~Planning Your Herb Gardens~
The first thing to consider is how much time you wish to devote to your garden during the course of a day, week or year.
Maintenance is required, be it little or much.
My suggestion is to start out small and grow the size as you grow in knowledge and desire.
You can find this article in its entirety on the Sage Hill Farms website.
http://www.sagehillfarmsandvintagestore.com
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A perfect Kitchen Garden will have some sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary,chive, dill, and basil. During the winter the basil will be the first thing to go, the dill and chive will last until the first hard frost...which is different for us all.
Basil is easy to dry and just as delicious and effective as fresh.
Today I'm making Split Pea/Basil Pesto soup, from my freezer.
Remove split pea soup prepared ahead of time from freezer, place in soup pot over low heat until defrosted, add 1/2 cup light cream, stir in and add 1 cube of basil pesto straight from the freezer to soup pot.
Stir gently until well mixed and serve piping hot.
PS: Will be good the second day, but I don't suggest freezing the leftover.
Enjoy~
EatWell-BeWell~
Bea Kunz
Sage Hill Farms
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2 comments:
As the Bible says: All things are lawful...but not expedient. A garden on the White House lawn borders on distastefulness, at best.
I love your site, I love your face (before even reading any text associated with your site, I picked up a loving, peace-loving, contented gentleness from your picture! (Seriously) When I started reading, I knew I'd honed right in on your personna.
My parents were country folk and I will forever recall that we were one of the first families in the City proper, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to grow a garden in the vacant lot next door to our house. It wasn't until well after the passing of both my parents, that I realized the wealth of information that I'd foolishly allowed them to take with them into eternal sleep.
As a child and a teen, I was ashamed and embarrassed that we were growing foods that practically everyone else paid for at the local supermarket. Never once did it dawn on me that the 'wealthy' folk (not really - they were only neighbors who were fortunate(?) enough to have 2 working parents, while my Mother was an unskilled 'domestic engineer' and my father had the misfortune of being disabled on his job)! But it never dawned on my childishly, simple mind how often the supermarket shoppers began ingratiating themselves before my parents, right around harvest time.
They coveted the fresh grees, sweet corn, bright, red tomatoes, crisp snap beans and plump white and sweet potatoes, freshly turned up on the topsoil in garden, waiting for gathering and washing by us kids before my mother prepared them for cooking.
My parents are gone now....so is the old house we used to live in...so is the garden...and so are most of those neighbors that I once envied. My life (as well as most of their's) took many unexpected turns. I enjoyed a long, youthful season of living and working a great job in New York City, accepting my calling to the ministry and recently, starting a home based business. Periodic updates from home tell me that most of those former neighbors and their families have not been as blessed as I.
As I look at life thru more mature eyes now, I can easily see the value in many things that I once discarded in younger days, such as the simple skill of gardening. A full scale recession, jobs floating away into cyberspace and the ever decreasing value of American currency have caused me to pause me many days and lie awake some nights, thinking of the self-sustaining value and spiritual principles to be gained from seed-time and harvest.
Thankfully, I did hold fast to my parent's expounding on the many uses of herbs, and therefore truly appreciate what I've learned about more of their diverse properties from your site. (Especially the part about silkier skin and the herbs that can help with colitis and IBS, which my daughter and I both battle off and on).
Often, when we find something that brings fulfillment and blessing to us, we want the whole world to share our enthusiasm. But except we temper our passion with good judgement and reason, we can easily be mistaken for fanatics.
With that being said, the White House is no place for a garden. It's beautiful and majestic as it is, yielding produce and fruit of another kind: Liberty, the right to free speech and laws that govern a nation of free peoples.
I think our skill and passion for loving and living from the land could be put to much better use supporting and working with struggling farmers, in an effort to ensure the preservation of dwindling farmlands and the continuity of their production for future generations.
With terrorism, the economy, crime and global concerns, the White House already has its proverbial 'plate full'. Managing the care of a White House garden should not become a factor amidst such critical times in our nation.
Green is "in". And with our children understanding the lingo as well as the importance of that, I believe that the world would be better served if we would 'plant seeds' by example and hands on lessons for our childen, in how they too have now become major players in our need to cherish, cultivate and replenish the earth.
Hi Mary,
Thank so much for reading and for you heartwarming reply.
I actually had a shiver while reading...you do touch the spirit of my focus.
Why do you suppose we can't be as knowing and open to learning while we still have many good years left to utilize the offerings.
Seems we only become enlightened while preparing for the transition to another zip code. *smile*
I adore your thoughts, so much the same as mine.
Although I do think had I been blessed with the option I would have never left my family roots of farming.
My papa died when I was 16, and my mother when I was 28, so by the time I was old enough to know drastic steps were needed to save us, breakaway was already happening. I sometimes wonder "what if." But, can't spend too much time in regret, takes a lot of energy and I have far too many better ways to use it.
Well, about the White House lawn- garden. I think the whole idea was to serve the purpose of just bringing the need to pay attention to our food crises all across this country and world.
Pesticides and herbicides have depleted our land in so many places. Caused much major health issues, and has far more serious reaches than most realize...something has to change.
And it seems we are living in a time of only demand gets attention.
Lots to be considered and as my mother would say..."pick your battles carefully, they can become a war."
I appreciate that you took the time to write such a special response, warms my heart.
I hope to hear from you again.
Blessings for your day~
Bea Kunz
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