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Growing Herbs

July 14, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

A guide to growing herbs and some suggestions for their uses from the Bridge Cottage garden and kitchen.

Growing Herbs The Bridge Cottage Way

A herb is a plant, flower or leaf that is grown for culinary, medicinal or beauty uses.

Herbs can be grown in pots, on a windowsill or in the ground, and will thrive in a sunny, sheltered position. They will provide you with delicious and nutritious flavourings for your cooking, for teas and have been used for medicinal uses for centuries.

Herbs can be divided into two groups:

Annuals which should be planted yearly, and include tender herbs such as basil, parsley, marjoram, coriander, borage. Sow basil and coriander every few weeks to give a continuous supply throughout the growing season. Collect seeds before composting plants at the end of the year.

Perennials will, with a little tender loving care, keep giving every year. Just snip off leaves when you need them. These include herbs such as mint, lemon balm, sage, chives, thyme, rosemary, oregano, fennel.

Basil as a companion plant to tomatoes

Sow tender herbs such as basil in a greenhouse, or on a sunny windowsill. Basil is a great companion plant to tomatoes both in the saucepan and in the greenhouse or on a windowsill. We’ve found that growing basil in containers is better than in the ground. We are careful not to over water basil and pick by removing the larger leaves. Basil freezes well, as does parsley, and you’ll be very grateful of frozen herbs in the depths of winter.

Mint, loved by us for mint tea, is a spreader – along with its friend, lemon balm, it is best grown in a pot if you don’t want it taking over. We’ve just noticed the mint we brought back from Morocco and planted in the ground is now growing in our farmer’s field. I hope the cows like it!

Lemon balm grown in a tyre to prevent spreading

We grow our lemon balm in a recycled tyre and find this help to prevent the spread. As well as mint sauce to go with roast lamb, mint is super in a Taboulleh in raita with curry, or combined with its friends lemon balm and nettles, in a refreshing herbal tea. There are lots of varieties of mint – we love chocolate mint which smells of After Eights.

Thyme is a wonderful herb for use in cooking, added to herb salt, and saved for medicinal uses. Whenever the family have a sore throat, I pipe up ‘thyme tea’ and brew it with honey for sore throats and colds. It is easy to grow and will do well in pots of in the ground. There are lots of varieties, and a container display of different thymes can be very pretty.

Chives grown in a recycled container

Chives are really easy to grow and will come back year after year. They are a good container herb if space is tight. We once grew chives in a recycled Vax! Snip a few chives to go into a potato salad, and don’t forget to pickle the flower heads – delicious!

Rosemary

Rosemary is another perennial herb to grown and this one seems to like the sunny position we’ve given it against a west-facing wall. It’s July as I write this, and on Gardener’s World last week, Monty Don told us it was time to take rosemary cuttings, so that’s a job for the weekend, and I’ll write a piece about that in the next couple of days.

How to take Rosemary Cuttings by Gardener’s World.

Parsley is slow to germinate – I had read that you should pee on it to help germination, though I’ve never done it! Parsley should be grown annually, although a late sowing will overwinter in the greenhouse and provide another flush before going to seed in Spring.

Purple Sage

Sage will keep growing, and benefits from being pruned in the Spring. As its stems are hollow, avoid cutting it back in winter, or the cold with travel down the stem and kill the plant. Sage is wonderful made as a tea and can help with menopausal hot flushes. It is also excellent for coughs and respiratory infections. We cook a sage and squash risotto in the autumn when squash are in season. Sage is a good herb to dry for use over winter, or pop into bags in the freezer. Sage and onion stuffing for chicken tastes so much better when it’s homemade, rather than from a packet!

Talking of seeds, don’t forget to collect your seeds, not only for growing herbs the following year but to use for cooking and tea. I adore fennel seeds any collect from this plant every year, keeping a jar handy for fennel tea and cooking. I have been told that adding fennel seeds to dishes with beans or lentils can help prevent excess flatulence!

