You can blend herbs together to make many different tastes and flavors. Some of the most popular combinations seem to compliment each other and blend perfectly with the foods we put them in. While certainly you can buy mixes for everything from meatloaf to tacos and they all seem to do an adequate job of seasoning your dish. There is nothing like the flavor provided by Home Grown Herbs right out of your own garden to put that special touch into any recipe. With an endless supply of fresh herbs right out of your garden that you can dry, there is no end to the mixes you can make for dips, salsas, spreads and appetizers. I have included some of my favorites to give you an idea of what you can do with the herbs you grow. Once you start I think you will find all kinds of great combinations

Taco Seasoning
2 teaspoons beef or chicken bouillon (use powder or granules)
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
4 tablespoons chili powder
3 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons dried garlic flakes
2 teaspoons dried hot pepper flakes (optional)
1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
Mix this all together. Store in a jar or storage bag until ready for use. Three tablespoons of this mixture added to one pound of ground beef plus one cup of water. Simmer until desired consistency. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Pumpkin Pie Spice
5 T. ground cinnamon
4 t. ground ginger
2 t. ground cloves
2 t. ground nutmeg
2 t. ground allspice
Use this for making pumpkin pies when ever it calls for pumpkin pie spice. Two teaspoons are sufficient for each pie.

Oriental Five Spice
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground fennel
This is the main spice used in many oriental dishes. I use it in all my stir fry meals.

There are many dishes you can make yourself instead of buying the boxed version. Fresher is better every time. When you taste the recipe which you have made with your own natural herbs, you may never want to use the boxed stuff again.

This recipe is for making your own blend for Italian dishes.

Italian Seasoning
4 Tablespoons oregano
4 Tablespoons marjoram
4 Tablespoons thyme
4 Tablespoons basil
2 Tablespoons rosemary
2 Tablespoons savory
Mix well and use as a seasoning in your pasta sauces. This is also great sprinkled on a pasta and tossed with a little virgin olive oil. You can make it a meal by adding 1 pound browned Italian sausage, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, and sauteed onions and green peppers. Kids love this combination. Make it a treat by adding pepperoni slices.

One of the favorites for the whole family is an herb rice side dish. This is extremely easy to make. You just need to know the components. Well, here they are.

Herbal Rice Side Dish

1 lb long grain rice (I like half wild rice or brown rice)
1 Tablespoon dried tarragon
1 Tablespoon ground celery
1 Tablespoon dried chives
1/3 cup dried minced onion
1/3 cup dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Mix all together and store in an airtight jar.
Bring 1 1/3 cup water to a boil. Add ½ cup rice mixture to boiling water. Simmer for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.

These are but a few ways you can enjoy the herbs you grow in your own garden. If you have any recipes or favorites of your own please leave a comment and share them with us.

Herbs have hit the mar­ket hard and heavy in the last five years with an increase of the local food move­ment. They are being redis­cov­ered as peo­ple seek a health­ier and more nat­ural lifestyle. Herbs are the old­est food prod­uct known to man, hav­ing been used to fer­ment, pre­serve and enhance food for thou­sands of years. Herbs will add a healthy dose of fla­vor to your food.

Herbs are easy to grow with few pest prob­lems, mak­ing them the per­fect addi­tion to everyone’s gar­den. Your cook­ing expe­ri­ence will be greatly enhanced with as few as 3 to 5 herbs in your gar­den. The Herb Soci­ety of Amer­ica recently did a sur­vey of their mem­bers for the top 10 herbs. They include; basil, pars­ley, rose­mary, laven­der, chives, sage, bay, thyme, dill and oregano.

Basil has been on the top of most herbie’s list of favorites. Sum­mer just wouldn’t be sum­mer with­out pesto and a clas­sic dish called Capresse Salad, which con­sists of sliced toma­toes, moz­zarella cheese, sliv­ers of fresh basil sprin­kled on top and driz­zled with olive oil. One class at the Sep­tem­ber 24th pro­gram will be ‘Pesto Pos­si­bil­i­ties’, show­ing that pesto is not just made with basil any­more. Dis­cover all the fun vari­eties to make and cre­ative ways to use your home­made pesto.

