{Pictured above: a bowl of thyme I harvested this summer and one of B’s many chamomile harvests. Also, the pretty new labels I’ve been putting on all our jars to organize our herbs, spices, tea blends, and dried fruits and vegetables in the kitchen and pantry. I was finding too many unlabeled jars around, and this little organizing project has been very helpful for finding what we’re looking for, plus I love the way it looks and it makes me happy. Jeff and I have been working on a list to share of some of our favorite vegetable varieties we grew in the garden this year, and in the meantime I thought I’d share about some favorite herbs.}
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I love making a meal and using our own homegrown herbs to season it. It’s such a good feeling to harvest them, dry them, put them in jars, and know we’ll be able to enjoy them throughout the winter. We usually dry thyme, oregano, parsley, and rosemary each year. And sometimes sage. For fresh herbs, Jeff grows cilantro and we enjoy it on salads and in every meal we can (and when it goes to seed, we love to add the coriander seeds to our jars of sauerkraut to flavor them, it’s delicious.) We use the fresh dill when we make pickles, and it’s good on salads too. Jeff grew different varieties of basil this year (lemon, cinnamon), and more regular varieties as well, and I made it all into pesto and put it in jars in the freezer to enjoy for longer. I also love fresh chives on our meals. Have any of you made pesto with chives? I’m curious about trying that.
We discovered a new (to us) herb this year- papalo. Jeff read the description of it in a garden catalog and was curious about it so decided to grow some this year. At first neither one of us was really a fan and didn’t know what to think of it’s lingering flavor, but then it really grew on us and we found ourselves craving it and wanting to top all our meals with it. Now Jeff’s been excited to share it with family and friends. It’s popular in Mexico and some compare it to cilantro, though it has a flavor all it’s own. We will definitely be planning on growing it again next year.
Jeff and B also love to harvest fresh herbs throughout the summer to make sun teas. The teas made with fresh herbs have a milder flavor and more subtle color than teas made with the dried herbs and we’ve come to love them. Some favorite additions for those are bergamot, lemon verbena, chamomile, mint (four different varieties), lemon balm, and catnip. Now we’re entering the season where we’ll start making tea with lots of dried herbs. My stepmom and dad brought us a jar of dried tulsi basil from their garden when they visited us last weekend. We made tea with it and it was delicious, now I want to grow some next year. There are so many other herbs we grow in the garden (lavender, calendula, stevia, valerian, plantain…), but the ones I’ve mentioned have been some of our favorites this summer.
The herbs that we don’t grow we buy from Mountain Rose Herbs. If you haven’t discovered them yet, they are amazing. They also happen to be local for us, which is convenient for pick-up with heavy items we like to order on occasion, like clay. I feel inspired to mention one of our discoveries from them this year- their curry powder blend. We use it to season so many of our meals. I’ve had curry mixes in the past I’ve liked and others I haven’t, but this blend is one our whole family really enjoys. I love that the ingredients are also ones that are good for digestion. It’s also a really convenient way to get more turmeric and pepper (having both together is important) into meals.
We also love to make a tea with a mixture of their coconut rooibos, vanilla rooibos, and honeybush. With a tiny bit of honey added to it, it’s absolutely delicious, and one of our very favorite drinks of all time. Another favorite tea we like to make is with elder berries and ginger. Their dried ginger root is so fresh smelling and amazing, and rather than make elderberry syrup, our family drinks elder berry tea throughout the colder seasons since we all enjoy it so much. (Have you stocked up on elder berries for the winter yet? They always sell out, so we like to have some in the pantry before that happens.) Jeff also loves lapsang souchong tea, for the occasional caffeinated-tea treat.
If you want to learn more about medicinal herbs, we have an herbal book we love from Rosemary Gladstar, she is a wonderful source of information. I should mention that I don’t receive any compensation for promoting Mountain Rose Herbs, but felt like mentioning them here because we are long time customers and absolutely love the quality of their products and supporting the mission of their company.
Did you grow any herbs in your garden this year? Did you discover any new favorites? I’d love to hear your favorite seasonings to use and teas to drink!
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