A great gift idea is to make your own herb infused oils, they are easy to make and they make an original gift. Just choose one or two different herbs fresh from your garden, or buy them fresh if you don't grow any herbs. Take a bunch and tie them together with a piece of string, hang them upside down in a warm and dry location, but not in direct sunlight. It is important to dry them completely so that there is no water left. Any leftover water will create a water bubble in your oil where bacteria can grow that cause botulism. After drying, put the herbs in any good quality oil, I prefer to use extra virgin olive oil. Take a nice, clear glass bottle and leave it in a dark place for a few weeks. When finished, put a nice label on the bottle and you have a nice gift, or use it yourself.
This sounds like a fab idea if you're already interested in this sort of thing. Sadly, I'm the least green fingered person you'll ever find LOL I honestly just couldn't be bothered. But I can imagine this being a lovely gift to friends and family, especially if presented in a cute bottle and packaged nicely. The good thing's that it's easy enough to follow the instructions. Thanks for sharing, anyway
Totally agree - herb infused oils are not only a wonderfully inexpensive gift idea - but generally a very welcome and much appreciated one too - particularly as many of the commercially infused oils are normally quite expensive. In fact so much so - that as I grow all my own produce including all my own herbs - making up batches of herb infused oils - as well as herb infused vinegars, pesto, mixed herbs and a wide variety of freshly dried individual herbs - is something that I do every year. Not just for my own use - but because - once packaged into attractive but inexpensive containers - as well as sometimes with the addition of ribbons and bows to compliment the contents or the packaging - they're always good to have on hand - as they make ideal and more often than not - very welcome gifts - either gifted individually or in little hampers with a combination of everything. I also gift variety of herb plants that I have grown from cuttings - in cute little pots - as they appear to be extremely popular too.
Thanks, @gata montes. Herb infused vinegar and homemade pesto make a great gift as well, thanks for the idea. A nice ribbon and label can make an ordinary container very cute and pretty, so will keep this in mind. Giving herbs grown from your own cuttings to friends and family is also a good idea. At the moment I am only growing a few herbs, but I plan to grow as much of my own produce myself. Homemade tomato sauce, jams and chutneys are also great gifts.
I really like infused oils. Every year I grow chili peppers. My husband really enjoys spicy foods. I think this year I'll try to make a chili infused oil. I think it would go great on pasta. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to make. I've seen the pretty bottles in Italian grocery stores with whole chilies in oil. You could save so much by making your own. I was thinking of using crushed dried chilies. Here's an easy recipe I found.Log In!
@purplepen88 I really enjoy spicy foods too, and that chili infused oil sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
This reminds me of my husband's desire to invent a hair lotion from aloe vera. From the rumors that aloe vera can give you a good crop of hair, he thought that aloe vera is a potent ingredient for a hair grower tonic. And since coconut oil is reputedly the best for hot oil treatment for the scalp, he experimented on those 2 ingredients. Unfortunately, the tests proved nothing.
