also, I have herbs and flowers, garlic and other things hanging in bundles everywhere. It's small things like this light up my heart with happiness. There's garlic, tobacco leaf, Vietnamese coriander, feverfew, lavender hanging around.
Do you have a herb cabinet? What's inside yours??
Building a greener, more beautiful world one seed at a time.
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Damn... what a stunning collection! There’s so much power in knowing the offerings of planet earth and their powers!
I am so grateful for all that we have and our knowledge to use it. There's this wonderful cycle where the bees get to enjoy many of these plants, the critters that live beneath them, and then we get to harvest some of it for our own use.
Perfect! Sustainable Medicinal and Respectful <3 Way to be friend!
You have a very nice collection there! Congratulations!
Thank you! :)
That's a beautiful sight! We've dried mint, oregano, sage and a few other herbs from the garden. Then I get most of my spices from Penzeys in bulk. Luckily I cook enough that I'm more likely to run out of something than have it lose it's potency! Thanks for sharing your collection. 😀
Thanks! I really do love this cabinet. It's a real delight to have herbs in abundance. I remember years ago when I used them so sparingly because they were so expensive.
'Is that weird' Made me laugh - no it's not weird it's your passion!! What a fabulous collection!!! What do you use rose petals for and how do you dry them?
oooh. Rose petals are awesome. Over the summer I'll take basket out with me and run my hands over the petals gathering the ones that fall into the basket. I dry them on a mesh screen in a dry location. By autumn I have so many dried rose petals!
I use them for so many things. Rose mint soap recipe, in scones and cakes, herbal infusions (steep them in jojoba with lavender and you've got my all in one skin care regime). I make a tea that is rose hips, rose petals and mint ... I also make strawberry rose jam, rose simple syrup and some other things like that with the fresh petals. :)
Roses are so much fun! :)
I simply need to know way more about this and I really want to make rose hip syrup - I want to pick your brains more!
Well, I love working with roses. I'd be happy to share what I know. I actually have a bunch of photos taken that show how I dry rose hips (and get the hairs out) and a rose hip jam recipe that I've been wanting to write.
anything you need to know feel free to ask!
Lol all of the above - I know absolutely nothing except I love them and I really liked rose hip syrup as a drink when I was a child :)
Oh and what the heck is Labrador tea???
Labrador tea is a forest shrub. You pick and dry the leaves for tea. Its correct name is: Rhododendron groenlandicum. (I had to look this up (lol). It grows in boggy/rocky locations mostly and I think in colder climates.
I've never made rose hip syrup but I make all kinds of syrups in the summer and after looking at a few recipes this one is not much different.
You'll want to boil/simmer fresh hips in water until they turn into a pulp and then strain really, really well. The hips have hairs inside that are super irritating to the throat. So I would strain multiple times with a thick piece of cheese cloth or muslin. Once that's done you'll take sugar or honey and simmer that mixture until it thickens to the consistency you want.
It will be a while until I have fresh hips to work with! Rose petal syrup is really easy. You just steep the petals in water to make a tea and then add lemon juice and sugar and simmer until it thickens. Its quite lovely. It would be like this recipe but you need to use (3-4 cups) of water to make the juice.
https://www.walkerland.ca/strawberry-syrup/
I didn't know that about the rose hips and the hairs. I'd love a post on dealing with that.
I dehydrate as many rugosa rose petals as I can for the hens, aiming for at least a quart jar full. I could also make tea with them, but never do.
love it! walking the witchy way! little jealous you have labrador tea! that grows in your forest?
yes, it grows in our forest! I'll have to send you some when they are in season. There's plenty for sharing. :)
Wow! Yours is as full as mine!
This is the spice cabinet in the kitchen. But I have 2 shelves devoted to herbs for us and herbs for the layers in the pantry.
This side is our herbs, spices, teas, and medicinals.
Most of this side is for the hens, there are 42 jars for them.
Very nice. You sure spoil your hens!
What a glorious collection! I have zero :( but I'm going to be taking the baby-est of baby steps toward growing and drying my own herbs this year (fingers crossed). Where do you get the bulk herbs?
Baby steps! It's taken me a lot of years to get to this point! I order my supplies from a wide range of sources. I hate to admit it but Amazon has a great selection of organic bulk herbs. That's where I buy my hibiscus from as well.
I am looking forward to growing and drying more herbs this year, especially flowers. Your post gave me many ideas. I have just the basics I dried last year. Basil, oregano, chives and then I mixed herbs and froze in Ice trays too, just to plop in dishes. I froze a lot of mint in ice trays for tea. I have used more of it than anything. Your collection is beautiful. #herbgoals
So glad you got some new ideas. I love when that happens ... although my list of things I need to try keeps getting longer and longer (I blame steemit).
I feel ya! Between Steemit and IG I have enough to keep me busy forever..... very thankful to have all these new cyber friends to keep me busy!