Herb vinegars can be easy-to-make Christmas presents.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
It’s November and time to wind down the herb garden. But if many of your special delectables are still growing, maybe it is also time to turn their presence into presents. Have you ever thought about trying your hand at crafting herb vinegars and giving them as holiday gifts to those special gardeners in your life?
Making herb vinegars is easy, being limited only by what is still growing in the herb garden—and your creativity.
Let’s consider what might be useful for making tasty vinegars from your herb patch. Tarragon vinegar has been a classic for eons, but more commonly grown herbs such as basil, lemongrass, oregano, thyme, mint, chives, fennel, dill and rosemary are popular picks, too. Lesser known—and lesser grown—herbs such as borage, burnet, nasturtium and sweet marjoram can add their own distinctive, tasty flavorings to herb vinegars.
From the kitchen, citrus rinds (or zest), peppercorns, garlic cloves, red pepper flakes and cinnamon sticks are worthy additions to any herb vinegar recipe.
Freshly harvested herbs should be washed and patted dry before being added to a quart jar of vinegar. A one-to-two ratio of herbs to vinegar works well, but it’s your creation, so use this measure as a general guide. For a smooth flavor, either red or white wine vinegar is a good choice.
Let your mix steep for at least two to three weeks, occasionally shaking the jar to stir the contents. Then, strain the liquid through a coffee filter into clean, clear glass bottles with tight tops. To remind you what the final concoction is—and to visually jazz it up—toss in a few sprigs of the herbs you used in the mixture.
I’ve added rosemary to white wine vinegar many times, being sure to also include several purple basil leaves for added flavoring and a tint that darkens to a pleasant plum hue. For an interesting garden-to-table salad dressing or marinade, steeping oregano, thyme and green basil in red wine vinegar has also been a go-to goody for me.
Bottles of herb vinegar used as decorations will be visually appealing for at least a few years. As edible accents, however, they should be used within a year. Generally, the more herbs you add to vinegar, the less acidic the solution becomes, so its ability to preserve the contents lessens.
NOVEMBER IN THE GARDEN
- Want to add more botanical bling to your autumn landscape? Fall is not only a good time to plant woody ornamentals, but it is also THE season to personally observe possible picks draped in their flashy fall foliage. Some of my fiery favorites include ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), serviceberry (Amelanchierspp.), chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis) and, believe it or not, blueberry (Vaccinium spp.).
- Any houseplants still lingering outside should be brought indoors now, but first, check the foliage carefully for insects playing hide-and-seek. If you find any egg clusters, scrape them off to prevent unwanted visitors in your home this winter.
TIP OF THE MONTH
Late autumn is the prime time to begin planting spring-flowering bulbs. But if your green thumb is getting cold feet over adding such beauty to the garden because squirrels, rabbits and deer consider your growing grounds to be their personal salad bar, go with blooming beauties that those animals don’t like. Daffodils are definitely on their Yuck List, but so are other varmint-resisting spring delights such as snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum), ornamental onions (Allium spp.), Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica), hyacinths (Hyacinth orientalis), summer snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum), fritillaries (Fritillaria spp.), Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) and glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa luciliae).
L.A. JACKSON is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.