Pars­ley is the most used and one of the biggest sell­ing herbs in the coun­try. We have to thank the restau­rant indus­try for that honor. It’s their use of a sprig of pars­ley on almost every din­ner plate that has boosted those num­bers. It’s not just there to brighten up your plate; it’s one of the best breath fresh­en­ers and palate cleansers around. Pars­ley can be added to almost any savory dish for that hint of freshness.

Laven­der is another one of the top 10 herbs to grow and use. It’s used the most as an addi­tion for sweets, desserts and bev­er­ages. Also at the Sep­tem­ber pro­grams will be ‘All About Laven­der’ and how to use it in your cook­ing repertoire.

Thyme is among the favorites partly due to the numer­ous vari­eties that are now avail­able. One of my favorites is lemon thyme, used on chicken, fish or veg­eta­bles. Lime thyme has a refresh­ing bright taste, and the old standby Eng­lish thyme is used in all sorts of cook­ing and house­hold prod­ucts. Thyme is asso­ci­ated with chicken soup due to the chem­i­cal found in thyme, known as thy­mol which con­tains some of the high­est anti­sep­tic qual­i­ties. Thyme has been used med­i­c­i­nally for thou­sands of years. There really is a rea­son that chicken soup is good for what ails you.

Pre­serv­ing herbs for the fall and win­ter in honey, salt, sugar, vine­gar, mus­tards and pestos are just a few ways to keep that sum­mer taste into those long cold months. A por­tion of the pro­gram will show how to har­vest and pre­serve all your herbs into cre­ative last­ing gems. Sep­tem­ber is a per­fect time of year to plan your har­vest­ing ideas.

Pre­serv­ing your Herbal Har­vest includes; light break­fast treats, herbal lunch, recipes and hand­outs. Join us for an herbal day out at the beau­ti­ful Deer Haven Pre­serve at 4183 Lib­erty Road, Delaware from 10:30 –3:30. Call the OSU Exten­sion office at 740–833-2030 by Sept. 10 for reser­va­tions, seat­ing is lim­ited. Cost is $25.00 all inclusive.

Enjoy the rewards of your gar­den indoors year around.

Susan Liechty is an Delaware County OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener.

Posted by Master Gardener
on Aug 27 2011.

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• Whether you have acres of land to plant, or you are a small-space gardener who lives in an apartment overlooking the Yuma Valley, it’s rather simple to grow an amazing variety of fresh herbs that will add pizzazz to all cooking.

• Slightly bitter in flavor and highly aromatic, sage is one of the main ingredients in poultry seasoning. It enhances meats and poultry as well as most vegetables.

• Common sage also makes a good ornamental. Purple sage, tricolored sage and golden sage all work well as ornamentals. The leaves of pineapple sage smell just like pineapple, and the plant also produces beautiful red, tubular flowers that hummingbirds adore. There’s also a honeydew sage whose leaves smell just like its namesake fruit.

• Sage can be grown from seed, stem cuttings or crown division. A woody plant with oblong leaves that have a woolly, gray-green covering that is lighter on the bottom, sage may grow 2 feet high and tends to sprawl. It needs a sunny location and well-drained soil.

• Remember the lyrics of a popular 1960s Simon and Garfunkel tune: “Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme”? According to the Chattahoochee Unit of the Herb Society of America, these four herbs are included in a list of the top 10 culinary herbs grown and used by American chefs.

• Technically, all plants with soft stems are called herbs, or herbaceous ornamentals. To narrow it down a bit, the plants commonly referred to as herbs are plants with leaves or stems used for their medicinal, flavorful or fragrant attributes. Plants prized for their roots, bark, seed and fruits are considered spices.

