Preserving the Harvest: Making Herb Salts, Vinegars, and Syrups Before Frost

As the last golden days of fall arrive and the garden begins to slow, now’s the time to capture those fresh herbal flavors before frost claims your plants. Preserving herbs into salts, vinegars, and syrups lets you savor their fragrance and taste all winter long — or share them as thoughtful, homemade gifts.

🌿 Herbal Vinegars: Bright and Beautiful

Herbal vinegars are the perfect way to capture the essence of your garden in a bottle. They’re lovely for salad dressings, marinades, or drizzling over roasted veggies.

Try these combinations:

• Rosemary & Garlic Chive Vinegar – Earthy, aromatic, and perfect for roasted potatoes or chicken.
• Tarragon & Shallot Vinegar – Ideal for vinaigrettes and fish dishes.
• Basil & Oregano Vinegar – A perfect flavor to splash over tomatoes or toss with olive oil and pasta.

How to Make It:

1. Fill a clean glass jar half to two-thirds full with fresh (washed and dried) herbs.
2. Warm your vinegar slightly (white wine, distilled white, or rice vinegar with 5% acidity).
3. Pour over herbs, leaving about an inch of headspace. 
4. Bruise the herbs with the handle of a wood spoon.
5. Cover tightly and let infuse for 2–3 weeks in a cool, dark place.
6. Strain and bottle in decorative jars — they make charming kitchen gifts!

Add your creation to Backyard Patch Italian Dressing Mix or Lemon Chive Dressing Mix and enjoy at your holiday table.

🍬 Simple Herbal Syrups: Sweet and Soothing

Herbal syrups add flavor and flair to tea, sparkling water, mocktails, and desserts.

Flavor Ideas:

• Thyme & Lemon Syrup – Uplifting and bright; delicious in tea or with plain soda.
• Anise Hyssop Syrup – Lightly licorice and floral; pairs beautifully with gin-style mocktails.
• Lemon Verbena Syrup – Perfect for cocktails or drizzled over fruit salad.

How to Make It:

1. Combine 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan.
   
2. Bring to a simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves.
3. Add a generous handful of herbs (about ½ to 1 cup) and stir for 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat and cover.
5. Let steep 30 minutes or until it reaches room temperature, strain, and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

Use these along with the drink suggestions in our Backyard Patch Beginner Mocktails book.

🧂 DIY Herb Salts and Sugars: Quick Gifts from the Garden

These are ridiculously easy to make and keep the essence of herbs long after the garden fades.

Herb Salt Ideas:

• Rosemary & Sage Salt – Great for roasted vegetables and meats.
• Basil & Marjoram Salt – Adds a burst of summer to pasta dishes.

Herb Sugar Ideas:

• Scented Geranium Sugar – Perfect for baking or tea.
• Mint Sugar – Adds a cool twist to hot cocoa or cookies.

How to Make It:

1. Layer salt or sugar with fresh herbs leaves in a shallow jar (or pulse in a blender).
2. Use a ratio of 4 parts base to 1 part herbs.
3. Allow to meld for two weeks, then remove leaves whole (if using a blender, spread out on wax papaer to dry for 48 hours before storing.)
4. Store in airtight jars.

Keep near the stove with a jar of Backyard Patch Herbs Seasonings as ready-to-use cooking aids.

🎁 Gift Idea: “Preserve the Harvest” Basket

Bundle your homemade herb vinegar, a jar of herb salt or sugar, and a bottle of syrup with one of our Backyard Patch Herb Mixes for a thoughtful, garden-inspired gift. Add a sprig of dried herbs and a recipe tag for a personal touch.

🪶 Suggestion:
A woven basket with a bottle of herbal vinegar, a jar of salt, a syrup bottle, and a tea blend or seasoning packet — all nestled in kraft paper and tied with a raffia bow.

🌬️ Don’t Let Frost Steal Your Flavor

Taking a few hours to preserve your herbs now means you’ll have a taste of summer all winter long. Whether you enjoy them in your kitchen or give them as gifts, these simple projects keep your herbal harvest alive — in the most delicious ways possible.

