Freezing Herbs and Other Uses For Ice Cube Trays

Sainsbury's are currently promoting and encouraging people to get the most out of their freezer and have assembled some great ideas, inspiration and practical tips for simple freezer solutions as well as some recipes to help you get the most out of your freezer.  All this information is over at Sainsbury's Love Your Freezer Hub. Here there is a section called "8 ingenious uses for an ice cube tray" and I'd like to add another idea to this section ... freezing herbs in an ice cube tray.

Herbs Around the Home - Part 2

My previous post discussing the benefits of using herbs around the home was all about Lavender. Its antibacterial, antibiotic, anti-fungal, antiseptic and anti-viral properties definitely make it superior for use in the home to most other herbs. However, some or all of these properties are present in other common herbs so I thought I'd share some more ideas for using them around the home.

Herbs Around the Home - Lavender

Photo with kind permission from Cotswold Lavender

The many species of lavender are woody shrubs with narrow, sweet fragrant foliage coloured bright green to silver, displaying spikes of tiny tubular flowers in multiple shades of purple, pink and white.

Rosemary - Rosemary & Garlic Bread Rolls GF SCD

"As for Rosemarine, I lett it runne all over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love it but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance, and, therefore to friendship; whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh it the chosen emblem of our funeral wakes and in our burial grounds." Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Rosemary or Rosemarinus officinalis is deemed to be a symbol of friendship and remembrance all over the world. The tradition of laying sprigs of rosemary over a coffin or tombstone dates back to ancient Egypt and was continued well into the Middle Ages. Sprigs of Rosemary have been found in the wrappings of Egyptian mummies and the Ancient Greeks used to burn branches of the herb on the altars of their Gods, considering it to be a sacred herb. Rosemarinus means "dew of the sea" and the herb grows wild in Mediterranean coastal areas. An evergreen shrub with strongly aromatic needle-like leaves, Rosemary is a member of the mint family and related to basil and thyme.

Oregano - Roasted Vegetables GF SCD

The picture above shows the oregano I grew from seed two years ago peeping out from the snow which fell a couple of days ago, the first snow of the Winter.

Thyme - Swede and Apple Soup GF SCD

I used to live near Cottingley in West Yorkshire, a stone's throw away from the garden where Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright fascinated the world with their beautiful photographs of fairies in 1917. Growing up, I searched for fairies at the bottom of our garden and had I known to wear a sprig of thyme then, who knows, I may have caught a glimpse of them!

Parsley - Asparagus with Parsley & Lemon Butter GF SCD

Once given as fodder for the chariot horses of the Ancient Greeks, parsley has been used for medicinal and food purposes for centuries, though English folklore has claimed that only the wicked can grow it well!