Enjoying the Benefits of the Garden ...

I've enjoyed gardening almost as long as I can remember.

I take that back. When I was a girl, I did not enjoy the garden, because my job was to hoe...pull weeds...or shell peas and lima beans.  All. Summer. Long.  Or so it seemed.

However, the tide has turned, and now that it's my garden, it's mostly fun!

I've been growing herbs for the past few summers, but never seem to use them all up.  I haven't been able to find just the right spot to grow them, where they're also easily accessible on short notice.  I planted rosemary in the pig trough on our porch this year, and it did great.  In fact, it's still looking great, even though we've had several frosts, and below freezing temps the past few days.

I really enjoy the flavor of rosemary, so I decided to try "making" rosemary infused olive oil.

The first thing I did was dry some sprigs of rosemary.  I left them lay on the windowsill in the sun for several weeks to make sure they were completely dry.  (I learned quickly, after a first botched attempt, that the herbs must be thoroughly dried before doing this.  Otherwise you risk getting botulism in your oil!)

Then I looked around for just the right bottle to put it in, and finally found small bottles with different colored stoppers.  I put several sprigs of rosemary in the bottle, filled it with olive oil, and sat it on my kitchen window sill for a month or so...

This morning I took off the topper, and the rosemary smell was strong.  Yay...it had worked!  I thought I'd try using the oil to fry up some potatoes (from our garden)...

The potatoes smelled delicious as they fried.  The rosemary scent was just enough to make your mouth water, and the flavor was mild and not overpowering.

I think I found some great gift ideas!  What ideas do you have for using up fresh herbs?