Borage

Borage is a wonderful plant to grow and can be added to tea or strewn amongst salad leaves. Borage for bravery! It is an annual, although will self-seed, so only grow it where you are prepared for it to pop up every year. Borage is a great plant for adding to the comfrey feed bucket along with nettles, to provide a nutrient-rich feed for fruiting plants and hanging baskets – see the post on Making Comfrey Feed.

Fennel

Other posts you might enjoy if you are growing herbs:

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Make Your Own Solstice Salt

July 10, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Make you own herb salt

Herbs are in abundance in summer, and they can be used fresh, when full of flavour in cooking. However, winter will be here before we know it, and we like to preserve the taste of summer in herb salt. I discovered this easy method of making herb salt over on Instagram and now use in much of my cooking. I keep a jar next to the stove, and a pestle and mortar handy for grinding it.

Homegrown herbs

It’s just a simple matter of taking fresh herbs – you can see from this photo I have used rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano, and chopping it finely with a knife. I’ve added some pretty blue borage flowers here, and a chive flowerhead for colour.

Add this to rock salt, or salt flakes and leave to dry out in a bowl overnight. The next day, simply pop into a clean jam jar and label. You will have herb salt for use in your cooking throughout the year.

It’s a ten-minute job, why not give it a go?

Solstice Salt

I made this pot of herb salt at the Summer Solstice this year, hence the label!

Read about growing herbs and some suggestions for their uses in:

Growing Herbs

Make Your Own Herb & Floral Vinegars

July 4, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Capture the flavour and scent of summer in a jar by making your own herb and floral vinegars.

This is so simple to do, and a few minute’s work will reward you with delicious vinegar you can use in cooking and to make salad dressings with wonderfully complex flavours.

Elderflower blossom

Pick your blooms on a sunny day so the flowers are open and dry and leave on a piece of white paper for a while for the creep-crawlies to crawl off and find somewhere else to inhabit.

It’s then just a simple job of popping the flower heads in a sterilised jar and topping up with either rice, white wine or cider vinegar.

After a couple of weeks of infusing, drain the liquid from the flowers and keep in a clean bottle. I do have friends who leave the flowers in, it’s up to you!

Chive Blossom Vinegar

We have made beautiful pink vinegar with chive blossoms and rice wine vinegar.

Elderflower vinegar can be made at the same time as elderflower cordial, and is a welcome treat for salads long after summer and it’s flowers have faded.

Sage Flower Vinegar

I spotted these pretty purple sage flowers and thought I’d give them a go. Why not experiment and see what you come up with? I’ve seen this work very well with deep pink rose petals.

A jar of homemade floral vinegar would make a beautiful gift for a friend or family member.

Find out about growing herbs and some suggestions for their uses in Growing Herbs.

Drying Herbs – The Bridge Cottage Way

July 3, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen, The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

Homegrown herbs

Drying herbs can save you money and provide a good amount of flavoursome ingredients for the kitchen and medicine cabinet. Herbs that you have grown or foraged can and should be used when they are at their seasonal best. However, herbs can be preserved for use throughout the year by drying, and can then be used in your cooking, made into herbal and floral vinegar, herbal salt, and teas.

By growing, foraging and preserving your own herbs you will be living a more sustainable lifestyle by reducing transport costs and the need for single-use plastic and throw away packaging. You will be able to grow them as organically as you can, and will be assisting the biodiversity in your garden.

Head over to the Bridge Cottage Garden page to find out more about growing herbs.

Rule number one is to pick your herbs on a dry day. The less moisture there is to dry in the leaf and stem, the quicker your herb will dry and retain its properties. A damp or soggy herb will only slow the process down.

Drying herbs in an airy place

There are two ways of drying herbs:

Air Dry

Tie your herbs in small bunches, with a loop knot that tightens as they dry. Be careful not to try in too large a bunch, or the air will not be able to circulate. Hang out of the way in a light, warm and airy room or out-side undercover, but not in direct sunlight.

