Herbs: basil, parsley, etc..

[Dancer in the kitchen]

Last year I put in my first herb garden. The basil plants weren't on the big size so I thought what the heck and bought 4.....big mistake those things became monsters and I ultimately pulled them all up at the beginning of fall. I'm hoping the garden isn't taken over with offspring this year. What I want to do instead is pot one basil plant in a container and that way I can contain it and bring it in in the winter.

My rosemary did beautifully and thats one plant I think would grow into a tree if I let it.

I have to say its so great to be able to walk out your door and snip this and that fresh herb, not to mention how much you save not buying it in the stores.

I do plan to add a few different herbs this year. Last year it was Parsley, Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram and Dill. Its a wait and see to determine what survived the winter.
Oh yes forgot to mention I had Sage too.

I started my own little windowsill herb garden a few months ago. I'm going at it totally blind. I have no clue what I'm doing. I just planted some seeds in potting soil. The basil & parsley (in the same pot) are doing well. I also planted some thyme which seems to be doing okay & I just put some rosemary seeds on the other side of the thyme pot. How long will it take for all these to mature? Any pointers? Like . . . you're doing it all wrong! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If I'm on the right road, I'd like to expand my little garden to include other herbs.

 

[Constance]

When I had the greenhouses, and people to work for me, I grew all sorts of fresh herbs.
Now, I only grow my favorite 3...sweet basil, flat-leaf Italian parsely, and sage. One good healthy sage plant, when dried, will give me a year's supply. The other two are really only good when fresh, especially the basil.

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

During the growing season I have 2 types of basil, 2 types of parsley, oregano, cilantro, lemon thyme (that keeps trying to take over); rosemary and fennel outside my kitchen as staples. During the 'lean' months I resort to buying in the store fresh basil, parsley or cilantro. I clean and air dry oregano and rosemary during the winter months.

How do you dry herbs?

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

I grow several of my own herbs, but if I don't grow them I buy them rather than use dried herbs. Fresh parsley and fresh basil are by no means the same as dried parsley or basil. The taste and the aroma are totally different and as far as I'm concerned you can actually ruin a dish with those two dried herbs. The only herb I prefer dried is oregano. It is actually a fact that dried oregano is more potent than fresh and develops a better flavor. I grow rosemary (tons of it lines my driveway) sage, marjoram, and thyme.

You use rosemary as a border in your driveway? How cool! I live in Va. Beach, VA, would it survive outside as part of a flower garden?

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

I love fresh herbs, but like other have limited space. I always grow a LOT of flat and curly leaf parsley, then wash, de-stem, and freeze on cookie sheets, then place in freezer bags for the winter months. I can gaze and revel at a garden/ nursery for hours, rubbing the leaves between my fingers and breathing in the essence of how fresh the herb is. Like smelling the depths of a fine wine. Rosemary is my all-time favorite. I buy it only to sit by and smell, although I do not care for the flavor. It is wonderful infused in grapeseed oil in a warm window, and used for problem skin or during the winter months for colds. Our second favorite, is mint, plucked right off the plant and chewed. My daughter's favorite is the chocolate mint, and the summer becomes very disappointing if we cannot find it!!!

You know a lot about herbs! I had no idea rosemary was good for problem skin & colds. How is it used in that way? And what a great idea to let it sit in grapeseed oil on a windowsill. Bet it makes a great decoration too! Is there an actual chocolate mint herb or do you mix it? Also does your method of freezing parsley work for other herbs?

 

[Tiffeny]

How do you dry herbs?

I tie mine into bundles containing several stalks (depends on size of stalk of the variety being dried - usually my bundles are about an inch in circumference) using kitchen string and hang these in a dark, dry, and cool closet till completely dry. Try to keep them out of the light as this can decrease the flavour of the herbs. Once they are completely dry store them in dark glass bottles as light causes rapid deterioration in flavour.

Hope this helps ,

Tiffeny

 

[LRCooks]

I started my own little windowsill herb garden a few months ago. I'm going at it totally blind. I have no clue what I'm doing. I just planted some seeds in potting soil. The basil & parsley (in the same pot) are doing well. I also planted some thyme which seems to be doing okay & I just put some rosemary seeds on the other side of the thyme pot. How long will it take for all these to mature? Any pointers? Like . . . you're doing it all wrong! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If I'm on the right road, I'd like to expand my little garden to include other herbs.

There is actually a chocolate mint plant and a lot of other mints too! Here is a site that may be helpful to you. Actually it probably has more information than you want. http://http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/mint.htm
I think you will find that rosemary from seed will be quite difficult. You would do better to buy a plant.

Rosemary should grow outside in your area. I think you are in growing zone 8. Rosemary does ok up to zone 6. If you wanted to you could use other herbs in your landcaping. One of my favorites is sage (Salvia officinali) - I love it's beautiful lilac colored blooms against the grey/green leaves. Chives
are very easy to grow and produce violet globe shaped flowers. Herbs in general are very easy to grow outside and I would certainly consider that if I were you. I was pleasantly surprised when my daughters told me how much they had enjoyed the wonderful frangrances caused by the breezes ruffling through herb plants we landscaped our backyard with. One of their favorites is Bee Balm because it's abundant red blooms attracted humming birds. Our little dog even found a good use for thyme. He had allergies and his symptoms were releived by wallowing around on his back in the bed of thyme!

