Edible Herbs, Flowers & Other Edibles - Grow Your Own Dinner!

All about growing and using edible herbs, flowers and other edibles, the usual and the unusual--From the wheelbarrow to the plate -- and "greening" and becoming a locavore for the benefit and health of you, your family and neighborhood/community. Back in the 1990s I began Herbs 2 U (a form of here's to you) as a way of getting the message out about growing and using herbs to flavor foods. For many years herbs2u.net has been a way to find help.

Monday, January 06, 2020

Sprouting to Planting, and Two Events Coming Up

Dear Folks,

In my last post for December 31, 2019 I shared some "kitchen recycling" tips, so I thought you should see the full sprout to plant process.

First is my celery root re-use. On December 22nd I cut up two bunches of organic celery (I buy when I do not have enough growing in the garden and I was preparing to cook a turkey with stuffing). I cut the bottom 2 inch root off and started soaking in water. On December 31st it had sprouted this much - cool isn't!

On January 1st I planted it. I have others I have planted through out the gardens and pots to keep fresh celery coming on through late spring and into early summer. Celery loves our cool winter weather and my seeded in areas are also coming up - just not fast enough for my constant use of celery.

Potatoes are my New Year's Day Planting tradition and I had some additional "offerings" this year because the potatoes I pulled out to make that turkey dinner (December 22nd) were a "little" older. So much so that most of them had sprouted eyes * - so I cut those off to let them air dry, then tucked in a cardboard container in the refrigerator to later planting. * You can see some of the eyes in the upper left of the top picture.

On January 1st I laid them out on the soil surface of one pot - eyes down - (I had another pot with the mini potatoes saved from last spring's harvest). I then covered with the first layer of mulch. I add mulch as the plants grow up through to make sure the growing potatoes are never exposed to the sun.

That green ting you see on potatoes sometimes is Solanine, a toxic substance caused by the sun shining on the potato tubers. It cannot be cooked out or cut out, and can make you very sick if too much is eaten (a tiny bit should not hurt you). So the growing method is to ensure the growing spuds are never exposed. Just add mulch!

Oh, and I also planted the seeds from an Orange Bell Pepper I purchased. What the heck, let's see if they will sprout - I actually have good luck with this process. I planted the whole stem with seeds plus a bit of the flesh.

The little green leafed plant you see below the orange bit (I did that so I can remember what I planted there) is one of my famous Johnny Jump-Ups. The seeds wind up everywhere so if they are not interfering, I let them come up wherever they choose.

A Tofu Recipe

Tofu is a love it or hate it food for folks. The blessing and curse of tofu is its blandness. The blessing is it picks up the flavors it is prepared with.

Tofu Dip Or Marinated Cubes*

1 package of extra firm Tofu
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 orange or tangerine, zested and juiced
Olive oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 to 1 cup mixed chopped or dried herbs

Slit package of Tofu but leave the top plastic in place. Drain. Weigh the tofu down with at least 1-2 lbs (I use cans) pressing out the moisture. Let it sit with the weight for at least an hour, periodically draining the liquid.

Pat dry, and cut into cubes.

In a bowl, toss the cubes with the zest, herbs and salt. Let sit on the counter for 20-30 minutes to let the flavors infuse.

Add juices and toss. At this point you can leave as cubes and store in a jar, adding olive oil. It is not necessary to cover completely with oil. At room temperature, turn the jar several times for 30 minutes. Store. Allow to come to room temperature to serve with other cheese, meats and crackers.

DIP:

Place the cubed tofu in a food processor. With the processor running stream in olive oil until it reaches the consistency you want.   You can mash this by hand, adding olive oil as you go.

Store in the refrigerator.

* NOTE I actually served the cubes on Christmas Eve. Then when there was a lot left over I processed into a dip. I have made the marinated tofu cubes several times and the particular tofu block I purchased had a different texture - not sure why, maybe the brand as the cubes are usually nicely firm and these had a less than firm texture. Anyway, the dip is wonderful, better than toothpick cubes.

February Events

Saturday, February 1, 2020
1 to 2:30 p.m.
Mesa Urban Garden (MUG) FREE Seed Share
and Gardening Q&A with Catherine, The Herb Lady
https://www.facebook.com/events/503529633846876/

Mesa Urban Garden
212 E. 1st Avenue
Mesa, Arizona 85201

Pick up FREE seed to get your growing on.
Bring your questions. Catherine, The Herb Lady, will be answering your questions on gardening and on our currently crazy weather patterns and how they may impact your garden.

