Harvesting Fennel

 

My vegetable garden did really poorly this year. It looked so promising, too! Lots of cherry tomatoes and big Early Girl tomatoes grew...but they stayed green and never ripened. I may have picked a few dozen cherry tomatoes, but that was it. Peppers were only so-so...nothing worth the effort of pickling.

I'm not sure what happened. Perhaps it was just a mild summer without enough hot days. Weatherwise, I thought this summer and fall were ideal! But maybe not so much for the garden.

My herbs, however, will grow no matter the weather.

Fennel seems to love the spot where it is at. I usually grow it because the Swallowtail caterpillars love it.

This year, I've been reading up on Blue Zones, those places where there seems to be a community that fosters healthy, long lives. Places like Sardinia in Italy, Icaria in Greece, Loma Linda in California, Okinawa, Japan, and Nicoya, Costa Rica. It appears that a combination of healthy diet, exercise, faith communities, and sense of purpose all combine to help in the aging process.

It turns out that both Sardinia and Icaria use a lot of fennel in their cooking. 

I decided to harvest my fennel last week and see if I can incorporate it into my cooking, too.

The fennel heads were looking dry, so I went out with a big bowl and kind of crushed the heads to release the seeds into the bowl. I probably could have done this easier with a big brown paper bag. Next, I cleaned the pile, removing any stems and twigs and the occasional garden spider.

I left it for a day or two, cleaned again, then put it all in a Ziploc freezer bag to freeze for one week. This will kill off any little buggies that may be lingering.

Fennel has a distinct anise, licorice-type fragrance. I'm thinking it would be good with some autumn roasted vegetables.

If you want to learn more about Blue Zones, I suggest any of the books written by Dan Buettner. I checked a few out of the library, but ended up purchasing a couple to have on hand. The Blue Zones Kitchen is a lovely cookbook filled with beautiful photographs.

My husband and I talk a lot about staying active, staying healthy, and aging well. We don't want to merely live long, but we want to live long and well. I think that's a very intentional mindset. Of course, none of us knows the number of our days that God has given us, but we can do the best with the days we have.