How Does Your Garden Grow?

My need for dried and fresh herbs will increase dramatically with the opening of our new Bed and Breakfast, Casa Bella. I relied heavily on my kitchen garden the first time around and look forward to planning and planting another garden in a few weeks.

I dried quite a few seeds over the late summer, fall and winter; hoping to grow them this season in my own garden, My hope is that everything will taste as good as the original store-bought version. How often can you even say that anymore? Too often the fruit and veggies have no flavor and mealy textures. So, we'll see.

One of my big goals for the year is to create raised beds on our empty lot behind the cottage and share it with a few neighbors and friends in the hopes of creating a "co-op" garden filled with herbs, vegetables, melons, fruit bushes and trees. I love our Newnan Market Days and am thinking about selling my herb and spice blends that I dry and blend from leftovers of episodes of Home At Last!

Which finally leads me to the picture of the Nesco Dehydrator that I bought this week. It was time to step it up and dry everything a little faster. Tonight I am drying jalepenos to add to my chile mixture for a Mexican spice blend that we enjoy. Looks like it going to be a fun spring and summer!

Here's one of my favorite blends that is always at hand for Tuscan meals. I dried leftover basil, sage, and added a small amount of bay leaf.