I have a question that is Christmas-gift related. I would like to use the rosemary and sage plants I have in my backyard to make some Christmas gifts. I've come up with rosemary infused olive oil, rosemary rubbing salt and sage infused oil but am wondering if there's something else I'm missing.
I also have a lot of lemon balm and a small amount of lavender buds I harvested from my garden as well. Any thoughts?
I'm going to scavenge for some containers at thrift stores but maybe you have some insight into that area as well.
Best Regards,
Angel
This is a lovely idea for holiday gifts! We love that you are using herbs from your own plants. We agree on the salt and oil ideas; we have used rosemary salt on chicken and it is heavenly.
Here are a couple more ideas.
• Herb wreaths - We ordered a couple fresh rosemary and lemon thyme herb wreaths from Stokes Farm in New Jersey, and these made great gifts. Their fragrance lights up a kitchen. (Click image to see a larger version.)
Depending on how much you have on hand you could also make wreaths; build them on wreath forms available from craft stores and finish with a pretty ribbon. If you don't have enough for big wreaths, make tiny 4" wreaths instead with a ribbon for hanging. These wreaths can be laid flat to dry and enjoyed for a long time afterwards. And of course your recipients can cook with the herbs too!
• Dried-herb sachets - We love these scented sachets from Inleaf Designs, and if you're fairly crafty you could easily make similar sachets. Just sew simple square pillows and fill with dried sage, rosemary, or lemon balm and lavender buds.
• Herb vinegars - Along with oils and salts, herbed vinegars can be a great addition to salads and meats. Here are some instructions on making herbed vinegars.
• Bottles - For bottling ideas, check out this post: Un-Gift Guide 2007: Bottles for Food Gifts.
Does anyone have other ideas for Angel and her herb gift-giving?
You could also make an herb wreath. Get a styrofoam or wire form from the craft store and some floral picks and wire and layer the herbs around the wreath form. Be sure to pack them in, since they will shrink a bit as they dry. This would be great to hang in a kitchen and snip off the dried herbs as you need them.
view Katwalck's profile
If you can get your hands on some lemon verbena, you can make tea bags... lemon balm could work similarly. Package them with something like this.
Lavender goes nicely with sea salt. Package in a beautiful jar, with cork top, like this one.
Crush the leaves of any of the dried herbs and infuse in a neutral castile soap, like Dr. Bronner's for a kitchen hand soap. Put it in a pump bottle like this.
view Sara Kate's profile
I had wanted to make infused oils for Christmas a couple of years ago, but backed off the idea after reading a few articles online about possible food safety (botulism) problems.
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
Maybe you could make a linen spray with the lemon balm. You could use a nice empty perfume type spray bottle.
I don't have a recipe for the spray but I'm sure you could find one that you could supplement with fresh lemon balm.
view art's profile
might be too late now, but cutting clippings and giving plants (especially as window boxes) are nice.
view lepanthes's profile