A Cascade of Coconut!

The weather is getting cooler here finally.   Sunday when we were working in the garden, the smell of coconut was overwhelming.  So I was reminded how much I love coconut scented geranium (Pelargonium grossularioides).  In the Jim Becker & Faye Brawner book, Scented Geraniums, the description of 'Coconut' says "The leaves of this species are small, round, and deep green.  It forms a low-growing mound of foliage with long sprays of very small magenta flowers.  It has a pleasant scent, though not necessarily that of coconut, and self-seeds freely."

Coconut does self-sow in the herb garden and I have taken it for granted.  Not anymore!  Next the pollinators find the tiny magenta flowers very enticing.  And finally I would say the fragrance of this particular scented geranium is very tropically coconut!  Delicious.  I am going to make sure to dry some leaves and see how the fragrance holds up.

Hope you had some time in your herb garden today.  Looks like Thursday and Friday this week will be the final harvesting days for me.  Flurries in the forecast!  Talk to you later.

A Wiff of Coconut!  Delicious!

Lemon Verbena Living, How Did I Miss This?

A Very Early Bloom on My Favorite!

Well, it had to happen sooner or later.  There is a blog that is really and truly about my favorite, lemon verbena.  It is called Lemon Verbena Living from Mia Sherwood Landau in North Texas.  Mia lives, eats, breaths, grows and sells lemon verbena, live and dried.  She also found a book called A Plant of Lemon Verbena by Alicia Amy Leith from 1895 from England!  How did I not hear about this book or this blog?  I have been in my stitching cave, stitching!  That's why!

So I have linked her blog here in this post and in my favorite blogs in the U.S.  Hopefully, I will get some time to sit down and read the entire blog.  Looks like I have a bunch of reading to do Mia from 2014, but I think I will enjoy doing it and I will probably learn a ton about our favorite, lemon verbena.  Glad you found me Mia!  I am very delighted you did!

Since I talked about an Herb Companion post or two last post, I will give you links to my favorite posts about lemon verbena here:   In 2009 I did a post called The Lemon Verbena Lady's Favorite Herb.  In 2010 I did a post called A Summertime Favorite:  Lemon Verbena Jelly.  In 2011 I did a post called The Lemon Verbena Tales:  New Pests and Harvesting Tips.  In 2012 I did a post called The Herbal Harvest:  3 Lemon Verbena Recipes.  So that should give you few thoughts about my favorite in one place.

Here in the 'Burgh, IT IS STILL RAINING!  I have made a box of raspberry jam already.  We are supposed to have our last day of rain tomorrow and then we are to dry out.  I got the great news that my coverlet is finished and so Monday I will pick it up and hopefully show it to you then.  Hope you had a great day in your herb garden.  Ours is a jungle at the moment!  Talk to you soon.

My Favorite Getting a Quick Dose of Sun and Other Stuff!

The Lemon Verbena is More Like a Topiary These Days!

George, One of Three Feral Cats The Herbal Husband Treats!

Four Squares Down, Eight To Go!  This Square Are Cornflowers!

Well, we are not having February weather at all!  I do like to be snowed in and Mother Nature is NOT cooperating!  I am not sure that she will.  Today is a beautifully sunny day in the mid to upper 60's.  This is February?  Usually this means we will have a crappy March or jump from spring to summer in a couple of days!  I am only complaining because the bug populations needs to be really really put in the deep freeze and that has not happened this season.  We usually get about two feet of snow per winter.  Sometimes we are wildly over that amount, but this year we are under, but not by much.  Well the one thing about warmer weather that I love are the spring bulbs and they will be popping here soon!  I am sure a lot of herbs will be showing their leaves if this continues.

So the lemon verbena has turned into a topiary which isn't all bad, but hopefully getting it out in the fresh air and sun will stimulate the lower branches to produce!  Your lemon verbenas that are inside should be showing signs of life.  As long as you have been watering them about every two weeks, they should be starting to produce leaves.  Took the cover off the lemon verbena we left in the herb garden and it was very wet.  So while we have about a week of really mild weather, we are going to leave the cover off and let it dry out!  We have had a very mild winter so maybe we will get lucky and it will come back.  Can I just mention that I pulled from the shelf one of my favorite herb books, Mrs. Reppert's Twelve Month Herbal.  I think I talked about this book on many occasions.  It is so much fun to read day by day and in some cases for me, it mirrored the happenings in my herb garden.  Really, really fun to sit and hang out with Mrs. Reppert in her herb garden!  Fortunately, it is still available on The Rosemary House website. 

