Drying rosemary and green peppers, making green tomato casserole

[CathyA]

When I first was given this "Ronco" dehydrator about 30 years ago, I thought it was probably useless. I pulled it out of storage years later and discovered its great for drying herbs. I dried my rosemary yesterday. Now I'm drying green peppers for the first time. All my peppers didn't start growing until about August, because of the drought/heat/etc, etc., etc.......so now since we're getting more frosts, I've picked alot of them early. I hope the dehydration works on them.
And same for the tomatoes...........I now have dozens of green ones. I've found a recipe for green tomatoes that just has fresh bread crumbs and cheddar cheese, so I'll give it try tonight, with salmon and broccoli for dinner. I hope we love it, 'cause I think we'll be having alot more of it. haha

I've more-or-less given up on the green pole beans. I get a handful every couple of weeks, but they're pretty tired.
How's your garden doing?

[Gregg]

We have a dehydrator and dry herbs all the time. It froze hard here a few nights back so I went and cut down a smaller rosemary bush to get started on that. Apparently the drought and the freeze conspired to make this a pretty potent batch. DW woke up in the night with a headache just because the smell of rosemary was SO strong! I had to put a fan in the window to air out the kitchen a little bit. Our neighbor sent me a text the next morning asking what we were cooking that used so much rosemary! Now, two days later, the house still smells wonderful.

[peggy]

I love the smell of rosemary. And I love using it in cooking even better! Pizza crust just isn't right without some snipped rosemary in it.

[CathyA]

In the past I've saved the stems and was going to put them in the fire place, but then would forget about them. Seems like it would make the house smell good.
Gregg......that's funny! Them thar are some potent herbs! haha

[awakenedsoul]

My garden is still producing. I've got pumpkins, zucchini, tomatoes, and honeydew melon on the vines. I've been picking persimmons. It's a great crop this year. I'll bring the green tomatoes inside and leave them on the counter. Cathy A,
I just leave them out in the kitchen and they ripen. I guess I should harvest some of my rosemary, too. I love using it in bbq'd lamb. I put some in the coals, and the smoke brings the flavor into the meat...delicious! I'm harvesting lettuce now, too.
Funny story about the rosemary, Gregg...

[iris lily]

I hope that your casserole is good. I can't bring myself to cook green tomatoes other than fry them.

We've pulling in tons of harvest: eggplant (done) beets, squashes and pumpkins, apples ( OMG the apples! multiple kinds! ) still some zuchhini, the second round of tomatoes. One of our kitchen counters is full of produce, plus the table on the patio is full, plus there is stuff going to waste in the garden. DH is a growin' fool.

[Selah]

Hmm...I recently dried several branches of rosemary by just having them lay out in a bowl in the kitchen, as I don't have a dehydrator. Does drying them more quickly make them retain more flavor or potency? Just curious.

Speaking of rosemary, my friend boils rosemary in water, lets it cool, and uses it as a hair treatment that she adds after she shampoos and conditions her hair. She doesn't rinse it out, and says it makes her hair very silky and shiny. (She does indeed have great looking hair, and doesn't use anything but the least expensive off-brand, generic shampoo and conditioner.) She has dark hair, but said it might turn blonde or white hair a bit orangeish, so I only suggest this for brunettes. Also, use a dark towel when towel-drying your hair after this treatment, since it might stain white or light-colored towels. She has very long hair and shampoos her hair two or three times a week, and uses the rosemary water every time.

[Gregg]

Hmm...I recently dried several branches of rosemary by just having them lay out in a bowl in the kitchen, as I don't have a dehydrator. Does drying them more quickly make them retain more flavor or potency? Just curious.


Yes it does. Once you cut herbs oxygen and light start to break down the oils in them. That's where the flavor and scent is. The key to keep as much of that as possible is to dry them quickly and then store them in a sealed container in a cool, dark place. We use a dehydrator, but your oven on the very lowest setting would work just fine. Keep a close eye on it if you do it that way. Our dehydrator gets to about 125*, the lowest our oven goes is 170* so there's a pretty big difference. Once dry we strip everything off the stems and then vacuum seal the herbs in small batches, taking our best guess at what we will use in a few weeks or a month once opened. We then store them in the freezer. The fridge might actually be a little better, but we have more room in the freezer.

[awakenedsoul]

Hmm...I recently dried several branches of rosemary by just having them lay out in a bowl in the kitchen, as I don't have a dehydrator. Does drying them more quickly make them retain more flavor or potency? Just curious.

Speaking of rosemary, my friend boils rosemary in water, lets it cool, and uses it as a hair treatment that she adds after she shampoos and conditions her hair. She doesn't rinse it out, and says it makes her hair very silky and shiny. (She does indeed have great looking hair, and doesn't use anything but the least expensive off-brand, generic shampoo and conditioner.) She has dark hair, but said it might turn blonde or white hair a bit orangeish, so I only suggest this for brunettes. Also, use a dark towel when towel-drying your hair after this treatment, since it might stain white or light-colored towels. She has very long hair and shampoos her hair two or three times a week, and uses the rosemary water every time.

I also like to use rosemary tea to mop my floors. It's a disenfectant. I'd forgotten about using rosemary tea for the hair. I'll have to start doing that again. It's also nice in the bath. It's good for sore muscles.

[cdttmm]

Wow -- you guys just gave me a whole bunch of great ideas for using rosemary! We have a lot that still needs to be harvested so this is awesome -- thanks!!!

[iforonwy]

That reminds me I put a lot of rosemary and lavendar out in the conservatory to dry a few days ago. Best go and check on it. I also put my red peppers out there to continue growing. There are lots on there almost ready to pick but they seem quite small. Brought in some green tomatoes that were the very last ones on the vines and they are turning red.

Yesterday I picked a handfull of raspberries I expect that they are the last of the season. They have not done very well this year as the weather has been so wet.

I also use the rosemary water on my hair.

[herbgeek]

I blend dried herbs with salt in a spice grinder and then use this blend for seasoning throughout the year. Rosemary salt is really nice on roasted chicken or steaks before cooking. I use maybe 1/4-1/3 c herbs per cup of salt, depending on how strong I want it. I also made some celery salt (I have a type of celery that just grows the leaves which I dried) which would be really nice in Bloody Mary's. :)

[Selah]

Ooh, thanks for all the information and good ideas, everyone! I have to do some floor scrubbing tomorrow, in fact, so I'll try my newly made rosemary concoction. (Writing about my friend's rosemary hair treatment finally got me off the dime to do it myself, and I just made my first batch today!)

Herbgeek, great idea about celery salt, particularly in Bloody Marys! The celery I find in Israel is extremely leafy, and you see more of the leaves being used in soups than the celery itself in other dishes. I never thought I'd be choosing the spindlier, more leafy celery to make my spicy lentil soup, over the massive, American-style celery ribs, but when in Rome, etc.