Hello Chantell! How fun to see you here... flavored honey drizzled on vanilla bean ice cream.
Sounds sinful but a girl after my heart. Tell me how you prepare that one please?
Tulsi is one I've not knowingly grown. I may have to look into it.
I'm also interested in your tinctures and medicinal talents please? Kristi
What is going on in your herb garden this season?
My good friend Therese has been patiently teaching me over the past year. Flavored honeys are easy. Ideally find someone that carries local raw honey. Fill a mason jar about 3/4 the way of fresh tender stems and leaves. These should be pinched off before the basil flowers - use chop sticks to 'mash' the leaves down beneath the honey than cap. Give a gentle shake' each day for 6 weeks...whaaa laa flavored honey....and oh so yummy!! I let that mix sit longer. I also did a vanilla/clove/cinnamon honey too....very good as well! I've signed up for a couple of newsletters (Herb Companion & Mountain Rose Herbs). Here's a link to for DIY flavored honeys http://www.herbcompanion.com/herbal-living/how-to-make-herb-infused-honey.aspx
That sounds really good. Thanks for sharing the link. I will definitely give it a try.
I sell raw honey for a local bee man. He has been my supplier for years. Another business was selling his honey but they closed. He asked if we would care to handle it and the rest is history. For every dozen jars I sell, I get a free one. Of course I am one of my own best customers too. lol
May need to go start more basil now... Kristi
Podster, in the past I haven't over-wintered many herbs indoors. I have two Aero-Grows that keep me in basil, parsley, cilantro, and dill. I have a heavily wooded lot and don't get much natural light indoors even in winter (during the growing season I have to sneak in herbs on the perimeter of the property to get them enough sun). I may invest in a good lighting system this fall so I can grow more herbs in the winter. If I do, I'll bring in my rosemary and lavender, at least.
I know you will enjoy having fresh indoor herbs thru winter. I hope you are able to do so and are successful. Do you have any perennial herbal plants in ground?
I have an unruly lemon grass that had ovewintered in the greenhouse. I cut back the root ball and dead foliage and planted it in a corner of a raised bed. It will need to be dug up in fall and moved back indoors. I also moved the Cuban oregano and camphor plant into larger pots. I uprooted the sad looking borage and hope to salvage more seed from it also.
Cuban oregano... a pretty ornamental but too strong for me to use in cooking.
LOVE the looks of that oregano!! I googled it b/c I was fairly certain I'd heard all kinds of good stuff medicinally about Oregano http://www.google.com/search?q=oregano+medicinal+properties&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
This is the one Plectranthus amboincus http://herbs-herbal-supplements.knoji.com/herbs-cuban-oregano-culinary-medicinal-uses-and-nutrition/
The variegated version is pretty but an offensive odor to the leaves and hard for me to visualize use in cooking.
If you read down to the end of that link, they mention Plectranthus tomentosa which is commonly known as the camphor plant or vicks plant. Now, if you like camphor you would love that plant.
I have quite a few perennials in ground. Tarragon, mints, thymes, sage, catmint, lemon balm, chives, and sorrel, to name a few.
Cilantro
Cilantro is the Spanish name for coriander. This annual herb produces pungent green leaves that provide the signature flavor in many Southwestern dishes. Who could make pico de gallo or quesadillas without it? From the same plant comes spicy brown seeds, which are ground and used in seasoning blends.
This annual herb grows easily from seed and produces abundant leaves in the spring. But once the daytime temperatures rise above the 80s, cilantro will bolt - switch from leaf production to seed production. When this happens, the leaves are not as flavorful. You can delay bolting by clipping the central flower stalk once it appears, but eventually rising temperatures will spur the plant to set seed and die. To have a second crop, sow cilantro seeds after Labor Day. The dropping temperatures will allow the new plants to produce leaves until the first frost.
One herb I cannot do without. It is essentially a cool weather plant. As with most everything I have, I let it bolt (when the temps go up there is no other choice) and reseed itself. Have an area in the garden where it is almost always in some stage or another...except mid=winter and mid=summer.
Hi Christy ~ interesting information on the cilantro/coriander. That is one herb I've not grown or used. Please tell me how you use it in your cooking? I hear such mixed reviews that I am hesitant to try it.
