If you have herbs in your garden, now is the time to start thinking about winter.

Harvest what you think you will need for the colder months and dry it now while the plants are fresh and full of flavour. It is best to harvest in the heat of the afternoon to have the highest amount of beneficial oils. However anytime of day is still good.

📷 by Emily Rozema

​We try to use our dried herbs within one year of harvest. Dried herbs do not suddenly go bad after a year, but their flavour, aroma and quality diminish over time.
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This is one of the reasons our Mingle Hill spice blends and loose leaf teas are so potent and flavourful. We grow and harvest our herbs here on the farm and use them within one year.

📷 by Emily Rozema

With many grocery store spices, you simply don't know when the plant was actually harvested.

​In Canada, shelf stable foods that last longer than 90 days generally do not require a best before date. That means the jar may tell you very little about the actual age of the herbs or spices inside.

Drying herbs at home is incredibly simple.

Gather your herbs into small bundles and place an elastic around the stems. Take a paperclip, open it up and use it as a little hook to hang the bundle upside down.

Hang your herbs in a cool, dry, dark place with good airflow. A spot in your kitchen or large pantry away from a sunny window can work well.

Sunlight can break down the colour, aroma and quality of dried herbs, so keeping them away from direct light is important.

Most bundles will take around two weeks to fully dry, depending on the herb, humidity and size of the bundle.

The most important part is making sure they are completely dry before putting them into a jar. Any moisture left in the plant can encourage mold.

If you aren't quite sure they are dry enough, you can finish them in a dehydrator on a low setting. A dehydrator is also a great way to speed up the entire process.

Once completely dry, remove the leaves from the stems and store them in a clean glass jar in your spice cupboard, away from heat and sunlight.

Then enjoy your own homegrown herbs all winter.
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Use them individually for cooking, make herbal tea, or start experimenting and create your own custom spice blends.

📷 by Emily Rozema

Homegrown dried herbs and homemade spice blends make brilliant Christmas gifts.

A little glass jar, a handwritten label and herbs you grew yourself.
Simple, useful and actually made by you.
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There is something pretty satisfying about opening a jar in January and smelling the herbs you grew in your own garden the summer before.

📷 by Emily Rozema

This year, we discovered five enormous green hornworms happily eating our pepper plants.

A single hornworm can eat an impressive amount of foliage, so they are not always welcomed by gardeners. Instead of killing them, we moved ours away from the vegetable garden and placed them near the pond. There, they could become food for the birds or, if they were mature enough, burrow into the soil and begin their transformation.
​
Hornworms found on peppers are usually tomato or tobacco hornworms. Both feed on plants in the nightshade family, including tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplants. When fully grown, they leave the plant and burrow into the soil, where they become pupae before emerging as large moths.

What Does a Hornworm Become?

A tomato hornworm transforms into a five spotted hawkmoth, while a tobacco hornworm becomes a Carolina sphinx moth.

Both belong to the sphinx moth family. They are large, strong flying moths with long wings and thick bodies. Adults hover in front of flowers and use a long, tube shaped mouthpart to drink nectar. As they move between flowers, they can carry pollen and become valuable evening and nighttime pollinators.

You can sometimes tell the caterpillars apart by their markings. Tomato hornworms have white V shaped markings and a dark horn. Tobacco hornworms have straight diagonal lines and usually a reddish horn.

Is a Sphinx Moth the Same as a Hummingbird Moth?

This is where it becomes confusing.

Sphinx moths are sometimes called hawkmoths or hummingbird moths because they can hover over flowers and even fly backwards. Their rapid wings and long feeding tube make them look surprisingly similar to a tiny hummingbird.

However, the moth most people recognize as a hummingbird moth is the hummingbird clearwing moth. It is a different species within the same large sphinx moth family.

The hummingbird clearwing is smaller, often active during the day and has transparent wings with a fuzzy green and reddish body. The moths that develop from tomato and tobacco hornworms are generally larger, grey or brown, with solid wings, and are most active around dusk or after dark.

A Garden Pest or Part of the Ecosystem?

As caterpillars, hornworms can quickly damage vegetable plants. As adults, they become remarkable moths that visit flowers and help move pollen through the garden.

They are also part of the farm’s food chain. Hornworms provide food for birds and beneficial insects, while the adult moths become food for bats and other nighttime animals.