Saturday, February 22, 2020
Arizona Herb Association’s 4th Annual
2020 Herb Festival - “Leap into Lavender”
TIME: Check in/breakfast begins at 8:30 am, Program 9:30 am – 1:30pm
COST: $35
https://www.facebook.com/events/457262628216997/

"Join us in our annual celebration of herbs as we dive into one of our favorite herbs, lavender! We’ll be learning about how to grow and use this celebrated herb. We are lucky enough to have Brittney Sounart, RH (AHG), Clinical Herbalist, joining us again and discussing how lavender is used medicinally. The day will include a culinary exploration of the flavor with our very own Nancy Matsui, tips on how to cultivate lavender in our low desert environment from local gardening legend, Catherine the Herb Lady, and a tour of the garden to see the varieties of lavender currently growing. A continental breakfast will be included."

Tickets available online here: https://www.eventbee.com/v/herb-festival-feb-22nd-2020/event?eid=107080515

I hope to see you at these events - however, I am always happy to answer your questions via email or messenger on facebook.

Have a wonderful month,
Be patient, be kind, and always garden and share!

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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Thursday, January 02, 2020

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Around The Garden - Flowers, Frost, Harvest, Food

Dear Folks,

It has been busy and varied around here the last week or so.

I took advantage of the current flowers blooming to harvest some petals for drying. Pictured is a selection of rose, sugar pea (Magnolia Blossom variety), nasturtium and pigeon pea, and in the frig for drying. I have a partial jar of already dried flowers which I will use to decorate something later.

One of the things I love to do is eat and plant something! By that I mean "recycling" food items that I can't use to actually eat, but that I can re-grow for later harvest.

Two fun things are celery and potatoes. I had some older small potatoes I was preparing for dinner on the Sunday before Christmas - I NEEDED to cook a turkey - and potatoes were starting to sprout.

So I cut the sprouting parts off and allowed to dry before I stored them to plant tomorrow - January 1st - my tradition of planting potatoes on the first day of the new year to get the "new" garden and year off to a really positive start.

The other thing I do regularly is cut the bottom off of celery and sprout on the counter until I have some nice growth then plant out in the garden. I do this when I need to purchase celery bunches from the store if I do not have enough to cook with. I purchase organic when I can. [celery pictured today about 10 days later - I gave the other one to a friend - I will plant this one out tomorrow]

So, about the turkey dinner. My traditional stuffing is celery and onion sauteed in butter, poultry seasoning, bread cubes and stock/broth. A while back Sweet Paul Magazine posted a Mediterranean stuffing which looked so wonderful I thought I would try it the next time I wanted stuffing. Here is the link for his recipe.

The recipe called for preserved lemons, artichoke hearts and olives. I had been wanting a reason to try preserving my limequats and this was it. So back in early November I started the preserving, then refrigerated them.

Check Sweet Paul's link for the original recipe. I also wanted to make this a one pan meal so I made the stuffing, spread in the pan, made a small indentation in the center and set in the turkey breast.
While it may seem a stretch to use poultry seasoning on the turkey the combination of flavors in the stuffing blended well as the rosemary and thyme in the stuffing are also part of the herbs in poultry seasoning.

My Version December 22, 2019 Sweet Paul's Mediterranean Stuffing.
I used fresh rosemary, parsley and conehead thyme from the garden

1/2 stick of butter
1 cup of diced celery
1 cup of diced red onion
Sautee until soft.
Equal parts of rosemary and conehead thyme for celery/onion
Poultry Seasoning and Butter for turkey

I used Pane Tuscan bread - about 4 cups+
2 cups of homemade turkey/chicken broth
1/3 cup of marintated artichoke hearts
1/3 cup kalmata olive cut in 4ths
Fresh parsley about 1/3 cup
2 preserved limequats slivered

We agreed this stuffing was a keeper - I will use it as an alternative to my traditional version - maybe every other time.

Usually my family and extended family gather for big meals on Christmas Day. This year most chose quieter Christmas Day PJ open house and it was sweet and peaceful.

Knowing this ahead of time, I still personally needed more celebration, so I had some family over Christmas Eve and got to try out a "grazing board" concept for a low key - nibble until you are stuffed - tray. Everyone loved the display and the selection. The fully covered dessert table was in another area and included my cookie exchange bounty - sorry no picture :-)

The garden was hit by frost the night of December 28/29th.

