Gardening, drying stuff
Sep. 20th, 2006 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenGathered in a bunch of sage (salvia officinalis), then got carried away with weeding and trimming, so now the iris and daisies are shortened for the winter. Iris leaves and stems are quite fibrous, so the leaves and stems I didn't get to last year were still there; I cleared some of that away too -- if you let it all pile up, the dampness will rot the rhizomes. I need to divide them up a bit more, if not this fall then next summer, and give them new homes with other folks. Some of them were from KC, a friend of mine who passed away last spring. Her flowers are in a number of folks gardens, here in western Mass.
I've managed to hang up some bundles of the sage, but still have a small bagful to do after lunch. I was going to try drying some to make smudge sticks, but apparently the two types used are white sage (mine is 'common') and sagebrush, which is from the artemesia family -- depends on where you live, which one you grow and gather to use. Ah well. Common Sage is has antiseptic and antibacterial properties, is good for cooking, sore throats, hair rinses, and a bunch of other stuff. Helps to preserve food at the same time as flavoring it, although it isn't a very strong preservative. But if you combine it with Rosemary (another herb with antiseptic properties and an astringent), it can help keep cooked chicken for at least a week in your fridge, and the chicken will taste the same a week later as it did the first day. Pretty cool, eh?
Well, off to lunch...
I've managed to hang up some bundles of the sage, but still have a small bagful to do after lunch. I was going to try drying some to make smudge sticks, but apparently the two types used are white sage (mine is 'common') and sagebrush, which is from the artemesia family -- depends on where you live, which one you grow and gather to use. Ah well. Common Sage is has antiseptic and antibacterial properties, is good for cooking, sore throats, hair rinses, and a bunch of other stuff. Helps to preserve food at the same time as flavoring it, although it isn't a very strong preservative. But if you combine it with Rosemary (another herb with antiseptic properties and an astringent), it can help keep cooked chicken for at least a week in your fridge, and the chicken will taste the same a week later as it did the first day. Pretty cool, eh?
Well, off to lunch...
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Sage...
Date: 2006-09-20 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-20 09:30 pm (UTC)Sage properties
Date: 2006-09-21 03:12 am (UTC)Didn't know about the bug repellent property... Guess that makes sense in some way. Apparently both sage and tansy, another bug repellant, have thujones -- and arbor vitae, mugwort, and the artemisia family -- so maybe the thujone is what does it?