REAL Renovations: Creative way to label your potted plants and herbs

I am a member of the San Antonio Herb Society and we do several outreach events each year where we work at educating people about herbs. The display we have is called Everyday Herbs and it is made up of many examples of boxed and packaged foods that you can buy in your grocery store that contain herbs. Along with those boxes and packages we have pots of each herb to show people what that herb looks like before it is added to those foods, and educating them how herbs are a part of their everyday life. We also focus on 12 basic herbs that grow well in our area.

Last year three of us worked at freshening up the display and finding more healthy and organic examples to use in our display. We used to use these neat ceramic plant marks, but they were so heavy that the 4″ potted herbs would end up falling over a lot of the time so we decided to take a normal terracotta/clay pot and use blackboard paint on them and use a white marker (to look like chalk) and write the herb on each pot. Those pots would make a nice strong and steady base to place the 4″ potted herbs in and help them remain upright throughout the day.

This is a really simple way to label your potted plants. We used two different pots shapes and sizes to give the display some variety. The blackboard (chalkboard paint) paint in permanent and the white marker we used it also. We will be using these pots over and over again, so it was important that they would hold up. You could also use regular chalk, but just remember that it would wash off in the rain.

We only did the 12 basic herbs that grow well in the San Antonio area to keep the focus on what herbs are easy for people to start with if they were interested in growing herbs. The pots turned out great and the display turned out well.

The pots have really freshened up the display. This is an ongoing display as we continue to to switch out the older boxed foods with examples of more organic and healthy options.

Do you have a creative way to label your potted plants?

Sincerely, Emily

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The sage is buzzin’

I love this time of year. The herbs and other flowering plants start to come alive and bloom. Sage grows really well in our hot South Texas  dry summers and it requires very little water to survive and thrive.

I have several types of sage planted throughout the gardens and when they start to bloom they are always completely covered with bees. Alive and buzzing!

The buzzing sound almost drowns out the sounds of the birds that are chirping away.

Four more sage plant were added to one garden this spring. In fact, Sage, one of the writers that I met here at Not Dabbling in Normal, came over to help me plant somethings shortly after I got out of the hospital. She planted three sage plants amongst several other herbs and plants around the back yard.

Thank you Sage – they are all flourishing! I am very grateful for your help and I think of you every time I see the plants that you planted for me!

I have two sage plants in one garden on the east side of the house that aren’t getting enough sun to really do well (never thought I would say that about a plant here with such hot scorching summers) so I will move them this fall to a better spot.

I continue to see planting more sage in the future.

Do you grow sage in your gardens?

Sincerely, Emily

 

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Herbal Cheese Spread

Lately I have been taking an appetizer to several different meetings. In the effort to make things easy on myself I just keep taking the same herbal cheese spread over and over. I don’t have to think about it, just make it and take it.

This spread is also great on toast and has been breakfast for me a few times over the past few weeks too.

Herbal Cheese Spread

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 4T or more sour cream
• 1 T dried basil
• 1 T dried dill weed
• Chopped walnuts (optional)

Let cream cheese and blue cheese stand at room temperature until soft
Blend two cheese until smooth.
Adjust the amount of sour cream to reach the consistency that you want.
Add basil and dill weed
Mix thoroughly and put into your serving bowl
Top with walnuts (optional)
Chill until serving
Makes 1 1/4 cups of cheese mixture

In place of the cream cheese you can use the farmer’s cheese that Jen posted about here at NDIN a few years ago or you can use a yogurt cheese. I didn’t find a post here on NDIN about making yogurt cheese so I will post about that in the next few weeks. Using the farmer’s cheese or the yogurt cheese changes the consistency of this herbal cheese spread, but it still works.

You can use what ever blend of herbs you like. Play with it. Have fun with it.

Do you have a favorite appetizer that you tend to make a lot?

Sincerely, Emily

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Sunday Photos: Herbs

Herbs.

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One memory of growing up was going outside to snip some chives for my mom. I loved the job and I always loved the purple flowers on the chive plants too. I also loved the round hollow freshly cut stems with that distinct “chive” smell. Well, that apple (or chive blossom) didn’t fall far from the tree. I (Sincerely, Emily) grow chives. I actually have many chive plants throughout our gardens. I have common chive (Allium schoenoprasum) and flat garlic chives (Allium ramosum) and a lot of other herbs in between.

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What herbs are growing in your garden?

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My Best Intentions…

I was knocked down by yet another cold this season. This is hard for me to wrap my brain around (especially in the cold-induced foggy state.) I have been healthy and cold free for about 2 years and this year is completely different.

