Harvesting Rosemary for Your Kitchen Use

Dried rosemary in a sachet

When you've got a lovely rosemary bush in the garden, or an abundant one growing in your neighbour's garden, it's worth harvesting it and keeping some in your kitchen for cooking.

Select a fresh and abundant rosemary bush. It's best to harvest on a fine day rather than harvesting wet or moist rosemary. Cut as much as you would like to store.

Create bundles from the cut rosemary. Remove any straggling bits or loose pieces. Tie each bundle together, leaving some of the string or ribbon dangling. Hang the bundles up in a dry, dark, and well ventilated space to dry. It'll take a few weeks to dry completely.

Untie the dried rosemary and run your hand down each stem to remove the individual rosemary leaves. Capture the leaves on baking paper or a chopping board and tip into a storage jar using a funnel.

Make Your Own Lavender Potpourri to Protect Clothing

Lavender sachets

Lavender is always a delightful scent. When storing clothing or linen, lavender can help keep the linen smelling fresh and can deter moths and silverfish. This potpourri is easy to make and will last well.

You'll need the following:

• 10 cups lavender leaves and flowers
• 3 cups coarse rock salt
• 1 cup coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 cup cinnamon and nutmeg, mixed and crushed (use fresh nutmeg if possible)
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp (6 - 12.5ml) lavender oil

Press the lavender flowers and leaves together in a mortar and pestle. As you're doing this, enjoy the delightful scent that wafts up! When pressed, layer them alternately with the rock salt in a suitably sized jar. Keep filling until you reach the top. Use something heavy to press down on the layers, such as a decently sized pebble or rock, or something else from around the house.

Set it aside for 10 days. Remove the layers from the jar and place on a chopping board. Break up the ingredients and return them to the jar. This time, also add the spices and the lavender oil. Leave to stand for another 10 days.

It's ready to use now. It can be used in different ways but sachets are really ideal because these contain the mixture well and can be placed in storage areas. Add sachets to your linens, blankets, folded clothing, sheets, etc. for protection. Tuck them into pockets of clothing or hang around coat hangers.

Another way to use them is to pour into small jars with holes poked into the lids; place in drawers, etc.

Let me know if you make these and how you found them!

Revving up again!

 Chocolates anyone? I say, why not?!

I abandoned this blog for a while as I experimented with a wide variety of other blog and online content creation experiences. I've decided to resume this one because it's the blog closest to my heart and the blog I think I can add the most useful things for everyone to enjoy. It's also helpful for my other projects too and I hope it'll be a source of inspiration for many of you! Like me, it's eclectic and my idea of what is sustainable is based on what is obtainable fairly, through resourcefulness and by being considerate of the environment, all species, and all people, so it's wide in its coverage!

So, without further ado, my expanded sustainable lifestyle toolbox will be coming back to life on a semi-regular basis! Thanks for your reads and patience everyone!