The sugar peas just shrugged a "whatever" and just continued on their delicious and lovely growth. The flowers are visible in the middle and lower part of the vine and that is a yellow nasturtium in the lower left. P.S. I used some of the nasturtium and sugar peas flowers on the grazing tray.

The morning after the frost when the lawn was brown and frosty crunchy I happened to look out towards the south. The sun was just hitting the post of one of out split rail fences and I was so surprised to see vapor coming off it. The sun was heating the very, very damp wood and releasing a visual display. I hope this picture does it justice.

The actual frost damage was about what I would have expected.

Our banana plants which have two sets of fruit on them was hit, however the fruit itself seems undamaged at this point. They are not nearly along enough for me to cut and bring them inside to ripen, so I just have to hold out hope they will survive.

The soft-leaved plants always get bit by frost, particularly basil which is a tender perennial and hates the cold. As I noted about the Sugarpeas, they just shrugged.

In the picture you can see bright green growth at the base of the Stevia - this is a "bit" early for the new growth on this about 7 year old plant - it dies back in the winter, then sprouts in late January/Early February, so I hope this is not a problem having new growth this early during frosting times.

One last garden picture. I harvested the last of my sweet potatoes and the Candy Roaster Squash which has quite the story.

I sowed the seeds for the Squash on June 20th. The plant was going gang busters when something caused it to go down almost over night in late October- but not quite all the way. I chatted with a gardener friend and I did some research and came up with a possible culprit - nematodes. But the plant was not down all the way, so I decided to just see what happened. It had put on one fruit while it was challenged and it may have even been one I pollinated. At any rate, the frost took the plant down completely so I harvested it. It is supposed to be a pinkish color when ripe and is not anywhere near that. I will cut it later and see what I can do with it. The planting time of June was not helpful to this variety, so I will try and sow in mid-to late May as I am eager to give this heirloom a real try.

I wish you a Happy New Year, one filled with joy in and from the garden, patience, and kindness towards others. I believe these things will bring contentment.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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Saturday, December 21, 2019

Seasonal Harvest and Next Season Seedling Sprouting.

Dear Folks,

A tiny hint of the new year and next season.

Today is December 21, 2019 and I thought it was a lovely portend that one of my Yellow Summer Squash seedlings sprouted today!

On December 10th, I started several types of spring/summer seeds in Jiffy Pellets to plant out on or about February 1st. I like using these starter options as there is no transplant shock.

I am using several grocery store produce boxes as mini-greenhouses, putting them out in the sun during the day then back into my laundry / water heater shed at night.

Meanwhile,yesterday I harvested some fun things from the garden. Pink Grapefruit, 2 kinds of Navel Oranges, Breakfast Radishes, Detroit Dark Red Beet and Chantenay Carrots (my favorite, tasty at any size).

I kind of planted the beets in the wrong orientation, so I harvested these for the stems and greens as the roots are not getting mature. Hoping the remainder will bulk up now that I have thinned the area out.

Planting orientation: I made the mistake of planting north to south instead of east to west. This may not seem like a big deal but it turned out to be a very big deal as the radishes to the south completely shaded the growing beets most of the day, so I got a big growth of greens, but not the roots - yet.

I cooked up the beet greens for my guy last night, carrots for him tonight (I'm slightly allergic to beets and spinach, but I will snag some of the cooked carrots tonight-- I actually prefer my carrots raw :-).

I added some sliced radish to a mini ham and cheese sandwich for some crunch.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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Thursday, December 19, 2019

Peanuts, Garden, Microwave Omelette, Peanut Butter Cookies And Holiday Entertaining!

Dear Folks,

Pictured are my peanuts drying - more on that below, but first. .
Peanuts...and chocolate. I like both but not necessarily in the form of say a Reese's. They do not have a 'balance' of flavors with the peanut butter over-taking the chocolate.

I found a combination that pleases both myself and my wonderful guy, who loves Reese's but is always willing to try something I make.

A couple of years ago, during one of my holiday baking times, he asked if I would make peanut butter cookies. I said sure, then started looking at recipes and got to thinking how I might add chocolate to it (he is after all a true choco-holic).

