Out Of The Soil

 

 

 

THE BENEFITS OF GOOD ORGANIC SOIL

Basil: This herb lasts until frost if you keep cutting the tips so it doesn't flower to much. (Leave some blooms for the bees!) You can tuck your basil plants outside the tomato cages.

Parsley: From a spring sowing you can cut this herb all summer, fall and even into winter. Parsley also does well close to your tomato cages.

Chives: A member of the onion family, chives are a bulb plant and very easy to grow. You can cut the grass-like shoots and all summer for your salads and as seasoning. They also make a great border for other areas of your garden - vegetable or flower!

Thyme: Hardy to zone 5, thyme is a perinnial with origins in the Mediterrean. Leaves can be harvested for fresh use throughout the summer, but the flavor is best just before flowering. To dry, cut the stems just as the flowers start to open and hang in small bunches. Harvest sparingly the first year.

Tarragon: Tarragon requires a rich, sandy well-drained and limed soil. The plants require full sun or partial shade and should not be over-watered. Crushed tarragon leaves are used in many French recipes including soups and meats.

Garlic: You can actually use grocery store garlic bulbs to plant in your own garden. Plant in late summer or early fall and mulch over the winter. Garlic helps as a deterrant for japanese beetle infestations and makes a great sompanion for roses.

Mint: While mint is a great herb in many teas and sauces, it is somewhat invasive and should be planted in pots to contain it's spread. Mint is a perennial herb that is propagated by root division or rooting cuttings in water.

Rosemary: Great in soups (especially split-pea), lamb veal and poultry dishes. Rosemary is a pine-like plant that can grow to between 3 and 5 feet tall. Give this plant lots of sun, but keep it sheltered from the harsher elements. It is best grown in post so that it can be taken indoors during the winter in colder climates.

Sage: There is nothing like sage to bring out memories of Thanksgiving dinner! Sage is also great for teas, with pork and in salads. Sage prefers a sunny location with an alkaline soil. Plants can reach a height of 2 feet with a spread of 18 inches or so.

Dill: Use dill seeds or leaves in beet and tomato soups, with lamb dishes and scrambled eggs as well as a seasoning for salmon and with potatoes and cucumbers. Dill is one of the easiest herbs to grow. Dill likes to be planted in cool weather. In warm winter areas that don't experience a hard frost, you can plant dill in fall or winter. In cooler areas, plant dill a week or two before your last hard frost. After the first sowing, plant again every 10 days or so for a continuous crop.

HERB NOTES

Many herbs, will do quite well in pots. This makes it possible to bring your plants in over the winter to protet your plants from the harshness of northern winters.

Although the taste of fresh herbs can't be matched, herbs preserved by drying or freezing come surprisingly close and, once processed, keep for a long time. Drying concentrates the oils that give flavor to the leaves and seeds and preserves both the taste and texture of garlic and shallot bulbs. In dried form, leaves and bulbs can be kept conveniently at room temperature for up to a year, seeds for three years or more. Freezer storage will keep leaves green and flavorful for up to a year but the herbs will wilt as soon as they are defrosted. When using them in cooking, frozen herbs may be substituted for an equal measure of fresh ones, but dried leaves or seeds are twice as pungent, so cut the measurements in half.

For drying or freezing, harvest the leaves just before the plant blooms. At that time the leaves are fully formed but still growing vigorously, so they possess the maximum ampunt of the essential oils that give them their distinctive flavors.

Large leaves of herbs like sage or basil may be snipped off individually, but the easiest way to harvest the foliage of most herbs is to cut off the stems. Always keep at least two sets of leaves at the base of each stem so the plant will continue growing. Sometimes you can get two or three crops of leaves in a single growing season.

Seeds, the tastiest part of many herbs, are naturally wrapped in sturdy covers that will hold their flavor oils intact and usuable for many years. If you plan to dry seeds of herbs like anise, caraway, coriander, dill and lovage, keep an eye on the plants after thay blossom. Seeds must be gathered when they are barely ripe - as soon as they begin to look brownish. In a day or two the seeds will begin to drop and the slightest jarring of the stems will send seeds flying in all directions. But because all of the seeds do not ripen simultaneaously (not even those on the same plant), plan to pick several small crops over a period of a week or more.

The best time of day to pick seeds is in the early morning after the dew has evaporated, but while the air is still relatively calm. Cut off the entire seed heads with shears, dropping them into a paper bag as you go along.

To get rid of the tiny insects that may cling to the seeds, drop the seed heads into boiling water for an instant. Skim off the dead insects, which will float to the surface, then drain the seeds. Spread them on a single layer of tightly woven cloth towels, then put the seeds in an airy shady place to dry for two weeks or until you can separate seeds from pods by rubbing them between your hands.

To separate the seeds from the chaff, you may have to resort to winnowing; that is using air to separate them. Choose a day with a light breeze and pour the seeds slowly from a height of about 4-5 feet onto a sheet laid out on the ground. The seeds will fall to the sheet and the chaff will blow away in the breeze.

When the seeds are completely cleaned and dried, pack them into airtight glass or metal containers.

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