Take Your Harvest...

Two years ago we began to reclaim a large area in our yard for chive production.  The space was overrun with lilies, and the chives were occupying the minority of the space.  Simply by cutting back the lilies (not digging them out) the chives began to become dominant over time.  Last year we thought "great...a chive garden just 50 feet from our kitchen", we would be cutting chives daily for all our culinary needs.  Well our good intentions got lost in the busy lives.  I think all year I may have made it out once to cut a hand full of chives for an omelette.

This year we took a different approach...

This beautiful patch is simply not Zone 1 (we don't visit daily).  Determined not to let our missed opportunity from last year repeat again.  We have found cooking with herbs in many cases we are just as happy with dried vs. fresh.

This year as the first growth of spring came, well before the chives began to flower, we harvested all chives cutting them to the ground.

Cleaning and dicing took little time.

And then into the Excalibur Dehydrator for a few hours.

The end result ...jars full of our own organic chives.  We are happy to share that we now use these dried chives daily in our cooking.  My favorite is adding them to scrambled eggs or my famous omelette. Seasoned gardeners and homesteaders have long understood the concept of taking what surplus is provided and storing for use later.  We have found for herbs dehydrating is an easy way to fill our pantry.  We could have repeated this process multiple times if we wanted.  We have let the chives grow back, and flower, which the local bees seem to appreciate.