Spice Up Your Dish!

If the only spices that you have in your cupboard are salt and pepper, it is time for you “Kick it up a notch!”  Cooking with fresh herbs not only makes your dish look better, adding fragrance and color, but it enhances the flavor of your dish.

I used to never use fresh herbs because the dried herbs are so much simpler and less expensive, but not if you plant your own herb garden.  Spring is the perfect time to do just that!  SIDENOTE:  Don’t try to start your garden from seed.  It is a pain in the ---!  It is so not worth daily spritzing those stupid little seeds ten times a day in their little petri dishes; just to see them turn into spindly, feeble like stems, similar to the Chia Pet grass, only have them to fall over eventually because there stems can’t support the growth of the height.  Go to Lowe's or Menard's, any place that sells herbs and but an herb that has already been started.  Especially, for $1.88 per herb…NO BRAINER!

I am going to tell you how easy it is to start your own herb garden…..AND FUN!  Here are just a few of the most commonly used herbs:

Rosemary. my personal favorite.  It is a perennial (have to replant it each year), but can grow from late May thru August.  It can flourish with little watering and even though it prefers full son it can tolerate slightly shady areas.

Basil. It is also a perennial, but once it “takes off” there is no stopping it.  Plant it in various stages.  In other words, plant one or two in May and then another in June and maybe even July.  You can never have too much basil.  At the end of the season, you can take what is left before the first freeze and make pesto sauce.  (I will tell you how to do that later, when we get to that point.)  Basil needs lots of sun and normal watering.  The most important thing to remember is to always take from the top.  You never want it to flower, so keep pinching the tops off.

Chives.  Yea!  Chives are an annual (comes back without replanting) so if you get a good base and established roots, they will come back time and time again.  Cilantro is a gimme.  It likes sun, but can tolerate it at dusk or dawn.  For best results you should dived your root “clumps” every 2-3 years.

Cilantro. Not so easy and personally I think the hardest herb to grow.  It too, is a perennial. Plant early spring.  It does great until the end of May and then just dies off.  At that point I go to market and buy it at a dollar a bunch.  Not work the headache at that price.

Dill. It is technically an annual. However, I have seen dill “pop-up” throughout my yard via the seed that float through air after the season is over.  It is pretty easy to grow.  Like Rosemary, it prefers sun, but can grow in the shade.

Mint.  It is an annual and will take over your entire yard.  Therefore, I would recommend growing a pot, some sort of controlled environment.  Especially, since I don’t know very many uses for it and the majority of them are alcoholic in nature (ie. mint julep).  It likes sun, shade, rain, no rain….beware.

Oregano.  Is also an annual that needs to be controlled or it will turn into fragrant ground cover.  Now while there are several more uses for oregano, you need to be sure to keep it contained year after year.  Like mint, it requires no TLC and is happy to get what it gets in hopes of being “picked” for that next marinara.

Parsley.  It is an annual.  It is one of the most commonly used herbs.  In fact, it is probably the only one that most people use fresh or regularly with salt and pepper.  I always keep it in my garden, mainly for color, but honestly, it costs about $ .75 a bunch.

Sage.  It is an annual that demands little care.  Most importantly at the end of the season cut the stems and split the roots periodically through the years. Likes sun or shade.  Are you beginning to sense a trend….annuals are a piece of cake!

Thyme.  Last but not least.  It can come back, but it does demand care.  It is a slow growing herb so it’s only request is to keep weeds and all other herbs AWAY!  It needs its space.

Watch for my next blog about fun ways to use these spices in recipes! Go plant!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle = Composting

Compost, according to Wikipedia is: "organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment."

Compost, according to layman terms is: "taking any and everything that came from the ground that we can no longer have a use for, and putting it back from where it naturally came from."

In plain English, compost is used to enrich gardens with its nutrients. For example, when we make a salad think of all the “scrap” that we pitch in the garbage.  You would be amazed at how much we throw away compared to how much we return to the earth. Great ideas for re-gifting to Mother Nature are ends of lettuce heads, tops of peppers, mushroom and onion scraps. Start saving citrus skins, banana peels, berry tops, grape vines and melon rinds. Any thing you remove from any produce item can most likely be turned into compost!

Compost can be used as a free, environmentally-friendly fertilizer to help the next generation of plants grow, especially if you plan on planting an herb or vegetable garden in the spring. Here is another good deed you're doing when you create compost -- you are saving valuable landfill space for items that are NOT biodegradable. Less landfill is a really good thing.

So next time you cut, chop, pare or peel produce be sure to put the parts you're not eating in a compost pile.  If you don’t have one, start one.  It is easy, effortless and free and it is your way to give back to Mother Nature that has been so generous to us!