whb: harvesting marjoram, a study in pictures

 

I see in the gloaming that dusk is once again summoning the fog. This is my cue to get out in the garden with my pruners and get to cutting. The herbs are all huge with summer growth and ready to be harvested and dried for winter use. Weekend Herb Blogging
What started as a whimsical answer to weekend cat blogging is now a weekly excuse to play in the herb garden. Oh gee, how awful - not the herb garden! Kalyn has nurtured little whb, and now it's all grown up, with its very own set of rules, and Kalyn lets it escape the confines of her kitchen every other week to be guest hosted somewhere on the tubes of the 'net.
Weekend herb blogging is at Daily unadventures in Cooking this week so get yourself over there to check out the roundup. By harvesting now, while I still have at least six weeks before we can expect any sort of freeze, I am giving plants a chance to recover a bit before the harsh weather sets in and freezes the new growth.

Moving here three years ago, I brought one tiny handful of a lovely variegated marjoram with us. I knew from experience that it would happily colonize any area I let it loose in and it proved me right. In fact, this marjoram had been one of the more prolific plants this year as it has crept beyond the edges of the bed onto the sidewalk where it forms a thick mat with runners forever seeking ground in which to take root. Now marjoram stalks, heavy with flowers and eager bees, tumble across the walkway and present a serious obstacle to a barefooted mage.

When I was small, I called multicolor plants fairiegated because they looked like fairies had flitted through with tiny brushes to fleck color on the leaf edges. Most of these leaves are solid green now but when new growth appears, it will be painted once again.

To harvest marjoram and similar plants (such as mint, oregano, etc), grab a handful of stalks a few inches up from the ground. Using pruners, cut the stalks off as close to the ground as possible. You can go back and clean up stubs of old growth later, or ignore it and new growth will hide it in a few weeks. I usually opt for the lazy, i.e., the latter, option.

As long as you don't get carried away, the amount you can hold in your hand is about the right size for a drying bundle. Gather a bundle of herbs in your hand and tie it with twine. If the herbs are flowering, snip off the flowering tops. I do this outside over a garden bed so that the organic waste is recycled without a trip to the compost heap.

 

Wash the herbs by repeatedly dunking them in a tall container of water and swishing them around vigorously. Dirt from the plant will fall to the bottom of the water and, after a few rinses, you have nice clean herbs ready to dry.

Um, er. Well, they had to dry somewhere, right? Trust me, this is only the first stage of drying!

After washing, these herbs hung over the bathtub overnight to dry off the initial moisture from being washed.

The next day, each bundle was placed inside a paper grocery bag, looping the twine through the bag handles to hold it all together. They are now hanging all over my garage drying.Sorry, no pictures. Someone would call the 'crazy lady with stuff piled to the rafters in the garage' police.

In a month or so, maybe earlier if I remember, I will untie the bundles and strip off the leaves by running my hand gently down a few stalks at a time. I work over a large, flat pasta serving bowl that catches the leaves perfectly. When all the leaves are stripped, they go into airtight jars for storage. If I can find a spot, the stems are saved for tossing on a barbecue or smoker.

Comments

[Kalyn]

Great photos! I planted some variegated marjoram this year for the first time. It's such a lovely plant. I need to try drying some, because I've only used it a few times!

[Katerina]

Thanks for this, I have to do mine soon too, thanks for your entry to WHB.

[Rob]

Great Blog! Glad to know ya, as I am looking to increase my herb lot quite a bit this upcoming season.

Welcome to Green Thumb Bloggers!

-rob

[kitchenmage]

Kalyn, Thanks! Even if I didn't cook with this one, it's so darned pretty I'd still grow it.

Katerina, thanks for hosting. That's a bunch of work.

Hi Rob! Welcome to the herb garden. Glad to hear you want to grow more herbs; I want to help you.

[Tea]

Lovely, lovely!

I got bitten by the bug this summer as well (see post on the blog today). I'm a total newbie, so will be looking to you for advice! So glad you started this:-)

Sooo...what do you DO with all that marjoram? Or is that a question for the other blog?