I've got a cluster of Spilanthes seedlings that need to go in the ground this weekend hopefully. It is a fun herbal plant with eyeball like blooms and tongue numbing taste.
aka ~ the toothache plant
Yes, I've had the vicks plant before...not overly fond of THAT scent...LOL. Made the drive down to another organic nursery I know of and picked up (I've GOT to remember to get there earlier next year...although I was quite pleased that most of mine were over 50% off today) the last of their cilantro, a cayenne and ghost pepper (hoping to make some HOT oil later in the season), dill and I believe that pretty Oregano that you have up there Kristi. Oh yeah and another new lavender for me....you KNOW how I love my fragrants - lavender being my favorite. I'll have to check that tag and post tomorrow. The scent was strong than my Provence - which up till today was the most scented of my lavenders. Going to look up your toothache plant
Podster, if you like Thai food, you've probably had cilantro. In recipes if you ar short on cilantro, you can use parsley. While similar to parsley, it has a slightly citrus flavor. I think it is also popular in Mexican food, which I don't cook.
I have never grown cilantro. When I make Pad Thai, I use the frozen cubes of cilantro available in Trader Joe's and a few other supermarkets. In the winter I usually used frozen basil, since I have had problems growing basil indoors.
In our Mexican recipes we add the cilantro just at time to serve. It doesn't cook all that well. Sort of looses the flavor. Let me look for a recipe for Texas pico de gallo.http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/pico_de_gallo_a/
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/pico_de_gallo_a/
This message was edited Jun 5, 2012 6:00 PM
Chantell or anyone else that might be interested, I have extra seed for the eyeball plant. It is easy to germinate. I'll be glad to share, just dmail me.
And Chantell, I can't believe you didn't like the Vicks plant but like that nasty Cuban oregano... lol
Cathy ~ I live with a guy that has narrow tastebuds. Nope haven't ever eaten Thai food and not sure I've ever eaten anything with Cilantro in it. But I am one of those that will try anything so I need to go to LouCs' link and give it a go... thanks too, Christy.
found this website that I listed the link when I googled cilantro. Have just signed for an email subscription.....looks really good.
LOL I can use the Oregano in cooking, my friend...only thought for the Vicks plants was to rub it on my chest should I have a cold...yikes!!! You have a dmail btw ^_^
Eyeball plant info http://voices.yahoo.com/the-toothache-herb-spilanthes-571864.html?cat=5
This message was edited Jun 6, 2012 11:29 PM
I've grown herbs for the past several years (generally speaking, the cats don't eat them the way they will other plants), but this year I moved, and now I'm growing everything in containers on a balcony that gets a lot of shade. I'm not really growing them for culinary reasons, more for the fragrance and green-ness. I'd love suggestions on which ones to add for fragrance, or which ones are evergreen, or advice on keeping them happy in containers. I'll list the ones I have, along with pot size. In the back corner that gets the most shade: largest container has 2 Moses-in-the-cradle, 1 Mexican heather, 1 lemon thyme, 1 ivy; 10" container has 1 sweet woodruff (the cats do like this one, to my dismay!); 6" has citrus mint, 4" has German chamomile. In the front corner that gets more sun and some direct sun: 10" containers have one rosemary, lavender or lemon thyme per container; 6" has spearmint; 4" has sweet marjoram. I also have an 8" with peppermint.
I will suspect that your container herb garden will do well Marsinger4. If I had any suggestion, it would be to pot up some of the smaller containers as the plants grow and thrive. Otherwise your spare time will be spent watering.
Hmmm... Sweet Woodruff. I will have to check that one out. Especially since we just added two more cats to the herd.
I've noticed my cats like nibbling the lemon grass which amazes me as I get cuts from it rather like papercuts.
I have lots of sweet woodruff planted as ground cover, and the neighborhood cats seem to leave it alone.
On the Woodruff or other plants that seem to attract cats. It is possible that an indoor cat may be drawn to a plant yet the outside ones may scoff at it. At this house, I have 7 indoor/outdoor cats with 1 more at work. I've noticed over the years some have a preference for dry catnip while others like theirs fresh. Amazingly, some don't care for it at all.
Kristi, I have 3 indoor cats. They all like dried catnip but only one likes it fresh
Vaughn
True! One of mine will roll in it fresh, and the other just stares at her like she is an embarrassment to all catdom.
LOL and that sounds just like a cat. 8 )
I have an allspice tree that has overcome its' fungus (?) I think. Last year the leaves kept turning brown and dropping off. I thought more than once that I had lost it. Well I sprayed it with a fungicide and am watering only with rainwater now. I wonder if I should maybe try to root a cutting of it... just in case. Or maybe I should just dry some of the leaves for use in cooking when I prune it. Any thoughts?
Stand corrected it was a variegated basil I piked up - NOT Oregano....ISO of that tomorrow... Eyeball seeds have sprouted...yipeee