After looking at recipes and while shopping later I found the solution. Chocolate Peanut Butter, oh my! And it was DARK chocolate peanut butter - even better.

The brand for your notes is "Peanut Butter & Co. - Dark Chocolately Dreams" and it is non-gmo and gluten-free, if that is a consideration. There is at least one other brand and you could probably substitute something like Nutella - but it has a lot of extra ingredients.

So to the recipe.

It is really simple. A 4 ingredient delight that whips up quickly and turns into a flattened crinkle cookie. If you like to embellish you can add chocolate chips (my guy said when I tried that in one version he felt like it was too much - I said "what did you do with Deane?"), or you could add more nuts. But the plain recipe is just wonderful as is.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies.

1 whole jar (2 cups - 16oz) Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter*
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Line your baking sheets with parchment paper - it is just easier to slide them off with all the fat in them.
Drop by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets
Do NOT flatten
Bake 7-9 minutes or until cookies are puffed and cracked (you will see the cracks forming when they are ready)
LET STAND on baking sheet 5 minutes or until firm.
Remove to wire rack to finish cooling and cool completely before boxing up.
They freeze nicely.
NOTE: If your oven runs hot decrease temp to325 and bake 10-12 minutes
Enjoy.
* If you use a chocolate peanut butter which is 14 oz I would not worry about adjusting the other ingredients.

Makes about 53 cookies and gives you a little less than 2 grams of protein each cookie the calories are high, but at least you are getting some decent protein :-)

45 Second Microwave Omelette

This is a super fast breakfast or snack. These minute microwave scrambled egg recipes are all over the internet. I modified one to suit my tastes adding herbs from the garden and/or cheese. This morning I decided to serve over toast with a bit of cheese under the egg to add a little extra to the meal. I used snipped celery, parsley and I'itoli onions from the garden. Many recipes suggest a mug, I use a soup bowl to get the egg to spread out.

1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
salt and pepper
Optional herbs and/or cheese
Optional toast

Toast the bread and butter if you like. If you are using cheese put it on the toast.
Mix the egg, milk and salt in pepper in a mug, then pour into a soup bowl. Top with optional snipped herbs and microwave on high for 45 seconds. The omelette slides easily out of the bowl.

Around The Garden

I have been growing peanuts for a couple of years now. I just wanted to try it. The first year I tried, I did not quite get the culture right. I generally mulch much of my beds and/or containers and that is mistake with peanuts as the plant puts out a flower which then "dips" down into the soil to great the "ground nut" meaning they grow as clusters around the roots.

Once I got that figured out the rest was easy. Break up - gently - the shells and plant each peanut with the skin on about 1 1/2 - 3 inches down. Ideally you will be planting in a bed and spaced about 8 inches apart. Plant in April (interestingly they have similar heat requirements as sweet potatoes) and plan on harvesting late fall early winter - the past two years I have harvested mid-December as the plants began to go down.

"FALLED"

Fall Leaves - our deciduous trees here in the desert crack me up - about the beginning of September 1st the first couple of leaves fall and then a few here and there. Then one morning - overnight - in December I will walk out and the majority of the rest of the leaves had fallen - all at once! It decided "IT FALLED"

Last week the trees, Saturn Peach and Fig - FALLED!

Great mulch. Much of it we rake back into the tree wells, but I also use the dried leaves as mulch for beds, and containers.

TWO More recipe ideas - or not so much recipe as just really cool entertaining ideas - even if it just for a special date night.

I am going to be making a "board" grazing tray for Christmas Eve when we a couple of family over. This so cool ideas from the folks over at Sweet Paul Magazine is going to be incorporate in my board as I have a lot of rosemary.

I have been gathering various items for my board and hope everyone really enjoys the idea. I usually do big dinners but I have been so wanting an opportunity to do one of these attractive, casual, nibble/graze arrangements.

The other idea which really caught my eye is for a cocktail - served in a glass Christmas Ball. How cool it that!

Besides the choice of this serving container, the recipe uses fresh pine tree tips which have a citrus flavor. If you have fresh pine or fir trees the bright green new growth is perfect for this. You can use older but newer is better. I experimented with pine tips a couple of years ago and it was fun. Of course you could make and serve any cocktail in this so-fun container.

Here is the recipe.

If you missed my January Planting Tips - here is the link.

I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year and Yuletide. Enjoy your personal celebrations in comfort with peace, kindness and patient understanding.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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