Culinary Herbs #2

Ok folks it's time to resuscitate this thread----I promise not to mention chocolate Basil :)

i'm here for the discussion!

i think we're beginning an early spring here, which i'm very happy about since last year from winter we jumped straight into summer!

coming up already is pineapple sage, lemon balm, bee balm-oswega tea, common sage, common oregano, and i see way too many sprouts of holy basil coming up out there!!! of course there's also spearmint & peppermint coming up too! actually, the oregano, as well as the rosemary sat there over winter w/several rounds of snow and freezing and still look healthy, ready to go.

Sounds like you have a great start

We got some rain today, so that made the snow pack go down to just a foot deep! Cold again tomorrow though. So, any plant life is all indoors here. I have started some veggie seeds and a few herbs, but real sowing will go on in a few weeks. My indoor overwintered herbs are doing great. But, we are all anxious for a sign of spring here!

yeah, there's probably more frosty days here too..just wishful thinking.

i'm sprouting fenugreek this year and will be growing it for the first time, anybody have info on growong it?

Wow! I saw the first post here from Feb of 09 and thought I had slipped a gear. Reading thru the earlier thread, I am afraid quite a few former posters have moved on to 'greener gardens'. I'll jump in as I'm not going anywhere soon.

Nice, nice weather here and I have germination on a quite few herbals. New for me this year are licorice basil, black cumin and root beer hyssop.

There is new inground growth on the soapwort, fennel and the comfrey. I've moved some herbals out for spring but don't want to risk all so the lemon verbena and the allspice will have to bide their time.

No experience with fenugreek, sorry. The one I'm having trouble coaxing germination from is Costmary.

Edited to add, Vortreker ~ what are you itching to grow this season?

This message was edited Mar 1, 2011 8:34 PM

This message was edited Mar 1, 2011 8:34 PM

Pod,
I am growing mostly vegetables this year----building my small greenhouse so I can get culinary herbs/spice going year around. I should say re-building greenhouse :(
Put it up last week and before I got it fastened down good it took a little trip on the wind--waiting for repair parts right now.

Wind is bad news this time of year. Sorry, I hope you didn't lose plants as well.

Allwild, I have no problem direct sowing fenugreek. Once it is up, keeping the darned rabbits from eating it is another problem entirely!

Pod, if you can't get your costmary going, Dmail me later in the spring (spring here) and I'll send you a bit of mine.

thank you herbalbetty! i've wintersown some so hopefully it will come up but if not, i can just plant some more seeds.

podster, it looks like i have some epazote sprouts coming up in a pot too! and so is the mountain mint vine!!

soapwort is another i'm trying to sprout...is it a problem getting in the garden, like being aggressive?

I will agree ~ thank you Herbalbetty for your generous offer. I, too, have more seed to try for the costmary. The challenge of germination is a large part of the fun!

Allwild ~ I am afraid you will not speak to me on the epazote... you will find sprouts in many unexpected places. I am finding volunteers in pots in the greenhouse this winter. I haven't check the mountain mint yet.

I don't find soapwort to be agressive here but I don't overly nurture it either. I was given a start of it so have no experience at germinating it. I suspect it will spread more by the root system than by seed.

LOL pod! i have some wild epazote growing here already, it doesn't seem to spread but comes up in the same spot every year! the seeds you gave me has much more attractive flowers but don't want it all over so i'll keep an eye on it!!

and the mountain mint vine seems to have multiplied...which surprised me because i never saw it bloom or go to seed...it may have spread by its roots?

I would suspect yes on the spreading by roots for the mountain mint. It only seems to remain in a thick clump for me. But it really doesn't vine, it remains bushy. Please tell me I didn't send you some wierd vine... it does smell like mint?

Was outside this morning and the soapwort has traveled about 1 to 1 1/2 feet. It appears to send out runners that root but not agressively.

While waiting for it to warm up this morning, I was perusing some herbal sites and found this info on soapwort at Cherrygals'

here's a pic of the mountain mint...hopefully you can see okay. This was the original spot, there are a couple of added clumps coming up.
i'm pretty sure its your mountain mint? lol

Yep ~ that sure favors. I'm glad yours has established well.

I need to see if I can 'find' my plant ~ lol
This photo was the mountain mint from last year.

Yaaaah--
Received my Vanilla planifolia, Allspice, Lauris nobilis and Galanga in the mail today. Boy do I have spring fever bad.!!
Is it curable? :)

Ahhh... my tastebuds are watering just thinking about the Allspice. That is my favorite of the fragrances. I've not done so but believe you can use the leaves for cooking to impart that delightful flavor.

I gave my Vanilla planifolia vine to an "orchid nut" neighbor but I consider the L. nobilis my most user friendly herb.

BTW, spring fever will only be cured when the temps hit triple digits. lol

Pod,

On my old tree-(before I moved) I would dry the leaves and grind them in the coffee grinder--they were great.
Chewed on a few of my new baby plant leaves today. Taste is identical to the berry.

It's one of my goals this year to get some different mints, I got some pots at a tag sale, and I would like to get something other than my old reliable Kentucky Colonel.

I am trying to root Vietnamese Coriander from a bunch that I purchased as food. It roots practically as soon as it touches soil, but they keep it refrigerated, which is a little tough on heat-loving plants. I found galangal and tumeric roots with sprouts at the Indian market, I'll be growing those out this year as well.

I want to get Tumeric but I live 70 miles from any ethnic market--guess I'll mail order it.
(My truck gets 9mpg) :(

When it isn't snowing, I'll send some if they still have the nice green sprouty looking ones. I go to the Indian market at least once every 2 weeks. Occasionally they have seeds, too--the labels are totally in Hindi, so you have to go by the photo on the packet.