Avoid hanging in a kitchen and not in a bathroom as steam is not going to be helpful.

drying herbs on a surface

Dry Flat

This method is good for petals and herbs that have been removed from the stem. Removing from a stem helps your herbs to dry quicker, and this method can be good for herbs such as mint, lemon balm, comfrey.

A wicker basket is a useful tool here, as the gaps in the wicker help the air to circulate around your herbs.

A sheet of paper in a warm and airy room will work, and herbs can be raised on a cooling rack.

I’ve doctored an IKEA hanging rack, by cutting away the back, and hand this in the wardrobe in our spare room, with a window open a touch.

Your herbs will take anything from two days to two weeks to dry, depending on the moisture content and drying conditions.

Herbal tea mix of dried mint, lemon balm, rose, elderflower and lavender

Once herbs are dry, and brittle and can be scrunched, place in clean jars and label for use.

Electric dehydrators can also be used, but we try to save on using energy where we can.

We also freeze some herbs for use in cooking – parsley and basil in particular.

Elderflower and mint tea

You’ll not be sorry you went to all this effort when you can reach for tasty herbs to use to make a cuppa or to flavour your dinners in the depths of winter.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the substack newsletter. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

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Tying up Unruly Peas, Mangetout & Broad Beans

June 29, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized, The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

Mangetout in the Bridge Cottage Garden

It’s June, and the crops are growing well in the Bridge Cottage garden, but I have unruly beds of broad beans and mangetout that have grown to be taller than me in places and are starting to waft and wave. If we get a windy day, they will snap, so I thought I’d better get them fettled.

First, the tops were nipped out. This will stop them getting any taller, help them to bush out, and the tips, lightly steamed are delicious to eat.

Pinch out the tips of broad beans and mangetout

If growing broad beans, pinching out the tips will also help to deter blackfly. These are very tasty, lightly steamed.

Broad Bean tips

Sharpening the ends of hazel poles to make stakes

Sharpening hazel poles for stakes

We coppiced a hazel tree in the winter, and so have these beautiful hazel poles to use. You could also use garden canes, but I like the rustic feel of the hazel, and am not a fan of going to garden centres unless I have to! Tim used an axe the sharpen the ends to make them easier to drive into the ground.

Beds of mangetout, peas and broad beans in the Bridge Cottage Garden

Placing the supports around the crops, I used natural twine, and wound it around the poles, skirting the broad beans and mangetout at three different height levels.

A job well done! Now my broad beans and peas can continue to grow without the risk of falling over or getting too tall.

Mmm, mangetout are delicious

We had a little visitor to Nanny and Grandad’s garden today, and she thought that her first taste of mangetout, freshly picked was ‘delicious’ 🙂

Are you growing peas, beans or mangetout?

Have you had your first harvest yet?

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on any of our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Garden & Kitchen News from Bridge Cottage June 2020

June 28, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Glastonbury 1985

It’s June 2020 and as I write this, the wind is howling and the rain is lashing down, It’s proper Glastonbury weather. It would have been Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary, but due to Coronavirus, it’s been cancelled. I last went in 1985 – it was a sea of mud, and I can’t remember who I saw. Now I’m happy to leave the thronging crowds to the youngsters, and spend the summer months in the garden.

Mangetout and Broad Bean Tips

June is a busy month in the garden, and welcome crops have been making themselves known in the Bridge Cottage kitchen. We’ve had our first tastes of mangetout, with a fabulous purple variety this year, Mangetout Snow Pea, Purple Shiraz as well as the more usual green variety. In the trug in this photo, you can also see the tops of broad beans which have been pinched out to deter blackfly.

Both mangetout and broad bean tips only need to be steamed for a couple of minutes of added to a stir fry and cooked lightly to be enjoyed.

