FrozenDry

Spotlight on: Lemon Verbena

Grown for it's strong lemon aroma and flavour, this herb is often used in teas and cosmetics. It is a deciduous shrub growing 1.5-3m tall and tolerates the Hawea climate well in a nice sunny, sheltered location. Shortly, in late summer plants will flower tiny white to lavender blossoms. It might possibly be my favourite herb, I just love brushing past it's leaves.

The leaves and oil can be used as a fragrant addition to salads, in tea, herbed honeys or stuffing.

The freeze dried leaves retain most of their scent and can be easily crushed for use in your cooking and drinks.

Excess home produce 🍑🍓🫐

When you have stewed fruit coming out your ears and can’t face another day of listening to the dehydrator - chuck a load in the freeze drier ✌️

Here’s a load from the Hunter Valley 🤗

Beautiful Cherries, Fresh & Freshly Dried.

The aim was to dry them whole, but very difficult and many were sticky in the centre…. Which was AMAZING. A happy accident.

Aside from eating these fruit lollies, some have been ground into sugar, baked into chocolate cakes and added to the daily Museli. Ensuring some will be tucked away for venison stew this winter will be tricky 😋

The new packs have arrived!

Aha, the evil plastic bag you say. Well, this one has a high moisture barrier, is #4 recyclable (see you local soft plastics recycling bin) and is beautifully clear so you can see the goods.

Unfortunately the compostable bags didn’t stand up to the moisture requirements, and glass jars are prohibitively expensive unless there’s a good jar return scheme.

Bring on new tech in the packaging industry!

Pleased to get my fridge back. And now I have ham chips 😋

Bagged some up for a camping feast, later in Autumn. Really pleased with the result, tastes like the real thing, smells delicious and readily reconstitutes with moisture.