I have learned a lot over the past few years about herbs and foods and characteristics that are helpful, but I have also found that my best intentions haven’t prepared me to fight these colds.

I want to grow elderberry bushes so I can make immune boosting syrups and tinctures and even wine. I want to grow calendula and chamomile, horehound and stinging nettles. I want to grow sumac and dandelions and ginger. I know I can grow these things. I have a few growing now. It just takes time and I have to realize that I can’t do it all overnight!

Even though I can and will grow these things, it isn’t practical to think I can grow and make my own “everything” all at once. I need to step back and realize that I can (and should) buy some of these wonderful dried herbs and fruits and just start making the tinctures and syrups and throat lozenges so when I am hit with a cold I am prepared. When my bushes and trees and herbs mature I will then know what to do with them and be thrilled I can use my own.

Drying some horehound to make throat lozenges

There are a few things I did during this last cold that helped me to fight it off faster. I drank hibiscus tea and I also drank garlic tea. Garlic is chuck-full of great antimicrobial and antiseptic properties. I cook with garlic a lot, but drinking the garlic tea is another way to get it into your system and help fight off the effects of the cold or flu. You can read about garlic tea right here at Not Dabbling in Normal.

Along with losing my appetite I also lost my sense of taste and smell. To help get me through this cold I made a healing chicken soup that I know helped nourish me and get me through this much quicker. I made a bone based chicken broth and threw in ginger, onion, hot peppers, dark leafy greens (kale and chard and spinach), turmeric, and garlic along with basil, oregano, thyme and parsley. I wasn’t really thinking about taking photos while I was sick, so the photo you see below is the second batch of soup I made when I started to feel better.

This past week I got together with a culinary group I belong to. The theme this month was “soup.” One of the ladies brought an “Immunity-Boosting Winter Soup” and it was the first soup I ate that night. It was so much like the one I make, but hers included freshly harvest dandelion greens.   We talked about her soup along with the ingredients and the properties that each ingredient has. I was thrilled to know I was on the right track with my soup.

What went into my healing soup?

• Ginger – works on congestion & great for nausea
• Spinach/Kale/Chard – full of vitamin C, and A, folate and potassium
• Hot peppers – help to relieve pain and stimulate endorphins
• Turmeric – antibiotic properties
• Garlic – an expectorant, natural antibiotic
• Red Bell Pepper – high in Vitamin C & A

The immunity-boosting soup that my friend made also had a pinch of cinnamon (infection fighter), calendula flowers (immune stimulator), dried thyme (antibiotic & expectorant), astragalus root (help to strengthen the immune system) and dandelion greens (high in vitamin C & A and many trace minerals and is especially high in potassium)

I am back on my feet and the fog has cleared. I attribute that to the things I ate and drank. Now I better start making a list of things I would like to order so I can get some syrups and tinctures made up to help keep my immune system in tip-top shape.

Do you have any herbal or home remedies that work for you?

disclaimer

Sincerely, Emily

You can also read what I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily

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Sunday Photos…Herbs, Herbs, Herbs

“Fresh herbs offer an astounding palette of vibrant and glorious tastes, but their delights go beyond the flavors they lend to food. For a cook, there is joy in simply handling fresh herbs in the kitchen. Who can resist stroking the proud sticky needles of rosemary, rubbing a plush sage leaf, or crushing a crinkled leaf of verdant mint between their fingers? When yous trip the fragrant leaves off sweet marjoram or tuck a few sprigs of shrubby thyme in a simmering stew, you feel connected to the soil and the season, no matter where you kitchen is.”

Jerry Traunfeld The Herbfarm Cookbook

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Here at Chiot’s Run I add a few new herbs to the garden each year. I have annual herbs that are sown each spring including dill, parsley, cilantro, chamomile and several types of basil. My gardens are also filled with all sorts of perennial herbs like: Greek oregano, English thyme, catmint, anise hyssop, peppermint, spearmint, chives, sage, and many more. I also have houseplant herbs, they usually spend their summers outside and winter over inside so I can use them in all my winter dishes these include: rosemary, lemon thyme, chives, seasoning celery, parsley, lemongrass, hops flowering oregano, lemon geranium, lemon verbena and a pot of ginger. I also have a few herbs that are used for medicinal purposes like a tea tree oil plant. Herbs are used here for seasoning purposes and for medicinal purposes. I’m learning a little more each year about using them medicinally and I’m quite happy with the results.

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It’s Jennifer from Unearthing This Life. Like Susy, I’m slowly learning more and more about herbs and their benefits for our bodies. But their benefits for our spirits has been well known to me for quite some time. Oh! The smells they offer us! The tastes! The textures! I recall being a teenager making concoctions of oils and vinegars as gifts, basing my recipes on herb books and my own senses. If I could I think I’d have an entire lavender garden to walk in on rainy days, right next to rosemary shrubs and thyme.