• The name sage is derived from the Latin word meaning health or healing powers. Sage has been used as a medicinal herb far longer than it has been a culinary herb and was indispensable during the Dark Ages. The ancient Greeks and Romans administered sage for everything from snakebite to promoting longevity.

Source: Kurt Nolte is an agriculture agent and Yuma County Cooperative Extension director. He can be reached at knolte@cals.arizona.edu or 726-3904.

Now researchers at Yale have developed a practical and cost-effective method to synthesize huperzine A in the lab. The process requires just eight steps and produces a yield of 40 percent. Previously, the best synthetic techniques had required twice as many steps and achieved yields of only two percent.

“Being able to synthesize large amounts of huperzine A in the lab is crucial because the plant itself, which has been used in Chinese folk medicine for centuries, takes decades to grow and is nearing extinction due to overharvesting,” said Seth Herzon, the Yale chemist who led the research.

Herzon and his team have partnered with an industrial firm to help produce the compound on larger scales.

The firm plans to comprehensively evaluate the therapeutic potential of huperzine A by conducting clinical trials for several different neurological disorders in the U.S.

“We believe huperzine A has the potential to treat a range of neurologic disorders more effectively than the current options available,” Herzon said. “And we now have a route to huperzine A that rivals nature’s pathway.”

The study was recently published in the journal Chemical Science.

Source-ANI

Just like “Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest” is my bible for vegetable gardening, “Cooks Illustrated” is my bible for cooking. I cut out a few things from the April magazine so that I would remember these tips when the time came.

You can freeze garlic. Garlic is a staple in cooking for me. My husband consumes it by the bulb – yes I said “bulb” not clove. To freeze garlic, simply peel the cloves, mince or press them through a garlic press, and then place the mince in a bowl. Add enough neutral-flavored oil (not extra-virgin olive oil in case the recipe you need it for calls for something else) to coat or about 1/2 teaspoon per clove. Spoon heaping teaspoons onto a baking sheet; place the baking sheet in the freezer until the garlic is firm, then transfer the frozen portions to a freezer-safe bag or container. The frozen garlic will keep for up to a month with no loss of flavor. I am going to try freezing the portion sizes with my vacuum sealer – my guess is with vacuum sealing it will last much longer without any flavor loss.

In that same issue, there was tip about keeping pesto that beautiful, bright green color. As you know, pesto will begin to darken as soon as you press the pulse button on your food processor. Blanching – submerging the leaves in boiling water for 20-30 seconds and then immediately immersing it in ice cold water – basil before you make pesto will keep the pesto looking and tasting great for up to a week in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen to use anytime you like over winter. You can bet I am going to blanch some basil and make pesto to freeze before that first frost this fall.

The process actually uses 20 times less water than a soil-based farm, according to Viraj Puri, Gotham Greens co-founder and CEO. “It’s a very efficient, productive way to grow,” he said.

Mr. Puri and his partners are confident that Gotham Greens hyperlocal business model will help change the way New Yorkers get their veggies. “We can harvest something in the morning and have it on the supermarket shelf or restaurant plate that same afternoon,” he said. “That is very compelling for retailers and chefs.”

For consumers here, “local” produce has meant fruits and vegetables from farms upstate, on Long Island or in New Jersey. Urban farmers are trying to shift that expectation.

Gotham Greens, with 25 employees, had its first harvest in June. Two soil-based operations—Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, in Greenpoint, and Brooklyn Grange, in Long Island City, Queens—have started up within the past two years, selling their crops to restaurants and markets throughout the city.

Prove the model

But it remains to be seen whether these rooftop farms can compete in a system dominated by national growers.

“They will have to prove the economic model and show that they can deliver at a lower cost,” said Christian Haub, chairman and president of Emil Capital Partners and former executive chairman of AP supermarkets.

The cost of a hydroponic rooftop is about $2 million to $2.5 million, says Paul Lightfoot, CEO of Manhattan-based BrightFarms, a firm that finances hydroponic outfits.

