Hello Friends,
Let's talk some more about herbs, shall we? My current read is The Herbal Apothecary by
JJ Pursell. Although I am only part way through the book, I find it well written and easy to understand. It covers 100 medicinal herbs with helpful color photographs. She describes the attributes of each plant, including instructions on how to make teas, tinctures, salves, and syrups, plus dosing and recipes.
There are sections on the systems of the body: cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and endocrine. These give detailed information on how our bodies work, and how herbal medicine can play a part in keeping us healthy.
At this point, my herb garden contains mostly culinary herbs, and even that got away from me and bloomed before I decided to harvest. Yesterday I picked some German thyme and Italian oregano. I had previously trimmed a new rosemary plant that had gotten leggy.
I'll continue to build my herb garden to hopefully include more medicinal herbs and have enough culinary herbs to harvest at the proper time and still have fresh when I want them.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that when using herbs in your dishes, one tablespoon dried herbs = three tablespoons fresh herbs. Just remember to triple the amount of fresh herbs if your recipe calls for dried, and always use fresh in salads and salsas and as garnish in finishing off your dish. When putting fresh herbs into a cooked dish, add near the end of cooking to retain color and flavor. I'll update on the rest of the garden later.
Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.
