Mad About Herbs

Useful Weeds!

Want to get the ultimate revenge on some weeds?  Try eating them!  Just make sure they are the right ones though and haven't been grown near any sources of pollution eg near busy roads, next to farmer's fields that are sprayed with pesticides, regular dog walking territories etc.

You can find out more by listening to my contribution plus lots more information about tackling weeds on Emma's Alternative Kitchen Garden 'Weeds' podcast (episode 59). 

You can find a recipe for Nettle Soup here. 

Some recommended books for helping you to identify wild foods are: Wild Food by Roger Phillips or Food for Free by Richard Mabey.

If there are any particular 'weeds' you would like to know more about please leave a comment and I'll cover it in a future blog post.

Easter Fun

Happy Easter!  I hope you are finding time for some fun during the easter break.  As you can see we've been busy decorating twigs (forsythia branches that I pruned a few weeks ago).  We've also been painting and making baskets, and of course having easter egg hunts.

This is the first time that I, oops I mean the Easter bunny has scattered eggs in the snow!  I think the girls found them all, I'll have to check once the snow melts.

I haven't had time to write about using herbs to dye eggs with for Easter but these two websites have:  Herb society's article on dyeing eggs using herbs and Learning Herbs article about colouring eggs with natural dyes  which also has  step by step photos.

Off to check the roast dinner now.  Yum, yum!

Lemon Verbena

I wish you could smell this plant, it is heavenly.  It survived, hooray!   I brought the plant indoors for the winter but it looked like it was dying so I pruned it back quite hard and it did what I hoped it would and has lots of lovely fresh growth appearing from the old wood.

Lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) isn't very easy to grow from seed and is best propagated from softwood cuttings in the summer or hardwood cuttings in the autumn so I'll be taking some cuttings in the summer as insurance!

Facts and uses:

• Lemon Verbena is a large, bushy deciduous shrub that can grow up to 1 metre or more in height or up to 4.5 metres in warmer climates where there is no frost.
• It can be combined with other lemon scented herbs such as lemon thyme and lemongrass to make a seasoning that goes well with chicken, fish, pork or lamb. 
• It makes an attractive pot plant, or border plant if you live in warmer climates where it can be left outside; it prefers moist, warm climates and a rich soil.  It is sensitive to cold weather so is best grown in a container if you live in a cooler region so it can be protected in the winter.
• Lemon verbena leaves can be made into a lovely tea especially when mixed with mint leaves.
• The dried leaves hold their scent well so can be used in pot pourri, pillows and sachets.
• Sprigs of leaves can be harvested and dried then stored in airtight jars. (I have some from last year and they still smell wonderful when crushed).   Alternatively they can be wrapped and frozen for up to 6 months.

If you have any favourite uses for lemon verbena, feel free to leave a comment below.