This morning before they left the girls and I went out to the herb garden and the little one was having a great time shopping in the herb garden and then taking her goods in a big bowl back to the gazebo to pretend cook. She was having a great time. She likes to pick chives and since granny has two different kinds of chives, garlic chives and onion chives, she got a lesson on chives and didn't even know it. I'll bet though, she could tell you that garlic chives have flat leaves/stems and onion chives have round. Did you know that?
I'm going out today and cut the rest of the dill weed and get them dehydrated. We were so busy this week we forgot to get our work done - but gosh we had fun. All things must come to an end, at least for now, and granny has to get back to work!!!
In order to lift my spirits all I could think to do was cook and do laundry, both of which needed accomplishing, so I got busy! First off, I threw in a load of laundry and then decided to fix Chicken and Vegetable Broth!! I had prepared Chicken and Dumplings for supper last night and taken the chicken carcass which had quite a bit of meat left on it and froze it. There was plenty of chicken in the crockpot with the dumplings and I really had quite a bit of meat leftover. I previously, about 2 months ago, when I was freezing up the last of the broccoli, taken the broccoli stalks, after washing them, and froze them in a trash bag in the freezer. I also had some beet greens that didn't look all that great and had frozen them as well. All of that got thrown into the stock pot along with fresh onions, garlic, fresh parsley, cherry tomatoes, celery, carrots, basil, sage, astragalus, turmeric powder, a handful of rosehips, and some leftover green beans and potatoes. Everything except for the chicken, celery and turmeric came out of my garden. (Next year I'm going to freeze some lovage and then I won't even have to use celery from the store). Oh my gosh!!! If you could smell it all now!!!! I have brought it all to a boil, turned down the heat and will now simmer it for about 4 hours. After it simmers I will strain it, put it in jars and can it up. Yes, I could freeze it and that would be a lot faster but I like to can it. That way when I need it - I just pull it off the shelf and don't have to wait until it thaws. I'm currently tee-totally out of broth of any type. I used the last quart jar for the Chicken and Dumplings. After I get this accomplished I may start on a batch of beef broth this week-end. Then after Thanksgiving I'll make broth from the turkey. That ought to just about do me for the Winter!!!