Rose Geranium Tea -- Monthly Tea Blend

This time of year I am prepping my geraniums to be outside after being indoors for the winter.  I trim them, shape them, replace the soil, check for pests and other tasks (you can see some details in this blog post: Care for Scented Geraniums.)  With all the cut sprigs I will make Vacuum Fresh, start some cuttings, or brew some up as tea, like this flavorful yet simple tea that you can create with Rose Geranium leaves.

Rose Geranium leaves up close

Rose Geranium Tea

2 orange pekoe tea bags 

4 fresh rose geranium leaves

Combine tea bags and geranium leaves in a small to medium tea pot and cover with 2 cups of hot, just off the boil, water and allow to steep for 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve hot or over ice for a refreshing pick me up in your afternoon.

Pampering Bath Salts - Bath Blend of the Month

 May is when I get out and really get working in the garden.  I am looking forward to planting, bringing my scented geraniums outside after winter, cleaning out my perennial beds and so forth.  Although I did a lot of walking this winter to keep myself in shape, those first few weeks always result in some stiff muscles from overwork.

For the bath blend this month I chose to craft something that I can use to soothe my muscles, but also pamper my skin.  It uses the soothing and pampering of Epsom salts and baking soda, bringing it to a whole new level by using combinations of different herbs. You need 3/4 cup of herbs, but you can make your own combination depending on what your skin needs.

Here are a list of great bath herbs and why they are helpful

Lavender – is balancing, will calm or rejuvenate depending on your need and what you blend it with

Lemon Balm – an infusion strained into the bath make for happy thoughts.

Roman Chamomile – is soporific, aiding sleep and relaxation

Bergamot - stimulates, brightens the skin and helps blood flow

Rosemary – lightly astringent; stimulates rejuvenates and promotes elimination of waste

Sage – purifying, restores skin tone

Rose – deeply healing

Geranium – deeply healing

Lemon peel – is antiviral and anti-bacterial

Pampering Bath Salts

1 1/2 cups Epsom salts
3/4 cup baking soda
3/4 cup herbs (well crumbled and not whole leaf)

Blend the herbs and salts together and store in airtight plastic containers or sterilized jars (such as mason jars or small & pretty jam jars). Shake the jar well before using. You can place these in gift jars to make a great gift, just include contents and directions on a pretty tag.

To use: Toss in as little or as much as desired into the water. The average amount is about 1/4 cup. If you do not wish to chase herbs around the tub, place the measured amount into a cloth bag, square of fabric or even a coffee filter tied closed.

 

Scented Geranium Care

Pelargoniums (Scented Geraniums) are a tender perennial with a high concentration of essential oils in their cell structure.  If you live in a warm climate such as southern California, you can grow these fragrant plants outside in a pot or planted in the garden year round. In the right climate they can grow as high as 10 feet.  In areas where winters are cold, you must protect your scented geraniums from frost. Bring them indoors for the winter. 

Scented geraniums do best in bright light and will need ample direct winter sun when grown on a windowsill. In the garden, a few hours of direct sun will be enough. They will also do well in bright dappled light all day. Avoid overheated sunny spots because thier soil is a bit sandy and can dry out during a hot day.  These plants actually prefer daytime temperatures around 70 degrees.

Scented Geraniums will flower, but they are small, discrete and pretty, but not the reason you grow these plants.

The soil for scented geraniums should be well drained.  I make a mixture of 2 parts potting soil to one part sand to improve the drainage.  You do not need to worry about soil richness, as you do not want to grow your scented geraniums in excessively rich soil as this can cause the leaves to have less fragrance. The pH should be neutral to slightly acid, about 6.0 is fine.

I repot my geraniums in the spring.  It is part of my ritual getting ready to move the plants back outdoors.  This replacing of the soil usually replenishes the nutrients they need.  If you do not do this, you can fertilize your scented geranium using a 10-10-10 fertilizer.

Scented geraniums generally grow pest-free.  If you see aphids, white-fly or other pests, treat them with insecticidal soap.  I wash the tops and bottoms of the leaves in fall when I bring them inside to avoid any issues indoors.

