Growing more herbs - Layering as a means of plant propagation
By admin | April 18, 2007
Here is a time honored way of propagating your herbs - layers or layering. Basically, the idea is to touch parts of the plant to the ground to have it root.
LAYERS or LAYERING
Several of the perennial herbs, such as sage, savory, and thyme, may be easily propagated by means of layers, the stems being pegged down and covered lightly with earth. If the moisture and the temperature be favorable, roots should be formed in three or four weeks and the stem separated from the parent and planted.
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Drying and Storing the Culinary Herbs Grown in your Garden
By admin | April 24, 2006
I love drying herbs that I grew in my herb garden. I simply cut bunches of my herbs at the end of the summer and hang them in bundles in my shed. Of course, I quickly bring them into the house. The aroma is just incredible. There really is nothing like a fresh bundle of lavendar that you grew yourself hanging in the air.
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Methods of Drying and Curing Culinary Herbs
By admin | April 24, 2006
Just doing some thinking about how to save my herb harvest so as to last me through the winter. My neighbor told me this tip involving a freezer. This is how he saves lots of basil for use in cooking his sphagetti sauces during the winter months. Wash and dry selected basil leaves. Make sure that they are completely dry. Then place them into freezer bags and freeze. After they are frozen, crack them in the bag into small bits. This will give you room to place more prepared basil leaves into the same bag. Add more, freeze and crack again. Use the bits as you need them. Brilliant, isn’t it?
Here is today’s reading about methods of drying culinary herbs:
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Using Herbs in Leftovers
By admin | April 22, 2006
Knowing how to cook with herbs can be a life saver when dealing with leftovers. What do I mean? Here’s a never-fail way that garlic and ginger can make a incredible meal out of any leftover meat (uncooked leftover meat usually, but you can also flash fry cooked meat). It’s an easy way to make something taste Chinese. The trick is knowing which herbs the chinese use for simple stir-frying.
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Most Popular Culinary Herbs in the Kitchen
By admin | April 21, 2006
In the herb garden we had a discussion about what we thought the most popular culinary herbs were. Some guesses included parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (based on the song, I suppose!). I’ve done some research into the popularity of various herbs and have some findings to report.
According to a recent poll, the herb with the overall highest popularity is LAVENDER. The web site called “today’s local news” on October 21, 2006 had this explanation:
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Production of New Varieties of Culinary Herbs
By admin | April 20, 2006
Culinary herbs have been developed over millenium for certain traits. There is an abundance of varieties that stress certain traits over others. Just go to your favorite herb farm or nursery and you’ll see herb varieties that you’ve never heard of. I love mints and am surprised by the amazing number of mints that I can try growing without having to hunt around.
Have you ever thought about how to develop and cultivate new varieties? Do you fancy yourself a Mendel or some other cross breeder? I used to be a big fan of certain flowers and know that breeding for desirable traits can be quite a passion, but never thought of applying those techniques to growing herbs.
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Culinary Herbs Defined - History of cooking with herbs
By admin | April 19, 2006
The topic came up in the garden of what exactly is meant by the term “Culinary Herb“. If you look at the wikipedia entry on Herb, it tells us that there are 2 types of usage of herbs - medicinal and culinary. It says that a medicinal herb may be a shrub or other woody plant while a culinary herb is a non-woody plant where you typically use the leaves. What is the difference between culinary herbs and veggies? Typically the culinary herb is used in small amounts and provide flavoring rather than substance to foods.
What does our reading today from Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses have to say on the matter? Some very interesting things including the history of cooking with herbs. The Bible mentions various herbs such as mint, anise and cummin. Read the rest of this entry »
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A Dinner of Herbs
By admin | April 18, 2006
Herb Garden afficionadoes like myself may be shocked to learn that heavy use of herbs was considered by some to be a poor thing. How can that be? Weren’t herbs used by the rich in their cooking? I always thought so.
But if you look at today’s reading passage below, you’ll see that some considered the “Dinner of Herbs” something that poor people had to put up with. Very interesting indeed. I grow herbs and use them heavily in my cooking because I love it so much. I never thought about it as a class distinction or having to do with wealth or lack thereof. Read the rest of this entry »
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Herb Propagation by Cutting
By admin | April 18, 2006
Cuttings are magical. They really are. Just snip a few inches of any mint plant, pop it into a glass and leave it on your kitchen window sill and you’ll see the roots start to come out as if by magic. The mints are just so incredibly easy to cut and root. Other herbs too, but the mints really do well just in water.
Last summer I took a trip and asked a neighbor to come by and water my herb garden. She fell in love with my chocolate mint and took a few cuttings. She just kept in a jar by her window and now has a couple of healthy chocolate mint plants for her own kitchen herb garden!
CUTTINGS
No herbs are so easy to propagate by means of cuttings as spearmint, peppermint, and their relatives which have underground stems. Every joint of these stems will produce a new plant if placed in somewhat moist soil.
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Culinary Herbs from Mother’s Herb Garden
By admin | April 17, 2006
I’m planting away like mad this season: Mint, Sage, Parsley, Corriander, lemon grass, marjoram, thyme are some of the new plants in my culinary herb bed. I’m mostly sorting by cooking usage and color in my garden.
Later in the season, I hope to shift my focus to cooking with these herbs. I can’t wait for the flavors to rise from my soups and stews. I’ll be drying my harvest to present as gifts this Christmas as well. I’m thinking of making an herbal wreath for cooks to hang in their kitchens. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
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