We certainly did not want five hungry hornworms finishing our pepper plants, but we also did not feel that they needed to be destroyed. Moving them gave nature the opportunity to decide what happened next.
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Sometimes the creature eating your garden today may become one of its pollinators tomorrow.

According to the tale, the fable of the Pussy Willow goes;
a mother cat was crying on the bank of a river, as her kittens had fallen in while chasing butterflies and were drowning. 

The willow trees along the riverbank wanted to help, so they dipped their branches into the water to save the kittens, allowing them to cling to the limbs.

​The kittens were saved, but they left their soft, furry fur behind on the branches. Since then, willow branches sprout tiny, kitten, fur-like buds every spring in memory of this rescue. 

As the old poem goes; 

Willow trees grow across much of the world, from Europe and North America to northern Asia and parts of Africa. For thousands of years people have turned to this quiet tree for relief from pain and fever.
Nearly 2,000 years ago the Greek physician Dioscorides recommended “willow leaves, mashed with a little pepper and drunk with wine” for lower back pain. During the Middle Ages, willow bark continued to be used throughout Europe to reduce fever and ease aches.
In 1899 the Bayer Company in Germany introduced a drug based on a synthetic compound similar to the active ingredient found in willow bark. That product eventually became one of the most recognized medicines in the world… aspirin.

Like aspirin, willow bark is a proven pain reliever, though it works more slowly and tends to last longer in the body. Traditionally it has been used for fever, colds, headaches, minor infections, and rheumatic aches.

On the farm, willow bark has found its way into several of our products including our Rosemary Hair Oil, Peppermint Hair Oil, White Fir Beard Oil, and our Easelixer ~ Create your own Elixer.

Willow contains a natural compound called salicin that gently exfoliates the scalp, helping remove dead skin, balance excess oil, and reduce dandruff. Its anti inflammatory plant compounds soothe irritation and help create a healthier environment where strong hair can grow.

​You will also find willow bark in our Easelixer blend, a plant that herbal traditions have long turned to when the body needs a little extra support.
​
Each spring we harvest the young willow shoots at the same time the maple sap begins to run. The days rise above freezing while the nights still dip below zero. During this brief window the sap moves through the trees as they awaken from winter’s sleep. This is when the bark is richest and most potent, and when we gather what we need for the oils and elixirs we craft through the year.

Our registered White Willow tree at Mingle Hill Farm, one of the largest in Canada.​

Recently, headlines began circulating about Starbucks facing a lawsuit alleging chemical residues in decaffeinated coffee.
Whether the claims are ultimately proven in court or not, the conversation has reopened something many people don’t realize:
Decaf coffee has long been one of the most chemically processed everyday foods.
And strangely enough… learning that years ago is what first sent us down the rabbit hole that eventually became our farm today.

Before We Grew Herbs, We Drank Coffee Without Question
There was a time when we didn’t think much about food processing.
Coffee was coffee and Tea was tea.

Then my husband Randy needed to switch to decaffeinated coffee.
We then asked the question, how do they remove the caffeine from the bean?

Why Decaf Coffee Is Back in the News
The recent lawsuit filed in the United States alleges that testing detected trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in certain decaffeinated Starbucks coffees. Starbucks has stated that its products meet safety standards, and the case has not been decided.
But regardless of the legal outcome, the discussion has reminded many consumers of something largely forgotten:
Some traditional decaffeination methods rely on chemical solvents.
For us, learning this years ago was a turning point.

How Conventional Decaf Coffee Is Often Made
Coffee beans naturally contain caffeine. To create decaf coffee, processors must remove it from green (unroasted) beans.
One widely used method involves solvents such as methylene chloride or ethyl acetate, which selectively bind to caffeine molecules.
In simplified terms:
• Beans are steamed to open their structure
• A solvent extracts caffeine
• Beans are rinsed and dried
• Coffee is roasted as usual
Regulations limit residual amounts allowed in finished coffee, and manufacturers maintain that products remain within approved safety limits.
But discovering this process was the first time many of us realized:
Food could be technically safe… yet still heavily processed.
That realization changed how we began looking at everything we consumed.

The Swiss Water Method: Coffee Without Chemical Solvents
​Then we discovered the Swiss Water Process, a decaffeination method developed in Switzerland and now refined here in Canada.
Instead of solvents, this method uses:
• water
• temperature
• time
• carbon filtration
The process works by gently dissolving caffeine into water and filtering it out while preserving flavour compounds.
No chemical solvents are introduced.
It felt understandable. Transparent. Almost traditional.
And that mattered to us.