Propagation

In 2023 I decided to try a couple of different techniques to get new plants from my scented geraniums.  I winter the plants indoors over winter and they become very tall and leggy due to lack of light.  This year, rather than cutting off the tops of the branches and rooting those cuttings I let the plants grow then took them outside and trimmed them back.

Several plants had long woody stems which had lost most of there leaves over the winter.  If I cut these, the plants would have no leaves left, so I decided to try another technique or two to get new growth.

For the Grey Lady Plymouth, a lemon-scented variegated germanium with a light yellow edge on the leaf, both plants had made long stems with almost no leaves around the base.  For one I repotted it with a single stem to see if new leaves would form on the stem.

layered plant stem covered with soil

Another one I look the long stem in one pot and crossed it into another pot and slit the underside and covered the stem with soil to allow it to root while still connected to a mother plant.  Later I cut it from mother plant and now I have two! (This technique is called layering when you do it in the ground.

Cuttings

I take cuttings from my plants twice a year.  In the fall when I bring them indoors for winter and in the Spring when I take them back outside for the season. I try to do this with my scented geraniums, so I bring in a smaller plant in the fall.  They grow and get very leggy in a window for the winter so a smaller plant will be less mess. In the spring those that grew well in the winter are ready for a trim, so I get many cuttings from the plants who are ready to explode once the weather gets warm.

I root the cuttings several different ways.  Sometimes I root them in sand.  Sometimes in seed starter and sometimes in water.  In the water I use the vase method and the hydroponic method.

A canning jar, a special tray and a handful of clay pebbles and I can root a number of cuttings.

Technique

To propagate a scented geranium it is best to work from a cutting so that you get the hybrid and scent you enjoyed with the original plant.  

Simply cut a stem just above the leaf nodule.  

Take off all the excess leaves.

You can start the cutting in warm damp sand or in a glass of water. 

 

Once it develops roots you can replant it.  

The soil for scented geraniums should be well drained.  I make a mixture of 2 parts potting soil to one part sand to improve the drainage.  

Nicely growing rutted cutting.

Geraniums florishing in the summer!

Scented Geraniums - Tea Ideas for the Month of September

This time I want to discuss making tea with Scented geraniums.  So many folks think they are only for show, but I find they are great to make edibles with.

Scented geraniums are of the genus Pelargonium, also called storksbill.  They were imported to England from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa in 1632. The rose-scented varieties are grown for making perfume as a substitute for attar of Roses.

Old-Fashioned Rose Scented Geranium

Roper's Lemon Rose Geranium

While many species and cultivars of scented geraniums are used in cooking, the three most common are peppermint, (Pelegorium tomentosum) rose (P. graveolens or Old Fashioned Rose) and lemon.  The lemon coming in a number of different varieties from Mable Grey, to Rober's Lemon Rose, Hillary Lemon and lemon crispum (P. crispum). Although not known for their medicinal properties, scented geraniums can bring great scents to a beverage.

Gray Lady Plymouth - a lemon-scented geranium

Fresh leaves have more flavor than dried ones, so this time of year when I am cutting the Geraniums back before bringing them indoors for winter is a great time to make tea blends with them.  Use 1 tsp dried or 1 Tablespoon fresh crumbled leaves to one cup of hot water.  

To start here is a tea recipe using many different leaves to give a broad flavor.

Geranium Leaf Tea

• 2 rose geranium leaves
• 3 peppermint geranium leaves
• 1 Mable Grey geranium leaf
• 2 Lemon Rose geranium leaves

Place the crumpled leaves in a pot and cover with 2 cups of hot water and allow to steep 5 to 7 minutes.  Strain into a cup and enjoy this light-colored tea with a few sweet sugar cookies for a wonderful afternoon pick-me-up.

Here is a spicy tea recipe that is great made with rose or lemon rose geranium leaves.

Rose Geranium Black Tea

• 1 tsp black tea of your choice
• 1 -3 whole cloves
• 2 crumbled fresh rose geranium leaves

place all items in a tea ball or coffee filter tied closed and steep in a mug of boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes.  Don't leave too long or the clove overpower everything else.

Another great way to get the flavor of scented geraniums into your tea is to make geranium sugar.

