Herb with an "H"!

I have a friend who (sometimes) goes by the name Mrs. Hedges.

Her actual name is Jackie, and I have known her for some time. Here she is:

Jackie is good at many things. She is excellent as a tatter. Here she is at the museum Folk Arts Fair talking about tatting.

Jackie has also taught herself a lot about herbs. In fact, she is an expert on herbs.

I pronounce this word "Erb", but Jackie pronounces this "Herb", with a prominent "H". She says that "erb" is the British pronunciation, and "Herb" is the way we should say it in the U.S. So.

Jackie sometimes teaches adult education classes on herb vinegars at our local community college. It seems that every time she does this, my schedule will not allow me to attend that day. I was expressing this to Jackie when I ran into her at Costco, and she told me to just come on over, and I could have my very own private class. What a great idea! So I did.

Jackie told me to bring my own glass bottles.

The first thing we did was to go out into her garden and gather herbs that she thought would go nicely into vinegars. Jackie has a rambling garden with surprises around every corner and behind every hedge. As we looked, and cut, she told me about herbs, and which go best and for what.

For example, mint is good for fish and fruit and salads. Bay is good in soup and savory is good with vegetables. I told her what kinds of foods I eat the most (VEGGIES and fish) and that is how we picked the herbs we did for the vinegars.

Jackie also knows a lot about medicinal uses of herbs, and using herbs as a natural insect repellent. All of this interests me so much, but I think I have tons to learn!

Anyway, on to picking....

We picked winter savory.

And thyme.

And a big onion flower.

And chives.

Here is the kitty that lives with Mrs. Hedges.

After we gathered it all up, we went into the kitchen. We washed and sorted the herbs.

Jackie brought some things from her pantry that she thought I would like to add to my vinegar.

Pepper corns.

And some garlic. We took the skins off the garlic cloves.

The next step is to place the herbs into the pretty jars. Jackie really emphasizes the prettiness of it all.

Then, carefully pour the vinegar in. We used plain white vinegar.

After replacing the lids, we add a nice label. Here are the three vinegars I made.

The first one, on the left, is filled with that big onion flower and chives. There is a nice dry chili in there too, as well as garlic and peppercorns.

The middle one has lemon balm, lemon thyme and chives, and a chili, some garlic and peppercorns.

The one on the right has winter savory and garlic, and some peppercorns.

The vinegars only get better as time passes. You use herb vinegars in place of any other vinegar. They are nice in salad dressings, or in marinades.

So, since everything is growing so nicely this time of year, you can make some herb vinegars. It was easy, and a really fun way to spend an afternoon!