I am glad I looked up how to harvest chamomile because it turns out I had to do it right this very instant if I was going to keep the plant healthy and it will become a daily thing through the Fall (if I don't slack). If ehow.com is right....and of course it always is... you must pick the blooms as soon as they, well, bloom. Then you must lay them in a dry, dark, warm area and let them dry out, which takes a couple of days. Then you must place these dry blossoms in a sealed jar and let them accumulate. If all goes well, in about 3 months I'll have an abundance of ready to use chamomile. A cup of these blossoms equal less than a 1/4 cup when dry so i gotta keep my pick hand strong to make this worthwhile. By picking them off of the plant daily it promotes the growth of new flowers. Got that? Good because there is a test at the end.
I planted this chamomile plant on a whim because i wanted something "flowery" in the garden to offset all the veggies. The downside of this stylistic decision is that, unlike the painfully stylized Ms. Stefani, I'm not a particularly big fan of chamomile tea. I do think i can find other uses for it though...maybe a chamomile scone or some kind of baked good. Well I have plenty of time to marinate on that idea (as Baby Bash would say) since I won't have a meaningful amount of dried blossoms for a couple of months...or will i? Time will tell.
POST READING TEST:
(if you scroll up to looks at the blog for answers I'll psychically know you were cheating and be very very disappointed in you).
1. How many cups of dried blossoms = 1 cup of fresh blossoms?
2. Blossoms should be stored, dry, dark and ____ area.
3. What craptastic British "grunge" band from the 90s is Gwen Stefani's finely chiseled husband in....and because of this should he be publicly hanged?
1: 3
ReplyDelete2: Cool
3: Bush. The song glycerin is a crime against humanity.