Garlic bulbs drying under the eaves of the roundhouse

Our garlic crop has been harvested and is now hanging under the eaves of the sauna to dry. It got rust right at the end, but doesn’t seem to have suffered too badly for it. Soon the onions will be following suit – not with rust, but by being harvested.

Organic Comfrey Feed

The black liquid of our organic comfrey feed is starting to drip into the container beneath the compost bucket and this rich feed will now be added to water and be fed to my tomatoes and other fruiting crops. The hanging baskets, dahlias and sunflowers.

Making Organic Comfrey Feed

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

It’s time now to think ahead to the winter and make sure you have winter veg sown. It’s not too late to set seed away for next Spelderflowerring’s Purple Sprouting Broccoli or kale and cabbages for over winter.

Salad crops too can be sown every month to ensure you have a regular supply of lettuces and not a glut all at once, and then a barren time. It’s too hot in the greenhouse now to grow rocket, but we’re having good success with rocket and cut and come again lettuce grown in containers on the patio.

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

The potatoes are growing well and Tim has been earthing these up to allow as many potatoes to grow as possible.

The chard and spinach are both wonderful, and over on The Bridge Cottage Kitchen page, I’ve written out a recipe for using chard. We have kale ready for eating, and I’ll be getting some tonight to go with our Sunday dinner.

It’s strawberry time now, but we have lost our crop to the blackbirds. They were new plants in this year, and we should have thrown a net over them to protect them from the birds. Oh well, the birds are welcome to them. We have plenty to eat with rhubarb still going strong, and the gooseberries ripening nicely.

Gooseberry and elderflower ice cream

I thought I’d better use up the soft fruit that is still in the freezer from last year and made a delicious gooseberry and elderflower ice-cream, which you can try for yourselves.

Talking of elderflowers, now is the time to gather them, not forgetting to thank tree and bough. I’ve made elderflower vinegar, and will be mixing this with olive oil for a delicious summery salad dressing.

Elderflower cordial

Of course, elderflower cordial is a must, and can be frozen in small plastic bottles for use throughout the year. I only take a few blooms from each tree, saving plenty to turn into elderberries, which we’ll come to again in the autumn.

Elderflower recipes

The front of Bridge Cottage is laden with pink roses, and I thank whoever it was who was here before us and planted them. I’ve been drying rose petals to use in herbal teas. Now is a fabulous time to dry herbs, petals and leaves for use in the kitchen and for making tea, and this can see you right through the winter.

Roses on Bridge Cottage

Elderflower and mint tea

See my post over on the Bridge Cottage Kitchen page on using summer herbs for cooking and for teas. In June, I’ve been able to dry mint, lemon balm, sage, elderflower, rose, and rosebay willowherb. I’ve also made a couple of jars of herb salt, which will add delicious seasoning to our cooking.

The big news this June, has been the finishing of the pizza oven, and we’re enjoying lots of alfresco dining. If you’d like to see the movie we made about the build, head over to YouTube by following this link: the Bridge Cottage Pizza Oven Build. Tim’s worked really hard on this, and we’re very proud of him.

This is just a snapshot of some of the goings-on at Bridge Cottage this June. Head over to the other pages to get more in-depth writing about:

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or one our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram. and sign up to our mailing list.

Welcome to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen & Seasonal Eating.

June 28, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Welcome to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen and our introduction to Seasonal Eating. 🙂

Welcome Bridge Cottage kitchen

In this section of the website, we will look at seasonal eating to help you understand when different fruit and vegetables are ripe and ready. It is offered as a complement to the page, The Bridge Cottage garden, where we hold your hand as you plant and grow your crops. We will offer tried and tested recipes to enjoy home-cooked food when it is at its best, fresh and locally produced. We will also look at pickling and preserving to help your precious produce last into the winter months.

There is much food to be gathered from the hedgerows, foraged for free. We will discuss the ethics behind foraging, and how to gather food from the wild without impacting on wildlife.