Wow! Thanks Celene. I am starting over since my move from Alabama to Texas but I will reimburse you and/or send you some mints as I am about to order many different cultivars.
Mints (Mentha) are amazing--Bubble Gum, Juicy Fruit, Banana, Oregano, Thyme flavors just to mention a few.

Be careful ~ the mail buggy probably only gets 9 mpg too. lol

Did your old allspice ever produce berries? Mine is only a few years old so I don't know if I have a male or female tree but I understood they are dioecious.

Celene ~ how do you use your galangal?

Pod,
Yup---everything is about to go up in price.

My old Allspice was 3 years old and no berries. I think it takes years. But the leaves were great.

I use Galanga in Thai type dishes along with Lemongrass. I would not even know how to describe it's flavor. Think "hot and sour soup"

Peppery, citrusy, piney????

Perfect description! You can tell it's related to ginger, but more citrusy and herbaceous, where ginger is earthy.

I'll keep my eye out for some more sprouty-looking rhizomes. It's too cold here to ship them, but hopefully it'll stop snowing soon.

Well, if you're passing by Katy, TX, I have a free "hunk" of galangal! I repotted mine and it was huge, so literally sliced into it and made about 5 sections. Very heavy to ship but I'll have it until someone claims it or until Oct. when my church has the bazaar and plant booth. Janet

What's going on with your culinary herbs/spices this season?

Well this year they are thriving for one. That's a nice change lol. Last year I put my brand new herbs outdoors and they died within a month. I believe that most were killed off by the weather, with the exception of Sage and Pineapple Sage. I even lost my beloved spearmint :( The only herbs to survive were Chives, Peppermint and Bee Balm.

This year I have Chives, some garlic chive seedlings (same pot), Italian Parsley, Curled Parsley, English Thyme, Greek Oregano, Tuscan Rosemary, Arp Rosemary, Pineapple Sage, Pineapple Mint and a few herb seeds germinating. Also have Agastache (Hyssop, Rugosa) and more Monarda but my Agastache isn't doing as great as I'd hope. When they arrived they were a bit beat up and a mouse made many of the leaves a snack. We will be making a trip out to the nursery for herbs and I'll start a few more (Fennel, fennel, dill, anise.)

I'm sticking with herbs on my deck after the kind landscapers dumped something (fertilizer, weed killer) in my herb pots :(

I lost almost all of my perennial culinary herbs, except mint, lemon balm, garlic chives (nothing kills them), regular chives, fennel, calamint and oregano. My neighbors paved their entire back yard, and normally they plow it for their cars, but this year they were gone all winter and the runoff gushed into my herb garden, it was literally frozen like a pond. What that didn't kill, my fence installers stomped. So...I'm replanting herbs and some perennials. My local nursery had an awesomesauce sale on pint herbs, so I got savory, marjoram, several thymes, several sages, and I'm going to try digging serious sand in to get corsican mint to live.

I have started chervil, watercress, many kinds of basil, bought a couple variegated basils, dwarf and tall dill. Normally dill reseeds among the bellflowers for me, but I wasn't sure it would this year given the fence trauma, so I started some. Dill blooms and bellflowers are so lovely! I am trying to sprout galangal and tumeric tubers which probably won't produce food here but will amuse me, and my cardamom is growing nicely. So is my Vietnamese coriander, and I'm waiting for sprouts on culantro what I WS'd.

I am also eyeballing apple mint, variegated ginger mint, variegated pineapple mint, orange mint, bubble gum mint, and lime mint. I had almost enough lemon balm to make lemon balm ice cream for dessert today, but those with whom I share DNA wanted cheesecake.

Celene I planted dill in 2009 and it never went to seed. Fall-Winter happened before it could. This year I'm sowing and I'm hoping it goes to seed.

I have Pineapple Mint but I'm hoping to find Apple mint. So far I know my favorite nursery has orange mint, mojito and morrocan. I don't think I'll be able to find Ginger or Banana like I'd love to. I'm building up my mint collect for my tea container garden.

The local place def has apple mint, and I think variegated ginger. Does the banana really smell banana-y? I'd certainly be open to trading, or I can throw in gardener soap or candles to sweeten the deal :) I'll send calamint to anyone. It's a nice plant, it's a lovely tea for GI upset, but it's...prolific.

I don't know but my Dad and my son love Bananas so I'm hoping it does. I've read about it's existence but not sure I'll be able to find it locally.

If you can't find orange or pineapple locally I can pick up one of each to trade with you. Definitely on the pineapple mint.

Compact dills! I planted two different dills this spring. Mariska and Compatto. I love to add dill fern to salads and other greens. The Mariska bolted with blooms more quickly but that is all right as I nip the blooms and eat them too. The Compatto has stayed tiny with lush foliage and I really like its' flavor. Unfortunately right now the caterpillars do also. Oh well, they won't kill it and I'll feast on the other clump. Either one would do well in containers too.

Basils ~ I like the sweet basils, cinnamon, licorice and an unidentified flea market basil. The other two I am growing are sweet Genovese and my favorite ~ Pistou.

I also like par-cel and planted two different ones to try this year. Both are doing well but I am undecided on flavor preference.

All the perennials and overwintered herbs are warming up. Lemon verbena, lemon balm, oregano, bay and allspice. I love the fragrances and the bees are coming to the blooms.

And, I don't know how or if I'll use this but it smells absolutely wonderful. Rootbeer hyssop... it may just be a scratch and sniff but my mouth waters every time!

I use a lot of dill in fresh vegetable pickles, on new potatoes, and in tzatziki.