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

I tie mine into bundles containing several stalks (depends on size of stalk of the variety being dried - usually my bundles are about an inch in circumference) using kitchen string and hang these in a dark, dry, and cool closet till completely dry. Try to keep them out of the light as this can decrease the flavour of the herbs. Once they are completely dry store them in dark glass bottles as light causes rapid deterioration in flavour.

Hope this helps ,

Tiffeny

Yup, I've copy & pasted for when my herbs get plentiful enough for me to start drying them. Thanks!!

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

There is actually a chocolate mint plant and a lot of other mints too! Here is a site that may be helpful to you. Actually it probably has more information than you want. http://http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/mint.htm
I think you will find that rosemary from seed will be quite difficult. You would do better to buy a plant.

Rosemary should grow outside in your area. I think you are in growing zone 8. Rosemary does ok up to zone 6. If you wanted to you could use other herbs in your landcaping. One of my favorites is sage (Salvia officinali) - I love it's beautiful lilac colored blooms against the grey/green leaves. Chives
are very easy to grow and produce violet globe shaped flowers. Herbs in general are very easy to grow outside and I would certainly consider that if I were you. I was pleasantly surprised when my daughters told me how much they had enjoyed the wonderful frangrances caused by the breezes ruffling through herb plants we landscaped our backyard with. One of their favorites is Bee Balm because it's abundant red blooms attracted humming birds. Our little dog even found a good use for thyme. He had allergies and his symptoms were releived by wallowing around on his back in the bed of thyme!

This really helps! Thank you! This may even be enough incentive for me to take an interest in doing something with my flower beds!

 

[amber]

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme Sorry, the herbs reminded me of a song, dont mind me

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme Sorry, the herbs reminded me of a song, dont mind me

Leave it to you to actually SAY/SING it! It took great restraint on my part not to go there!

 

[LRCooks]

Amber - Too cool!

 

[Yancey]

Garden fresh herbs in time for Pizza

I'm in my second year of growing herbs. I really like the thyme. I've got regular thyme, lemon thyme and lime thyme and I like to mix them.

My oregano and rosemary survived the winter however my sage did not.

Now I'm getting hungry for a pizza! I like putting fresh thyme, rosemary, oregano and marjoram in my dough to make the crust very herby.

Yancey

 

[jglass]

We live in a small apartment but my father in law offered to grow herbs in his garden for me this year. I cant wait to try them. There are three very lousy grocery stores in this town and none of them even sell fresh herbs. I cannot wait to have fresh rosemary in particular.

 

[LRCooks]

jglass
Do you have a balcany that you could grow some in a pot?

 

[SpiritWolf]

Growing Herbs

I too love to grow my own herbs, fresh is always best, where I live in Australia,we dont have a real winter at all. It does get cooler at that time of year, but we have no snow,no hail,no frost, just cooler weather, which I love because most of our weather is so hot. So our herbs and plants dont get ruined as we have no frost or anything, other parts of Australia, the southern parts do get the really freezing snowy weather, but because I live in northern Queensland it is always hot weather, so we have herbs,fruit and vegies all year round, Yes we are very lucky. I can grow just about anything, I start them in pots, then transfer them when they are big enough in the garden, if I want to, otherwise they stay in their pots. I have Basil,parsley,chives,
rosemary,lavender,different fruit trees,tomatoes (different types ), quite a few others, it is so nice to smell their freshness when you cut what you need for a meal, and my son loves learning all about the plants that we grow, he gets a kick out of cutting the herbs for the nights meal. I hope you have fun growing some of your own, just like I have.
Love Spiritwolf.

 

[jglass]

We have a small balcony that runs around all the apartments and landlords that dont want you to put anything on it. There are only six apartments here over two businesses downstairs and heaven forbid anyone think they *look* like apartments upstairs. My father in law doesnt mind doing it. He raises a huge garden every year. I did tell him that some of the herbs can spread and take up alot of space. He has always told me he would be happy to put anything I wanted out there so this year I took him up on it.

 

[rjx]

Dried herbs is like using stale bread for sandwiches. If thats all you can use, thats ok. But with fresh vs dried, its a night and day difference.

 

[Claire]

There are some herbs I actually prefer dried, and I do try to dry my own. I prefer dried:

Oregano -- it really brings out the flavor
Sage -- I keep trying to dry it myself, and it works wonderfully when it works, but I've also caused a few fires trying to dry it
Dill

Herbs I think are in the "don't bother if it isn't fresh" category:

Basil, mint, parsley, cilantro. Just don't put it in the recipe if you can't get it fresh, unless you're doing it just for color.

Note on cilantro: I learned that cilantro, chinese parsley, etc, was the name of the green part. This does NOT apply to coriander, the product of the ground seeds, which holds up good to drying.

 

[Dancer in the kitchen]

I tie mine into bundles containing several stalks (depends on size of stalk of the variety being dried - usually my bundles are about an inch in circumference) using kitchen string and hang these in a dark, dry, and cool closet till completely dry. Try to keep them out of the light as this can decrease the flavour of the herbs. Once they are completely dry store them in dark glass bottles as light causes rapid deterioration in flavour.

Hope this helps ,

Tiffeny

Yeah! This is great! Would the top of a pantry work in the kitchen?