Though Mr. Puri would not disclose startup costs for the 0.3-acre farm, he said it was financed by himself, co-founder Eric Haley and managing partner Jennifer Nelkin, with help from bank loans and private investors.

The urban farm’s strategy is to focus on growing items that are highly perishable and expensive to ship. “Food goes bad while people own it,” Mr. Lightfoot said.

Eagle Street co-founder and head farmer Annie Novak says keeping labor costs low is essential to its success. The 6,000-square-foot farm relies on volunteers, apprentices and a partner organization, Growing Chefs, to assist its four paid employees.

The farm focuses on leafy greens and herbs, which provide the best return, says Ms. Novak. “An herb is perfect, because it has a high price and requires zero labor,” she said.

Eagle Street breaks even on crops, with annual revenues of about $1.25 to $1.50 a square foot. The business makes an additional $2,000 from sales of T-shirts and nonperishables such as honey, Ms. Novak said. Building owner Broadway Stages paid for the $60,000 roof, which was designed and installed by New York-based Goode Green. The cost—amounting to about $10 a square foot—was significantly lower than that of many similar projects.

Because Gotham Greens can achieve a denser yield and harvest year-round, Mr. Puri forecasts first-year revenues to be higher “by a factor of hundreds” than those of the average soil-based rooftop farm.

Demand for Gotham Greens items already outstrips supply. Mr. Puri is in talks to open another Brooklyn facility next year and expects to establish several more in the next five years.

“We definitely have plans to scale up,” he said.

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NASA Johnson Space Center

Astronauts en route to Mars may not have it as easy as this space shuttle astronaut — they may have to grow their own food.

Tang? Freeze dried ice cream? Not so fast. 

Men and women travelling to Mars will be farmers and gourmet chefs as well as traditional astronauts, according to scientists discussing a manned mission to the Red Planet.

Maintaining food supplies remains one of the greatest challenges faced by Mars mission planners, experts explained at the 242nd National Meeting Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Weight, nutrition, and variety pose the biggest problems, explained Maya R. Cooper, a senior research scientist in the Space Food Systems Laboratory in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex. For flights on space shuttles and the International Space Station, astronauts get 3.8 pounds of food per day. For a 5-year round-trip mission to Mars, that would mean almost 7,000 pounds of food per person.

“That’s a clear impediment to a lot of mission scenarios,” Cooper said. “We need new approaches.”

One solution under consideration is a high-tech “kitchen garden” that would allow crews to grow healthy food to eat during the long journey while also improving onboard atmosphere by producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide.

Such plants would require minimal tending and spacecraft real estate. The 10 “prime candidates” currently are lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, spring onions, radishes, peppers, strawberries, herbs and cabbage.

“Right now, we are looking at the possibility of implementing a bioregenerative system that would involve growing crops in space and possibly shipping some bulk commodities to a Mars habitat as well,” Cooper continued. “This scenario involves much more food processing and meal preparation than the current food system developed for the space shuttles and the International Space Station.”

Beyond more deeply engaging astronauts in the food process, Cooper also discussed the possibility of having unmanned spacecraft stocked full of long-lasting food and other supplies sent in advance to Mars.

Space food has come a long way since the days of freeze-dried food blocks and squeezing gooey foods out of toothpaste tubes that astronauts ate in the earliest days of space flight. By the late 1960s, astronauts for the first time could have hot food and eat their food with a spoon in a special bowl.

Other utensils were introduced in the 1970s with Skylab — the first U.S. space station. These astronauts could choose from 72 different foods, some of which were stored in an on-board refrigerator or freezer — a first for space cuisine.

In recent years, space shuttle astronauts could drink a coffee with their scrambled eggs for breakfast, snack on chocolates or a brownie and choose from chicken al a King, mushroom soup or rice pilaf among other foods for lunch and dinner — just like on Earth. These prepackaged foods take only a few minutes and little effort to prepare.

NASA expects to launch its first manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.

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