That second photo is of one of the feral cats called George that The Herbal Husband has become fond of.  I think I mentioned he started "treating" some cats while I was in England one year.  I came home to find treats on the table in the basement where I do laundry!  George has become a wide load and in this photo he was rolling around on the driveway getting the dust off!  I am allergic to cats so they are all his!

The third photo is of my progress on my afghan and the first row is complete.  I need the step stool to get an aerial view.  Oh, maybe I need a drone for that!  Probably not!  The photo is the fourth square in the first row, cornflowers.  I am enjoying this stitch so much.  I have already plotted my path for the next row.

I hope you are enjoying your break from your herb garden.  Many of us in the northern half of the U.S. have not had a normal winter.  I hope that it mostly a good herbal thing!  I will be back out there soon enough.  Actually looking today to see what I could start doing and I may share that in my next post!  Talk to you later!

An Herbal Design That Might Stick!

The Spring 2017 Issue of Herb Quarterly Magazine!

Sorry I have been happily stitching away and forgot that I should and could post a couple of items before the end of the first month of the year!  How did that happen?  I got the latest issue of Herb Quarterly magazine the other day and was happy to see a lot of great articles, herbally speaking.

Jekka McVicar when she was here in 2011 called our garden a forest garden.  One of my favorite authors these days comes from our friends to the north, Canada and specifically Calgary.  Sheryl Normandeau  from Flowery Prose has once again written about what The Herbal Husband and I are doing without knowing it.  The article in the Spring 2017 magazine is called The Forest Formula.  Is that the herbal chaos I think it is?  No, the forest has layers and our garden has some of those same layers!  Besides providing food for you and your family, "a forest garden also provides a beneficial habitat and food for wildlife, birds, and the insects you wish to attract as pollinators or as biological pest control."  She gives a list of herbs to use and here are some of those that have worked for us including:  artemisia, bergamot and calendula.  There is a longer list in the article and a complete list of the layers involved.  You can pick up the issue at Barnes & Noble and even some grocery stores carry it in my area.  You can also subscribe to Herb Quarterly if you are so inclined!

A Delightful Representation of The Rosemary House Herb Garden!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my stitching projects so far.  I have been getting a bunch of small patterns done that have been languishing in my stash boxes or ones that I have purchased recently from new to me designers.  One of my favorites is the one above called Mrs. Reppert's Herb Bag.  It is a very charming representation of The Rosemary House herb gardens.  I will just place it in a gold frame and hang it so that I can get inspiration from it every day.  It is from designer, Sharon Verbos.

I also am starting a fairly big project that I am not sure how long it will take.  It has taken me 25 years to get it out of the bottom of my stash box one.  So hopefully it will keep me busy until spring gets here.  It is an old Prairie Schooler pattern called A Prairie Garden.  This is so old that the gals that started Prairie Schooler have retired!  So it is twelve different flowers and the afghan has twelve squares.  Inspired by my finish of The Herbal Husband's citizenship sampler last year, I thought I should pick another long forgotten project to stitch!  This one is for me.

An Afghan to Cross Stitch 25 Years in the Making!

Winter has returned to the herb garden and the forest garden in the front and back.  The birds and other animals are more demanding of water and food.  We have not had too much snow yet and have only had to shovel a handful of times.  We were in the 60's last week.  It has been a crazy year already.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  I will talk to you again soon.

Potpourri and Spice Mini Wreaths Recipes and Photos!

Really You Have What It Takes To Do These Wreaths!

Bought This Lavender Potpourri for Less than $3 at T.J.Maxx!

I Have Been Using This Glue Forever!

Don't Forget A Spatula or Something to Get The Wreaths Out!

Just Hit the Heck Out of the Cinnamon Sticks and Nutmeg!

One Bag of Potpourri Makes Three Wreaths in Two Recipes and Two Recipes of Spices Makes Four Wreaths!

This Wreath is Ready to Jump Out of the Mold, But Don't Forget to Release the Middle Part!

So Just Like Goldilocks, We Have a Big, Medium and Small Choice!

The Spice Wreaths Are Still Pretty Wet!

So if you remember back to Wednesday's post, I showed you my very favorite Christmas book by Marge Clark.

In case you missed here it is again.  I am in the habit this time of year of trying to come up with something new and different that has an herbal theme and Marge (RIP) Clark has never disappointed me whether in recipes for cooking or crafting.  I wrote about it for Herb Companion now Mother Earth Living five years ago!  Here is the link again.  It is called My Favorite Christmas Thyme Book and Spice Wreaths: Part 2 

Just check out the link to make sure I didn't forget to tell you something important!  So here is what I did.

