After the shock of the first fall freeze nearly everything in the garden withered into mounds of brown heaps except the root crops (carrots, onions, beets & potatoes) and a short row of chives.  To our surprise the chives stood as green and fresh looking as they did during the warmer days of summer.  We didn’t realize it until Nancy had done a little investigation that chives are actually perennials only needing to be cut off during the colder months.  In past years I had always turned them under believing them to be annuals like so many other vegetables, but with Nancy’s discovery we came into a whole new appreciation of the little guys also realizing that they could be harvested and preserved for winter use.

With this new revelation she cut them off and spread them out on the top of Eloise (the Home Comfort cook stove) to air dry.  She did this without heating the stove.  After several days she removed them and finished drying them by placing them in a warm oven leaving the oven door open.  She then bunched them in one hand while cutting each small bundle with scissors (haircut style) into short ½ inch pieces.  These where placed into a dry Mason jar for storage.

A few days later I smelled a delightful yet unique aroma drifting up into my study from the kitchen.   The tantalizing scent lured me down the stairs just in time to test taste the first chive biscuits Ipersonally had ever eaten.   They were so delicious I have already made plans to enlarge the chive plot for next spring.