This is created by layering the leaves with granulated sugar in a container for about 2 weeks, then removing the now desiccated (totally dried out) leaves for sugar free of herb bits, which makes a wonderful flavored addition to coffee, tea, and lemonade.

Disinfecting and Uplifting Herb Blends for Quarantine

Previously I shared a disinfecting herbal cleaning spray you can make with herbs, but I also like herb scents in the house and I thought maybe I could use a combination of herbs to scent the house and disinfect the air around me. 

For more information on any of the herbs discussed in this post, I suggest looking at our A to Z Herbs page which features links to learning posts containing details of all the herbs here as well as others we have posted on previously.

Disinfecting Herbs

You need a selection of herbs that have disinfecting properties and fresh herbs are best.  I got all of these in the produce department of my fruit market.  Your grocery should have at least a few of these.  You can use whatever you can get.  It is still Winter here, okay Spring, but the plants have done nothing yet, so I could not harvest from the garden.

I did use a combination of fresh and dry herbs, as finding fresh lavender in winter is almost impossible, but the scent from even dry lavender is still nice and aromatic.

Disinfecting Herb Bundles

Lavender

Thyme

Sage

Mint

Rosemary

Dill

Take a sprig or two and bundle them together with a rubber band.  Hang the herbs and allow then to air dry.  The scent will waft through the air adding disinfecting properties.

I started with the lavender that was dry giving stiffness and the thyme which has very small stems. 

I added in the rosemary whose woody stem gave support to the mint, sage and dill I added to finish each bundle.

I placed the bundles on a hanger so I could just hang it in the office or from the hall railing to let the scent spread.

Uplifting Herbs

Sometimes when cooped up in quarantine you want to lift your mood.  The seriousness of all this pandemic discussion can make it hard to be optimistic. So the scent of uplifting herbs can make all the difference.

This blend of herbs focuses on citrus and its uplifting effect on the mind. I was able to find my favorite black stem peppermint and used dried lemongrass and dried roses.

For this bundle I cut the peel off a grapefruit in long strips.  Since I am not eating it, it did not matter if I cut into the pith (white part) under the skin (which is bitter) so I could make sure I got a couple nice long pieces. That were strong enough to keep their shape during the drying process.

Uplifting Herb Bundles

Geranium

Rose

Lemon

Peppermint

Rosemary

Grapefruit

Then using a rubber band bundle the herbs together into a decorative presentation.  Tie with pretty ribbon or raffia and hang in a nice prominent place to allow the scents to spread through the room.  Someplace where you will touch or bump the bundle is even better.

I used dried lemon grass, because the bulb is available in winter, but the fronds are not. I had some long pieces, so I pulled them up from the bottom to make a loop on each side to become the base for my bundle.

Then I added the herbs.  The geranium are my scented geraniums which I bring in every winter.  The stems are thin and soft from the lack of light so a base to place them on really helps then hang better.

I added the rosemary, mint, and some oregano (which is a wonderful germ fighter.) The dried roses just did not look right so I did not end up using them, but you can get a rose or two from the floral shop and add great color to this bundle. I had some fun with the grapefruit peel wrapping it in and around the other herbs.

I think I like my second bundle better than my first. One I hung on the back door, so every time we slide the door the scent is released.  The other I hung in my new home office (this is a work from home quarantine you know.)

As these bundles dry the scent will be released and act on my environment and they will be nice decorations in my home, even as the scent fades during the hot summer months.

No one said we had to have a stuffy house if we were quarantined, so grab some fresh or dried herbs and freshen your space!

Milk and Oatmeal Bath Tea - Bath blend of the month

It is that time of year where wind, dry heat and other aspects of the season change begin to effect the skin.  So I thought a quick and easy bath tub tea might be the way to go.  This tea uses milk to sooth and soften skin along with  oatmeal to soothe dryness and itchiness. With this recipe you fill cloth bags or coffee filters  and then allow the bag to steep in the bath water before you slide in to enjoy your bath.

If you want some extra herb properties in this bath tea, choose to add 1 Tablespoon of any of these herbs to each bag.


