The Daily Egg: Edition Two — Low-Tech Drip Tip

Low-tech drip irrigation tip

Fresh herbs are essential to any serious kitchen. Both here at the farm and at the restaurant, there are planters of all shapes and sizes at every doorway, windowsill, stair-step, and patio nook. Keeping up with the watering of all these planters is a constant chore — but Rose has discovered a novel trick that also re-uses and re-purposes empty glass bottles.

Several readers noticed the San Pellegrino bottle in Rosemary’s wine-barrel nest in yesterday’s post. That bottle is doing double duty.

Here’s the simple, foolproof system: Fill a glass bottle with water, invert it, and quickly shove the neck deep into the soil of the planter. It will slowly dispense water into the root system exactly as the soil needs it — a perfect low-tech drip irrigation system.

Of course, you still want to give the planter a good douse with the watering can every several days, but this trick closes the gaps and gives your herbs a steady water reserve when life gets busy. Brilliant. Simple. Effective. And it keeps more bottles out of the “recycle-waste stream”.

Today’s Eggstra Tip

Use clear glass bottles (wine, sparkling water, juice, milk) so you can see the water level at a glance. For larger planters, two bottles work even better — one on each side of the main herb clump. Rose even uses half-gallon glass milk bottles or growlers for larger pots!

Fresh herbs are essential to any serious kitchen.

Various examples of Rose’s “drippers”.

About “The Daily Egg”

Each morning, straight from the farm to your inbox, expect a tidy “one-egg omelette” of culinary ideas: quick tips, seasonal inspirations, simple recipes, kitchen tricks, and little stories. These won’t be my typical long-format stories, but rather fresh, bite-sized delights to start your day.

A note on the Daily Egg—I will place these missives in a separate “subscription”, so you can opt out of them separate from our normal newsletters and updates from the farm, restaurant and Magic Meat Truck if you prefer.

And please, DO respond with comments and thoughts. I look forward to making this an interactive forum as we launch our new cook.book platform (which you will be hearing about shortly!)

Until tomorrow,

Cluck, cluck!

—George

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