Thunder in the Kitchen and This and That

I started my morning up by getting up at 3:00 am instead of the 4:00 am I usually use on Saturdays. I harvested a bunch of my herbs from the garden yesterday and the first batch was due to come out of the dehydrator early this morning, to be replaced by Batch #2 while I processed Batch #1. I wanted that extra hour to be able to get everything processed quickly. Well, I got everything processed, but Thyme is my usual bad child - it's SO time consuming. It's worth it for the freshly dehydrated herbs over the winter months, but it took 90 minutes instead of 60 and I gave up on the treadmill this morning. 

Rosemary is an herb that is a joy to process. It strips off 
the central branch with ease. It also pulverizes in my 
grinder very well. I love rosemary. 

To accompany my endless stripping of thyme, I listened to a lot of thunderstorm on the other side of my kitchen window. We were under a thunderstorm watch, and it was quite intense there for a while, even causing my lights to flicker on and off several times. The worst of it is now headed towards Wisconsin, and the thunder is a low growl in the East. But when it was overhead, it was gnarly. 

Thyme, on the other hand, is my bad child. It's a 
lot of curled and clustered stems with VERY small 
leaves. It takes FOREVER to get the leaves off 
from their stems and into the grinder. I think it 
took me almost an hour to get my thyme stripped, 
ground and put away. But it'w a lovely taste! 

I now have my second batch of herbs in the dehydrator. I'll pull those out tonight and get them processed either tonight or tomorrow. This batch is Lemon Thyme (which will be every bit as time consuming, I'm sure), and Oregano. It's the first time I've had Oregano in the garden and I'm looking forward to seeing the differences between freshly harvested and dried vs store bought. 

I've never had oregano in my garden before, and since we 
didn't have a pot for it, it never grew very large. But it did 
bush out, and I got a nice first crop. We'll see how well 
it releases from the stem tonight when I'm dealing with 
today's dehydrator load. 

I ordered a frame for a larger water color yesterday. It's a black frame which will suit the picture, and this time I'll be doing the assembly on my own with a couple of new pieces of joining hardware that I've never used before. In days past, I drilled holes and used nails that were then disguised with colored pastes. Rook will give me a quick tutorial when I pick the chopped frame up next week. The proper frame can make or break a piece of artwork, so I'm picky about my frame choices. Cost is one factor, but appearance is just as important. 

I'll be using something similar to these to stabilize the 
corners of my frames. They chop the frame for me 
(which I could do, but it's worth the extra cost to have 
one less thing to do). They also make any cuts in the 
corners necessary for the type of hardware I've chosen. 
I've never used the fastening style Rook advised for 
me, but I'm willing to learn. He'll teach me how to use 
the pins properly. 

So, the storm has passed, the dehydrator is dehydrating, and I've showered and dressed for work. I guess I should grab some breakfast and see what the day has to offer today. I hope all of you have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini.