Mint Puree

I needed to prune my mint pot. It was getting too leggy so I trimmed off 8 inches(20cm)or so. What to do with the mint? Dried mint is easy but not special. I decided, after my mint chutney experience to puree and freeze it.

I had a LOT of mint. I pulled the leaves off and used only the stems at the tips. I mixed in a little bit of water and started with just a little mint, adding more as each bit was pureed. This was a bit tedious adding a little mint at a time but I ended up with almost a pint of it, and it actually burned my eyes when I opened the blender. I did not need to add anymore water after the initial time. I think that the large quantity worked out much better than a smaller one would have.

I ended up with a mixture that was mostly a very wet paste on the bottom which some liquid on top. I did my best to distribute the paste into my ice cube tray and to pour that remaining liquid evenly on top.

After it is frozen I will take the cube out of the tray and into a freezer bag. I may use this puree in lots of things but on the top of my list is mint chutney. One cube should be enough for a small batch.

Last Photos before the frost

I am posting these pictures at random. I will admit that I increased the saturation of these images because they just look more luscious.

The 1st is a purple tomatillo that was sent to me instead of some pepper I ordered. It did not set fruit until just a few weeks ago which irritated me greatly. Maye it's just me but it just might not be a great crop for my Pittsburgh climate. I also was greatly irritated by my pineapple sage's reluctance to bloom until a few weeks ago. I think I won't bother with either next year.
Next we have cardoon, a close relative to the artichoke. It is the plant in the pot in the center. I guess I posted this picture to give you an idea of how chaotic my garden 'plan' is. Anyway, I ate some of this cardoon twice this summer. The 1st time it was OK, but the 2nd it seemed bitter. I don't get it I guess. I mean, kale and other stuff is easier.

The dark green foliage cascading down my step is a holy mole pepper plant. I got this as a 4 pack from Michaels Bros and it performed really well. I only harvested 2 really ripe peppers from it but the green one I got were plentiful, quite long, flavorful, and just a little spicy. They were wonderful stuffed with sausage though these guys are skinny so stuffing them was harder than most peppers.

Here's a cross section of one of these ripe holy mole peppers without benefit of saturation, no cheating here, just to show how pretty they are. Perhaps if I had gotten them in the ground earlier they would have ripened earlier.

Honestly, this past season I got a late start. I had to clear away a lot of weeds and english ivy before I could plant things. So the mole plant sorta survived 2 frosts, but I don't think I'll be getting anymore peppers from it.
Next we have some good stuff on my chopping block. My garden could loosely be called a 'kitchen garden'. I frequently step outside and grab a bit of this and some of that. Some of this in this instance is dinosaur kale, lacinato kale(same thing) that is looking good post-frost, some cinnamon basil, all killed, and red mustard, very nice and very spicy.

I sometimes use recipes. Sometimes I wish I used recipes but often what I make is just fine.

Garden Dreams

This love lies bleeding amaranth came from Garden Dreams. I love Garden Dreams! They are located at 812 Holland Avenue in Wilkinsburg.

This place sells seedlings, mostly tomatoes. This past season if I had known about them I would have got all mine there but somehow I was oblivious. They have somewhere around 100 varieties of tomatoes and use organic methods.

Anyway, I got this lovely plant there and of all the things in my garden, it receives more compliments than anything else.

Garden Dreams has a website but it seems not to be active right now. I think they won't be doing a lot until February or so.

In addition to tomatoes they also sell pepper plants, eggplant plants, various herbs and a few flowers. I believe that everything they sell is edible in a way including this amaranth though I honestly have not intention of harvesting it, at least not this year.

What do you do with Basil at the end of the growing season?

I grow a lot of basil. In theory if you tuck it in with your delectable plant, it confuses pests. I have found this not to be true but I do it anyway. I just have basil growing everywhere.
Unfortunately, it is tender so when it gets cold, it dies. There's nothing like fresh basil. I keep a couple pots indoor through the winter though my success with that is still iffy. What I have done and found very worthwhile is freezing basil in ice cubes.

This series of photos shows the process, 1st, some cinnamon basil insitu. Cinnamon basil is not my favorite. I get annoyed by it because it resembles Thai Basil, and tastes similar, but not quite as good to me. I think it grows better in my climate too.

So here we have my ice cube tray, a fancy one I got at
Bed Bath & Beyond. Browsing their site, I do not see what I got. These cubes are slightly larger than most and make a very square cube. It's also that nice squishy silicone so it's easy to get the cubes out.

You'll notice that I just jammed as much basil as I could in each cube. I'm not tidy by nature and here it doesn't matter.
Once they are frozen, you just pop them out and put them in a plastic bag or something. If you are like me and have several varieties, you might wanna label the bag.

Hmm, below, there is some lemon basil, one of my favorites, tucked in with some random plants, like thyme and butterfly bush. This one I let got to seed. I don't just use the leaves, I throw in the flower buds and flowers themselves. The only part of the basil I don't use are the roots and the stem.

So the ice cube let's you use a measured amount of basil, for these cubes I think I managed to stuff about 2 teaspoon per cube, but I didn't measure. When I use the cubes, I generally add it to whatever I am cooking right at the very end. I just let it thaw out and get warm. Otherwise, it's almost the same as using dry.

You may do this with whatever other herbs suit your fancy. It's very nice with tarragon. Some folks make a mix, say something that would be perfect for seasoning chicken soup.

Anyway good luck!