Category Archives: herbs

Pesto

Posted on 18 July 2015 by Debra

The basil is ready for eating, for making pestos. Just perfect.

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This year, the French tarragon — thriving, delicately flavorful and beautiful, is having a terrific year. For reasons I don’t fully comprehend, the thyme did not survive last winter’s bitter cold but the tarragon did. (Thyme and tarragon are perennial herbs which I … Continue reading →

Posted in beet, tarragon | 1 Comment

Lettuce-free salads

Posted on 27 June 2015 by Debra

Now that the spinach, lettuces and microgreens have bolted (flowered) and lost their taste, it’s still easy to make a great salad. I love salads made with herb and young vegetable leaves. Plus there are hot weather greens that make … Continue reading →

Posted in argula, flowers, herbs, sorrel | Comments Off

Salad-makings

Posted on 4 June 2015 by Debra

There are many flavorful tender greens for salads right now such as herb leaves, beet greens or baby chard. You can carefully pinch off the larger leaves and let the rest of the plant mature for harvest later. Add them to … Continue reading →

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Spring salads

Posted on 3 June 2015 by Debra

These cool, spring days are prolonging the salad greens. Lovely, tender spinach for omelettes and lettuces with herb leaves for salad. One client told me she’s serving her teenage daughters microgreen salad sprinkled with chive and borage flowers! Beautiful, nutritious … Continue reading →

Posted in asian greens, lettuce, sage, seasonality, spinach | Comments Off

What’s up

Posted on 6 May 2015 by Debra

Edible gardens too have perennials, plants that have a life span of more than two years. They go dormant each fall and return in the spring. The perennials are always the first up. Here’s some of what’s appearing in my … Continue reading →

Posted in asparagus, garlic, herbs, onion, raspberries, rhubarb, seasonality, seeds and plants, sorrel | Comments Off

Preserving herbs

Posted on 29 October 2011 by Debra

Here are three more ways to preserve herbs. Freezing herbs is an easy way to preserve them for cooking. Clean herbs can be placed in zip-lock bags and placed in the freezer. To use, quickly open, divide out what you … Continue reading →

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Drying herbs

Posted on 27 October 2011 by Debra

Frankly, I always pick my herbs and hang and dry them in bunches. Research indicates that this is not the best way to dry some herbs to preserve the most flavor. I wrote earlier about drying small-leaved herbs in bunches; … Continue reading →

Posted in basil, cilantro, harvesting, herbs, mint, parsley, preserving, sage | Comments Off

Herbs, part one

Posted on 21 October 2011 by Debra

Small leaved herbs such as thyme, oregano/marjoram, rosemary and some sages can easily be gathered and dried in small bunches. Obviously, herbs can be harvested, used fresh or dried, anytime during the growing season. Since the weather is unseasonably cold, … Continue reading →

Posted in harvesting, oregano & marjoram, rosemary, sage, thyme | Comments Off

End of the year free for all

Posted on 19 October 2011 by Debra

The ten days of Indian summer last week certainly was the last hurrah of this growing season. Over the weekend, I picked twelve pounds of red tomatoes, not counting cherries, and a dozen Japanese finger eggplant. All these came to … Continue reading →

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