We Had a Herbal Adventure in the West!

My herbal husband and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary in the wild west a/k/a Arizona! We had a great time and made Phoenix our base of operations. I drove a lot, but we had fun, saw beautiful scenery and had wonderful weather. In the 90's when we got there, we were in the 70's by yesterday when we came home. We stayed at a bed & breakfast called The Honey House in a quiet neighborhood of Phoenix. Jeanette Irwin is the innkeeper and she really has a paradise in her backyard. Beautiful roses, citrus trees, even a pomegranate tree that had pomegranates on it and a small herb garden. Here are some other pictures:

Phoenix had a very long and hot summer, so the roses suffered a bit. They will come back now that it is cooler. The citrus trees were full of fruit!

This pomegranate tree below is located in the Tucson Botanical Garden. Jeanette's tree had more fruit than this one! The herbal husband's picture was taken with Jeanette's tree. He is shy when it comes to identifying himself for this blog. That's OK. I can tell stories about him and he won't be embarrassed about it!

This is the herb garden that Jeanette uses to cook her marvelous breakfasts each morning.

If you are ever in the Phoenix area, check out The Honey House, it is a great place to stay. More of the adventure tomorrow.

Happy Halloween with Spooky Corn!

My herbal husband's purple corn got frosted the other night. I just wish it was in the front yard. It would give the kids a FRIGHT! It will be a nice warm evening for Halloween. Not like others with rain or snow. Enjoy the time with your kids!

Holy Bloomin' Rosemary, Part III

Can you believe it! This rosemary is one of the bright spots in otherwise cold and windy weather. I need to trim the ends, but they are starting to bloom also! Oh well, I will just use them and prune them after they bloom. Hoping to take the twist ties away soon.

My Herbal Husband's Pizza!

I must say that in this herbal household, we eat pretty darn well! My herbal husband's two favorite summertime passions are gardening and eating his harvest from the garden. Now that things are winding down outside, we had one of our last "homemade" pizzas the other night. It was full of cheese, homegrown tomatoes, ham, mushrooms, onions and basil and a Boboli pizza shell. Remember those herbal confessions the other day. The basil was from the package! It was really delicious.

Herbal Soup Day

It was a cold, windy, rainy and raw day in Glenshaw today. Soooo I made a batch of Cream of Carrot and Lovage Soup. Never having made it, I made a double batch! We had our own carrots (white not orange) and potatoes and of course, herbs, lovage, parsley, even the fresh dill it called for. It is delicious and I think you will enjoy making it. Here is the recipe from the cookbook called A Celebration of Herbs Recipes from the Huntington Herb Garden, based on the lectures of Shirley Kerins. She spoke to the Western Pennsylvania Unit of the Herb Society in 2005.

Cream of Carrot and Lovage Soup

4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup chopped onion
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup chopped lovage leaves
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1/3 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
5 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
1 (3-inch) sprig fresh dill
1 cup light cream or half and half
Salt and pepper to taste
Ground fresh nutmeg (optional)

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and lovage. Cook 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the potatoes and parsley; stir until coated. Add the chicken broth and cook, partially covered, until the potatoes are almost tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the sprig of fresh dill and cook another 5 minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender.

Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Puree in batches in a blender or food processor. Return the pureed soup to the saucepan. Stir in the light cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. This soup can be serve hot or cold. Chill if serving cold, or reheat without boiling to serve hot. Sprinkle with a light dusting of ground nutmeg, if desired.

The Huntington Library in San Marino, California was built by Henry Edwards and Arabella Huntington in the early twentieth century, creating an extraordinary educational and cultural institution. They also have an extraordinary collection of herbals and recipe books. The herb garden is on the site of what was originally Mrs. Huntington's flower garden and was first converted in the 1940's. The garden lay neglected until 1975. Each bed was dedicated to herbs of a particular use, including medicines, cooking, salads, teas, confections, perfumes and cosmetics, sachets and insect repellents and dyes. In 1985 the garden was again refurbished, this time under the direction of Shirley Kerins, a licensed landscape architect and trained horticulturalist, who became curator of the Huntington Herb Garden. Today the Huntington Herb Garden is regarded as one of the finest in the country because of its extensive collection of herbs. I'm hoping to get to see it some day soon. Check out the website. It is a good one.

Wonderful Ornamental Grasses in Bloom!

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago when my herbal husband commented that it was blooming! It has never bloomed. I bought it eight years ago at Limerock Ornamental Grasses in Port Matilda, PA. Sadly, it is another wonderful nursery that has closed as of last year. This is Miscanthus sinensis 'Dixieland'. A dwarf form of Miscanthus sinensis Variegatus. It is supposed to be a dwarf, but it is not. Not sure why but I love it and now it's blooming! A big bonus.

Berry Bushes for Birds and Decoration

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago and shows our holly bushes that are just full of beautiful berries. I love to decorate our front door with a holly wreath. Very effective on a blue door! It is also a hiding place for a lot of birds. The picture at the bottom is a beautyberry. Very interesting for the birds during the winter because it is a great food source for them. It has really taken over the space. It has been moved a few times already. Remember to feed the birds all year long with these two great bushes.

My Herbal Husband's Purple Corn

My herbal husband likes to experiment with the garden. He brought back seeds of the purple corn (Zea mays) that is used in many ways in Peru, including a drink called chicha morada. The picture above is around the end of September. It has continued to grow and it is well over our heads in the 8 to 10 foot range. This picture was taken just last week. It has just dodged frost this past week, but it will really get it this week when we are supposed to get SNOW!

Herbal Crunch Time!

I was out cutting some of the last herbs of the season. We are supposed to get snow flakes next week! The first picture shows curly parsley, winter savory, thyme and oregano in the center between the parsley. The oregano, thyme and winter savory are drying between paper towels and the parsley is being frozen in plastic containers. It all works really well.

Next I cut some lovage (Levisticum officinale). It is very much like celery in looks but stronger in flavor.

If you like Bloody Marys, you can use lovage as a straw because the stem is hollow! Great conversation piece.

It is very easy to dry and I will use mine for a chicken recipe that I will share later.

Here it is hanging on the clothes line in the basement. The herb at the far left is summer savory.

Next I worked on the Italian flat leaf parsley. I again just placed the leaves in two plastic containers.

Finally, I had this pile of chives that I cut into small pieces and placed in one plastic container. You can use it by the teaspoon or tablespoon on baked potatoes with sour cream and my favorite way in the winter to use them with scrambled eggs. Yummy! A little work yields big herbal flavor during the cold days of winter.