Dried Herbs (homegrown) are so much better!

You know over these past many years now since I made fundamental changes to my diet and have never looked back, I really thought I had seen, heard, done, or eaten it all. But this summer with my latest twist in removing these few items of processed foods (they were still organic) out of my cupboards, there has been another eye-opener.

I mean, I eat organic and have for years, have been either vegan or vegetarian off and on, for  nearly two decades and only now include a little fish and meat in our diets (once a month or so). I would think my body tissues, my organs and my taste buds to be fairly clean.

Detoxing is what I am known for, in all it's forms - I have been incorporating fasting for quite some time into my normal routine and am very selective on which foods might slow down the digestion in any way. However....

Today once again I was blown away by the fragrance, taste and look of my home grown dried herbs from the garden. Usually I would buy a few herbs for my own use and they would mostly be organic. Good so far, right?

Dried herbs - slowly filling the jars with sage, dill and thyme

But why do they not 'smell' as fragrant as homegrown herbs, or look as green or flavour my food in the same way? These past few weeks I have been steadily throwing old shop bought herbs onto the fire and replacing them as they are ready from my garden.

This year I am determined to dry enough to last me until they come up again in the spring - and I have a wider range of plants to choose from as well as many more of them. In the exact same way that homemade jam or pickles do not compare to anything that comes from a shop, these herbs are amazing.

A paper bag full of dried sage 

I wish you were here because it is hard to explain - I open the jar in the kitchen and you can smell the herb everywhere. Each one of them are bursting with an intensity of aroma. Today I left an open jar of dill herb on the counter and walked into another room - the fragrance slowly made its way around as if floating on the air.

Magic. Perhaps it's all the rain (must be good for something LOL)!!

Have a lovely herby day,

April 

Kiwi apple fruit leather - it was yummy! All gone now....

Fruit Leather

I am now always on the alert for anything different I can make for the children for some different tastes and textures. Also, because we are not buying foods made in factories, I am now simply assuming, everything can be made at home.

Lately, I have been very pleased with nearly all the results from my attempts at making homemade goodies and treats. The halva I made last week was perhaps one of the trickier types of recipes to try, even though it did not get as hard as the one from a shop, it was much tastier with a creamy texture we loved.

Then each of the nut butters I have made here - almond butter for instance, so simple yet an elegant taste of only almonds. The difference between a shop bought one and a homemade nut butter seems to be the flavour. The one I made was still very 'almondy' even after a few days.

Then the sunflower seed butter - the kids are still raving about it. I added a splash of honey to it which not only changed the taste to something very sweet, but gave the butter a depth we had not tasted before. The children were not interested in the least in anything coming from a factory, they preferred our own homemade versions of each food I prepared.

I guess at this point into these changes to our diet, I have renewed hope and a sense of purpose, because there is no turning back! 

Today I thought to try my hand at some fruit leather or fruit roll-ups as I have seen them in shops previously. We love dried fruit of any kind and use lots of it in our muesli and baking or anywhere else it can fit in. So, this stuff should be a hit as well.

Fruit leather is generally cooked pureed fruit, that has been dehydrated in some way. To make this food, I cooked some apples and kiwis, mostly because that's what is on hand, put some orange juice and water with it, and a splash of maple syrup. Then used my handy blender to get it to a smooth texture once it had cooked down a bit.

raw apples and kiwi

I poured it into a flat baking pan on a piece of parchment paper - now it is still in the oven and has been for about 4 hours or so on a very low heat. This will (hopefully) dry out into a type of fruit strip that can be rolled up and eaten as a snack. Apparently it may take a few hours before it is tacky, but not sticky to touch.

Totally unnecessary? Perhaps, but something different for us to try out. I will let you know how this one tastes once it is done. 

Have a lovely day!

April

Apple Kiwi puree ready for the oven