Lavender – is balancing will calm or rejuvenate depending on your need 
Lemon Balm – an infusion strained into the bath make for happy thoughts

Roman Chamomile – is calming and relaxing

Bergamot - stimulates

Rosemary – lightly astringent; stimulates rejuvenates and promotes elimination of waste

Sage – purifying, restores skin tone

Rose – deeply healing

Geranium – deeply healing

Milk & Oatmeal Bath Tea 

1 ½ cups regular oats, not quick

1 cup powdered milk

Blend the ingredients together in a plastic bowl, then fill the muslin bags.  Add 1 Tablespoon of herbs (if desired) to each bag shaking to combine.  This recipe will make up to 8 bags.

To Use: Place filled bag under the tap while bath is filling, then slide into the water.  Use the bag as a scrubby to get even more herbal energy!

How Tuesday - Making Herbed Sugar

Sugar conserving or flavored sugars are created when leaves of herbs are layered or blended into sugar to make a sweet or savory ingredient for cooking and seasoning.  They have a flavor shelf life of about 3 to 4 months once herbs are infused, but never spoil.

Making an herb flavored sugar is one of the easiest things to do with your herb harvest and it is sooo tasty.  It makes a great gift and a perfect ingredient in sugar cookies or other baked goods.

I use herb sugar to create Lavender brownies, Rose Geranium cookies, and to flavor my herbal tea.

Placed in decorative jars you can put Herbed Sugar in gift baskets with baking mixes, teas or other gifts. Or combine several flavors to craft a tower of flavor for a friend and include recipes for the use of your creations.   No matter how you use herbed sugar, it is a wonderful way to preserve the flavor of fresh herbs well into the winter months.  And that can be worth more than gold when the snow is deep and the wind is howling!

How to make Herbed Sugar

You can use Turbano raw sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, or traditional refined white sugar.

Turbinado sugar differs from more common sugars because it comes from the first pressing of sugar cane and therefore retains more of the plant’s flavor and natural molasses. The syrup that’s released from this pressing is boiled to form crystals, which are then spun to separate them from any remaining liquid. These crystals are coarser, darker, and more well-rounded in flavor than granulated or brown sugar because they’re less processed. This slightly rich, molasses flavor is what makes this option so appealing and has many people reaching for turbinado over granulated sugar.

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content (natural brown sugar), or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar (commercial brown sugar).

Coconut Sugar is a sugar created from cocoanut palms.  It has a stronger coconut flavor but is very similar and can be used interchangeably with processed white sugar.

Refined sugar is a term used for sugar extracted from plants.  Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. The various types of sugar are derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose, and galactose. "Table sugar" or "granulated sugar" refers to sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants, but sucrose is especially concentrated in sugarcane and sugar beet, making them ideal for efficient commercial extraction to make refined sugar.

Sugar conserving or Sugar Flavoring 

I actually prefer to use refined sugar to make a flavored sugar because it has been so refined that the original molasses flavors are gone and it becomes a blank canvas for infusing the flavor of herbs.  It is perfect for this project.

Herbs to use to flavor sugar

Mint

scented geranium

lavender 

fragrant basils 

are good candidates for sugar conserving. 

Steps to make Herbed Sugar

Method number 1

Pour 1/2 inch of sugar into a clean glass or nonreactive container. 

Place leaves across the surface. 

Cover completely with a 1/4- to 1/2-inch layer of sugar. Add another layer of herbs, then another layer of sugar. 

Repeat until all the leaves are covered (or the container is full). 

Make sure the top layer of sugar completely covers herbs. Seal the container. 

Store in a cool spot in your house in about 2 weeks, remove the now dry herb leaves from  he sugar.  Sift out any small broken plant bits and repackage for storage or gift giving.

Method Number 2

This method is quick and easy and gets you a product you can use instantly.  

For this you need a blender or food processor.  

Add 1 large handful of herb leaves to the blender or food processor.  (I use a coffee mill.)

Pulse until the herbs are well chopped (giving you a Tablespoon of chopped herbs.) 

Add 1 cup sugar and pulse until well blended.

The herbs will color the sugar which will be very fine in structure, like caster sugar, giving it a nice look, but there will be bits of herb in the sugar making it less useful for flavoring tea or coffee, but perfect for baking.