I’ve also studied the benefits of herbs for our gardens and how they affect my fruits and vegetables. Plants like borage and lavender can draw pollinators like bees and butterflies to your garden. Basil and cilantro can benefit tomatoes and peppers by keeping humidity high and help by shading roots.

Since we visited the Cherokee last year I became much more interested in our native herbs. Mullein, goldenrod, and other plants that are beneficial just amaze me. I never knew such wonderful things grew right outside my back door and that I didn’t have to special order them from some far away gardener. Now that I know better I’m not so prone to trim back all of those “weeds” growing around our lawn!

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What kinds of herbs are growing in your garden?

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Enjoying Homegrown Tea

This past fall I harvested a lot of my herbs for warming winter teas. I should have harvested them all summer long, but I got busy and forgot to do it until winter threatened, so I didn’t get as many as I wanted. When I harvest tea I carry a big bowl around with me and snip the fresh herbs. I keep them all separate in small paper bags that I’ve saved.

I picked about 2 pounds of herbs for tea this winter as well as a few savory herbs for seasoning (I also like savory tea on occasion) and some medicinal herbs.

What herbs made it into my harvest bowl?
-Catmint
-Blue Stocking Bergamot
-Anise Hyssop
-Peppermint
-Mountain Mint
-Lemon Balm
-Chamomile
-Lavender
-Greek Oregano
-Fennel Seed
-Genovese Basil
-Broad Leafed Plantain
-Comfrey

I’ve really been enjoying my chamomile that I harvested. I had one volunteer plant that I harvested a good amount of blossoms from earlier in the summer. These few flowers are from a plant I started later in the summer. For some reason I didn’t have much luck with my chamomile this past year, since I love chamomile tea I hope I have a better harvest this coming year! We’ve been drinking a lot of mint tea and I had my first cup of bergamot tea earlier this week as well. We weren’t able to grow all of the tea we drink, but hopefully if I can get a good chamomile harvest this year we’ll only have buy our favorite Traditional Medicinals Teas Lemon Echinacea and everything else will be homegrown.

I also have a few potted herbs that I bring in as houseplants, these include: rosemary, lemon thyme, lemon verbena and chives. All of these we’ve been enjoying in our food this winter.

Do you dry herbs for seasoning & tea?

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Growing Stevia

I am all about the sweets. I’ve always enjoyed fructose, sucrose, pure extract of nerds candy. It all comprises a significant portion of my diet. Really, it’s the main reason I go to the gym…so I can eat more. Ok, seriously, high fructose corn syrup makes up such a large portion of the typical American diet that it sort of troubles me. We need sweeteners to be sure, but HFCS is not a great choice, apart from its affordability.

Anyhow, since I am interested in providing what I can of the things that we eat, I keep bees for honey. Bees have to be the absolute best insect in the world. What other creature make the garden produce more and also give me sweet liquid gold?! So, bees are great producers of fuel for my sweet tooth, but I hate to put all of my eggs in one basket. I decided to try my hand at growing stevia.

Stevia is a an herb in the Chrysanthemum family that grows most typically in South America, but is being grown elsewhere as its market increases. It has been used by indigenous folks to sweeten drinks for centuries. You see, stevia leaves are 10-15 times sweeter than table sugar. In its refined form, stevia powder is 200-300 times sweeter than table sugar.

Although stevia is grown on large farms and is becoming more popular in its processed forms (look for Truvia in the grocery store), it is well within the reach of any gardener or plant lover to grow enough stevia to make significant sweetener for one’s own table. Last year, I bought two small, pitiful stevia plants from a mail order place. I immediately transplanted them into typical house plant pots and set them in a sunny spot on top of an array of 6 computer servers in my office. The plants remain warm around the clock upon the computers and get plenty of sun and water.

My plants have grown incredibly fast and have produced long winding vines. The runners trickle down from my computers clear to the floor. Folks stop by my office and snatch leaves from the plants to chew on.

So, stevia makes a great sweetener. It’s natural and clean and can be used in an unprocessed form. For diabetics, the benefits are even greater. Stevia does not elevate blood sugar levels and provides no calories.

If you are interested in providing an alternative sweetener for your family, it’s worth your time to consider growing stevia at your place. So what do you think? Have you heard of stevia or truvia before? Have you tried either? Does the role of HCFS in our food make any difference to you?

Warren can also be found at My Home Among the Hills writing about the adventures of life in WV.

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