How to relax!!!!

I don't have much time today, so this is a very short post. After completing the cross word in the sunday paper Embee has been pottering in the garden. He has been pruning and tidying up the plants, the tomatoes are refusing to ripen unless I bring them indoors despite a lovely warm sunny spell, so it could be more green tomato chutney this year, although I still have some from last year so maybe that's not a good idea!! We have put in a couple more sedum plants as the tortoises will eat these and I wanted to provide them with more variety. I am also attempting to grow more herbs in troughs as we have very little growing space. So I hope this is successful.

But the best bit of this Sunday is that my daughter Sam and Fred have arrived safely in London, after their long flight from San Francisco. They are staying in a hotel overnight, I have spoken to her via Skype and they are feeling rather tired so are hoping to get a nap before meeting up with a friend. They will be coming here, tomorrow, after Sam has sorted out her visa at the American Embassy so as you can imagine we are quite excited as it is over a year since I last saw them when we met up in New York. It's even longer since Embee and my mother last saw them. So I'd best get on with all my preparations! Hope you've had a relaxing weekend :)

How long do you keep dried herbs?

Sometime ago (back in June 2006 in fact) Sam wrote a post on spring cleaning her pantry. In her comments she made reference to my whole nutmegs I won't tell you how long I've had them but she was quite young when they were brought from the West Indies and they didn't have sell by dates back then!!

I don't have a pantry but decided that I would start going through my cupboards and spice drawer and restock as necessary. I wondered just how long spices and dried herbs should be kept and found this article by Martha Stewart and although 6 months seems to be the optimum time this is not written in tablets of stone.
These all went in the bin, including the nutmegs (glass was recycled).

My spice drawer now looks like this


I do buy fresh herbs, I grow basil in a pot on the kitchen window sill and I grow some herbs in the garden.

Parsley is looking good.

I don't use much sage but I do love it when it flowers.

The mint and chives are looking a bit pathetic at the moment

The bay tree is well established and is kept well pruned to keep it small and manageable.

I have been wondering whether to invest in a herb keeper for the fridge which suggests you can keep herbs fresh for up to 3 weeks this way. Before I invest in one I would be interested to know if anyone has ever tried this method and if so does it work.