How to make dried oregano
This winter I went through my spice rack (which was given as a wedding gift 11 years ago) and threw out any spices I have yet to open and took inventory of spices I have at least used half of the container. These herbs were added to my growing list which one of which was oregano.
Here is the basic steps to harvest, dry, and store your own oregano:
- 1. Pick and clean (optional) the leaves
- Start by trimming as much as you may need for the next month. If the leaves are dirty give them a quick rinse and pat them dry with a paper towel. If the leaves are clean you can skip this step.
- 2. Strip the leaves from the stem
- You can try to save some time and plan on doing this after you dry but the stems will be come very brittle and will lead to a lot of tiny stem picking later. The easiest way to do this is to run your finger down the plant from the end of the stem toward the beginning that should get the leaves off pretty easily and quickly.
- 3. Dry the leaves
- If you have a food dehydrator place the leaves in a single layer and set to 90-100 degree F for about 24 hours. Alternately you can also dry the leaves by placing them in a screen in a dry warm place. You will know they are down when the leaves are crispy and can be pulverized easily with your fingers.
- 4. Storing the leaves
- Now you have two choices:
- 1. Keep the leaves whole and chop them as you need them for added flavor
- 2. Chop them up using a spice/coffee grinder and use them immediately as needed
As you can see the freshly dried oregano (left) looks much better than the stuff hanging around in my spice rack. Can’t tell from the picture but also smells much better too.
Tags: cheap, herb garden, oregano
Building a Pea Garden Trellis
14.8 years ago cheap, fall crops, peas
When building a pea trellis it is actually pretty hard to do it wrong. All that is needed is a little stability and once the plants grab hold they will make the structure even more stable. My typical strategy when making a pea trellis is to use whatever I happen to find closest to me. Here are a few examples from past and current years of building
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Bamboo Pole Structure Pea TrellisHere is a classic structure made from a couple pieces of bamboo poles scavenged from a couple of rotting scarecrows purchased a few years back at a craft store. I used a stick I am pretty sure one of my daughters picked up on a nature hike across the top bound with a few inches of twine. Lastly I attached a line of twine at 1 foot and 2 feet above the ground which gives the plant plenty of leverage to climb up the structure. Click on the picture to the left or below for a larger view.
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Branches Pea TrellisHere is probably the simplest technique out there. If you have some old branches left over from pruning? Just stick them in the ground and let the peas grow up the branch. This gives a nice natural look but also a variety of paths for the peas to naturally sprawl while given each plant plenty of personal space. |
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Vertical Stick or Pole Pea TrellisAnother simple option is just by simply driving a few straight sticks or bamboo or metal poles in the ground with a little assistance the peas will climb their way up the trellis |
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Hybrid A-Frame Pole Structure and Branch Pea TrellisDo you like more than one technique? Feel free to combine them like this where I used bamboo poles as additional support for branch pea trellis (though in the end the branches proved to do just fine by themselves, I sometimes over engineer things…) |
As you can see when it comes to making your own pea trellis it is very difficult to do it wrong. So do a quick scan around your yard and you should find exactly the materials you need. Though if you want something a little more professional looking there is always the commercial options (click images below for more info) which I would definitely recommend as well.
Tags: cheap, garden trellis
Science Fair – Will smaller seeds sprout faster?
14.8 years ago kids, science fair
This site was practically started because of my oldest daughters science fair project Why Don’t Strawberries Grow in the Wintertime? Now with my youngest in kindergarten she was very excited to have a science fair project of her own, which should be pretty obvious from the picture above.
With no influence from me she decided on answering the question if smaller seeds will sprout faster. These days science fairs are more than just gluing some some Styrofoam balls to a couple hangers and calling it good. They require using true scientific methods and procedures, which is pretty advanced for a 5 year old, although she didn’t seem to notice. Here is the contents of her experiment…
Hypothesis: Smaller seeds will grow bigger in a shorter amount of time because their roots don’t need to grow as big to support the plant
Procedure: I planted 3 seeds of each plant type (lettuce, cilantro, pumpkin) and watered them and gave them sunlight and I watched them grow.
Results: I planted the seeds at the same time and measured the growth over 2 weeks. The lettuce was the first one to sprout. The cilantro was the next one to sprout and the pumpkin was the last one to sprout. At week one, the lettuce was still the largest, cilantro was the second, and the pumpkin was the smallest
Conclusion: Smaller seeds sprouted and grow quicker than larger seeds.
I was very impressed with her project as well as the hypothesis, one of those moments of thinking, “hmm…is that how actually works…” Though you probably can think of a few plants that would break the hypothesis but pretty much on target for most plants.
Interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday
14.8 years ago Uncategorized
Another exciting day this week to be included in an interview on Science Friday with Ira Flatow. I’ll update this post and press page with a link to the interview when it becomes available.
For people who were listening live here are a few of the topics that were discussed for quick reference:
- How to make your own upside Down Planter In your Garden
- The most profitable plants in your vegetable garden
- Using used coffee grounds in your garden/compost
- The Great Sunflower Project [external]
[link to radio interview] [mirror]
Tags: cheap, compost, upside down tomato planter
Featured in The New York Times
14.9 years ago cheap, upside down planter
We were very excited to be featured in The New York Times last Thursday. Welcome to the many new visitors that visiting us this week. If you want to check out the entire article it is available online.
I have been considering creating a press page and figured this was a good opportunity to start a “CVG featured in the press page”
Tags: cheap, tomato plants, vegetables
How to make your own upside Down Planter In your Garden
14.9 years ago garden planter, planter, upside down planter
Over the past year I have created a few different versions of garden planters for growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers inspired from my daughter watching a Topsy Turvy tomato planter commercial. Here is a quick summary of the different options which you can click the link for full instructions how to build on yourself.
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2 Liter – The Original — This is the one that started it all. Very simple design using a 2 liter bottle covered with duct tape with a hole cut in the side to add soil and water as needed.Pros: Simple to create, dark color helped keep soil warm during the early part of the year, unlike the sibling seedling which I planted in the ground as a control which did not make it.Cons: Really had to keep up on watering, given it had a 2 inch hole in the side water was able to easily evaporate and it did not get the advantage of being watered automatically on raining days/weeks and given I wasn’t watering any other plants forgot about this poor one which led to reduced yields. |
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2 liter — Version 2.0 — This year I wanted something that did not appear as hideous hanging and also took care of the watering issue from the previous version. With this I created a slow drip watering reservoir and used spray paint and skipped the duct tape.Pros: Easy to water through manual or automatic (rain), evaporation is minimized due to small drainage holesCons: At the moment, there are none known. I am happy with this design. |
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1 gallon milk jug (with auto-watering) — I was curious about if the extra 1.799 liters with a larger contain would significantly help yields so I went with this version. Also decided to add an experimental external watering source.Pros: Larger volume of soil, extra watering capacityCons: Keeping the whole thing balanced was a pain, currently have it under control with a couple rubber band but will probably have to be replaced with something more permanent later. |
So there you have the short evolution of my homemade upside down tomato planters all created from materials from my recycling bin. Though if you do not want to make one yourself here are a just a few of the commercial upside down planter versions on the market right now.
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, upside down tomato planter, vegetables