Tomatoes ripening on the vine

Supermarkets with their year-round array of fruit and vegetables have taken seasonal eating out of many folks’ consciousness, and with it, the taste. I don’t want to eat tomatoes in January that have been ground under plastic in Almeria in Spain, neither do I want to eat asparagus that has come from Peru. I want to eat English asparagus in the small window that it is available in June, and will wait for my tomatoes to be ripe and ready before I eat them. I guarantee they will taste like a different vegetable to the one that has sat on the supermarket shelf, wrapped in plastic, after having been shipping halfway around the world.

homemade jam

Do you have memories of your grandparents pickling and preserving fruit and vegetables? Both my grandmothers made jam, one with a shelf in the fridge door of strawberry jam, and the other who filled tiny paste posts with homemade raspberry jam. Mine were from the wartime generation who had to learn to make the most of what they had, and I believe we need to take a leaf out of their books and go back to those days. I wrote over in the Sustainable Living section of this website about how the bubble had burst. I strongly believe we need to reduce our spending, reduce plastic waste, and for the sake of the planet, reduce our carbon footprints. If I can keep out of the supermarkets I will. Never has it been more important to try and grow and cook as much of our own food as we can, and eat seasonally.

Gooseberry and elderflower ice cream

Over the year we will be making jam, jellies and chutneys together, drying herbs and making herbal teas, freezing summer fruit, churning ice-cream and making out own cheese and yoghurt. When Christmas comes, we’ll look at ways to keep it simple and homemade. So get saving your jam jars, don’t throw any containers or bags away. You’ll be needing them for in the coming months.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or one our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Why Bother? Gardening & Growing Food.

June 22, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Garden, Outdoors, Sustainable Living/by Sue Reed

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

Why do we go to all the bother of gardening and growing food? Indeed, a friend walked around our garden not so long ago and remarked, ‘this is my worst nightmare’. We have a large plot here, but whether you have a large or small garden, allotment or a few pots and a window box, growing food is, in our opinion not only rewarding and enjoyable but vital for the survival of the planet.

The taste of vegetables plucked fresh from the garden is incredible, not to mention the extra vitamins and minerals you’ll take on board compared to food that has sat on a supermarket shelf after making a journey halfway around the world. You will also be safe in the knowledge that your crops are free from pesticides, have not travelled for miles by boat or plane, and are not wrapped in plastic. you will also get outside, for fresh air and exercise. Studies have shown that gardening and getting our hands in soil is very good for both our mental and physical health. These should be reasons enough for all your hard work.

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

You will learn to eat seasonally, in tune with the growing calendar, enjoying the excitement of crops as they become ready, and then just as you sicken of them, another crop will pop up its head up and off you go in the enjoyment of that. Through the Bridge Cottage Way, we will hold your hand as you plant your first crops, telling you when it is time to plant, and guiding you through the whole growing process.

In the section, The Bridge Cottage Kitchen, we will take our fruit and vegetables indoors and explore recipes for tasty meals as well as ways to pickle and preserve to help us through the winter months. As well as food from the garden, we will also be writing about foraging and collecting food for free.

We live and garden in Northumberland, which is at the centre of Britain. Haltwhistle, just a few miles down the road from us claims to be the actual centre of Britain. There is one heck of a lot of Scotland above us. We will be writing about what we are growing and when we are growing it. However, if you are down south or in warmer climes, then you may well want to do everything just a little bit earlier. You will be able to sow and grow without the risk of snow in June! The same applies if you are reading this further north – you may need to wait a while.

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

We will write about all aspects of the garden, but with a particular focus on growing food. During lockdown there has been a surge in people beginning to grow fruit and vegetables for the first time. You might be visiting this site as a newbie, or like us, as old-timers who have grown food for decades. You are all very welcome.

You can visit the month by month section to find out what jobs need doing when, or use the search box on the home page if you are looking for a particular subject.

It’s time to pop out into the garden and pick some courgettes for dinner tonight, so we’ll say cheerio for now.

Happy gardening

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or one our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

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