The Beginning of Our “Crunchy” Era
Looking back, decaf coffee was one of the first foods that made us pause and ask deeper questions.
If caffeine could be removed this way…
What about Teas? Skin care ingredients? Spice mixes?
We started reading labels differently.
Growing more ourselves.
Learning how drying, extracting, and preserving plants actually worked.
That curiosity eventually grew into fields of herbs, drying rooms, and products made as simply as possible.

Modern food systems are complex, and many industrial processes exist for efficiency and consistency.
The Starbucks lawsuit may or may not change anything legally.
But conversations like this remind us that consumers increasingly want to understand how their food is made, not just what it contains. 

Sometimes One Question Changes Everything
People often ask how we became so committed to growing and making things ourselves.
The truth is unexpectedly simple.
We asked one question about a morning cup of coffee.
And once you start asking questions about what’s in your cup, you begin asking them about everything else... your food, your skin care, your home, and your health.
Sometimes becoming “crunchy” isn’t a trend.
It’s just curiosity… followed by learning.
And occasionally, it starts with decaf.

 Recently, headlines began circulating about Starbucks facing a lawsuit alleging chemical residues in decaffeinated coffee.Whether the claims are ultimately proven in court or not, the conversation has reopened something many people don’t realize:
Decaf coffee has long been one of the most chemically processed everyday foods.
And strangely enough… learning that years ago is what first sent us down the rabbit hole that eventually became our farm today.

Before We Grew Herbs, We Drank Coffee Without Question
​There was a time when we didn’t think much about food processing.
Coffee was coffee.
Tea was tea.
If it was sold in stores, surely someone had already checked everything.
Then someone in our household needed to switch to decaffeinated coffee.
We assumed it simply meant a naturally gentler bean.
Instead, we discovered something surprising.
Caffeine doesn’t just disappear from coffee, It has to be removed.
And how that removal happens varies dramatically.

Why Decaf Coffee Is Back in the News
The recent lawsuit filed in the United States alleges that testing detected trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in certain decaffeinated Starbucks coffees. Starbucks has stated that its products meet safety standards, and the case has not been decided.
But regardless of the legal outcome, the discussion has reminded many consumers of something largely forgotten:
Some traditional decaffeination methods rely on chemical solvents.
For us, learning this years ago was a turning point.
Not because of panic.
Because of curiosity.

How Conventional Decaf Coffee Is Often Made
Coffee beans naturally contain caffeine. To create decaf coffee, processors must remove it from green (unroasted) beans.
One widely used method involves solvents such as methylene chloride or ethyl acetate, which selectively bind to caffeine molecules.
In simplified terms:
• Beans are steamed to open their structure
• A solvent extracts caffeine
• Beans are rinsed and dried
• Coffee is roasted as usual
Regulations limit residual amounts allowed in finished coffee, and manufacturers maintain that products remain within approved safety limits.
But discovering this process was the first time many of us realized:
Food could be technically safe… yet still heavily processed.
That realization changed how we began looking at everything we consumed.

The Swiss Water Method: Coffee Without Chemical Solvents
Then we discovered the Swiss Water Process, a decaffeination method developed in Switzerland and now refined here in Canada.
Instead of solvents, this method uses:
• water
• temperature
• time
• carbon filtration

The process works by gently dissolving caffeine into water and filtering it out while preserving flavour compounds.
No chemical solvents are introduced.
It felt understandable. Transparent. Almost traditional.
And that mattered to us.

The Beginning of Our “Crunchy” Era
Looking back, decaf coffee was one of the first foods that made us pause and ask deeper questions.
If caffeine could be removed this way; What about herbs? Oils? Teas? Skin care ingredients?
We started reading labels differently. Growing more ourselves.
Learning how drying, extracting, and preserving plants actually worked.
That curiosity eventually grew into fields of herbs, drying rooms, and products made as simply as possible.
Our farm philosophy didn’t begin with lavender or rosemary.
It began with coffee.

It’s about understanding modern food systems are complex, and many industrial processes exist for efficiency and consistency.
The Starbucks lawsuit may or may not change anything legally.
But conversations like this remind us that consumers increasingly want to understand how their food is made, not just what it contains.

We asked one question about a morning cup of coffee.
And once you start asking questions about what’s in your cup, you begin asking them about everything else.
Sometimes becoming “crunchy” isn’t a trend. It’s just curiosity, followed by learning.
And occasionally, it starts with decaf.