Household odds and ends

Two little things to share...

Newspaper bag full of bottle caps to be recycled

As excited as I am about our county's expanded recycling program, I regret that they do not accept any plastic bottle caps (because they're small and can clog up the recycling machines, I've heard). But I found an alternative to just throwing out my caps: Aveda has a cap recycling program. The Aveda webpage says it's just for schools, but I called up my local Aveda-affiliated salon and the employee said she'd be glad to take my bag of caps in to the Aveda Institute here in Charlotte, which is a collection point. I brought them in last week and am already filling up a new bag.

Herb drying sack hung in laundry closet

When my garden herbs revived with the (somewhat) cooler weather, I thought I'd try preserving some of them by drying. I researched methods online and tried this first:

1. cut the herbs with long stems
2. rinse and shake
3. gather into bundles (I used half twist-ties to keep them together)
4. set out to dry for a few hours (I put them on a plate on my counter)
5. punch holes in a small paper bag
6. tape the bundles of herbs inside at different levels (try to keep them from touching)
7. close and hang in a dry place (for about 2 weeks)

It worked! I opened the bag and found my oregano nicely dried. I stripped the leaves off the stems and put them in a labeled Ziploc bag for future use. I look forward to trying this again!