1.  I used the $2.99 bags of potpourri that I found in T.J. Maxx that had been laying around.  The prettier the potpourri the better.

2.  Marge talks about using a donut cutter which I didn't have, but I thought my mom's jello molds that she used in her bridge club days would do.  I think they work perfectly!  Again she talked about 2-1/2" to 3" for the molds and mine were 3-1/2".

3.  I lined my surface with wax paper.  It seemed to work best for me.

4.  THIS STEP IS MANDATORY FOR BOTH KINDS OF WREATHS:  You must use a cooking spray or butter or margarine to oil the molds.  That will ensure once the wreath is done and after six hours or an overnight of drying, you can unmold it easily.

5.  Then take a cottage cheese carton (I use two 24 oz. cartons, one for each kind.)  Mix a tablespoon of water and white glue together.  As you can see I use Elmer's.  You can use whatever kind of glue you like.  The white glue does dry clear in the end so don't worry if it is white when you unmold them.

6.  Add a cup of potpourri or spices (I will give you my mixture of spices that I used later.) to the glue/water mix and mix with a plastic iced tea spoon.  I like that because it gets down into the mixture and mixes it up and it is easy to clean.

7.  Then pack your molds with the potpourri or spice mixture pressing down as you go around the mold and if there is glue left in the bottom of the carton, pour it around the top of the mixture in the mold.

8.  Let them stand for six hours at a minimum and preferably overnight.

9.  Next day, take a butter knife or baby spatula and carefully go around both inside and outside of the mold to release it and turn it out on the wax paper to dry for a couple more days, turning them every so often and then use essential oil for the potpourri wreaths because the glue will take away some of its scent.  The potpourri ones I made have lavender and rose.  So I will either use lavender or rose scent to enhance them.  And of course ribbon.  I will show you the finished products as soon as they are dry!

FOR THE SPICE MIXTURE:  I used 1/4 cup each of whole cloves and allspice and 3 cinnamon sticks and 3 nutmegs put in a freezer bag and hit with a hammer until they are smashed to your satisfaction, along with an additional teaspoon of cinnamon.  It gives you about one cup of spices that you mix with the glue/water mix that goes into two molds or more if you use a smaller mold.

So I will show you the finished products when done later this week.  I have wired ribbon that I use on the potpourri wreaths and I usually use a gold ribbon for the spice ones.  So Christmas is a week away!  Just ridiculous how time is flying by!  Our weather went from the teens yesterday morning or maybe it was the 20's and an ice storm (about 1/4" on my car) to 60 degrees last night at 11 PM!  And today we are going back into the deep freeze briefly.  After completely melting away, the ice is a thin coat on my car!  That's winter in the 'Burgh!  Hope you are having a fun time whatever you are doing.  Talk to you tomorrow!  

A Sunny Snowy Herb Garden and Why Snow is Important!

A Beautiful Day in the Herb Garden!

As I have mentioned lots of times the 'Burgh is a pretty gray place in the winter.  This is the second really blue sky day we have had since cold temperatures have set in.  I really love snow in the winter for the insulation factor it gives the herb garden.  For when we have cold winds which will come maybe as soon as tomorrow, the snow covers the plants and protects them from those winds.

We have put an additional special covering on the lemon verbena that is in the ground this year.  I hope that it insulates the plant enough that it will come back in the spring.  We shall see!  Going to be working on some decorative wreaths with old potpourri and spices.  The recipes if you can't wait are on the right hand side at the top of the column.  I just love Marge Clark and her Christmas book is one of my favorites.

Lots of Great Menus for Various Holiday Meals and Crafts!

So hope you are having a great day.  Stay warm if you are going to be in the northern half of the U.S. starting tomorrow!  It is going to be nippy the next few days!  Talk to you tomorrow!

Continuing the Potpourri Conversation and Getting Crazy with the Boxes!

The Work Table A Little More Cleaned Up!

Annual Mexican Sage Flowers to Add to the Potpourri!

Cuttings from This Year's Gardens!

And the Craziness That is This Time of the Year!

As I think I have mentioned, I always have a tower of paper towels on the herbal work table through the season.  I just clip and pile and sometimes I forget what I have clipped.  I try to write on the paper towel  what is drying but I don't always get very far.  So what happens then is that I just combine all of the leaves and flowers into a container and make potpourri.  I mainly let what is in the box plant wise, dictate what essential oil or fixative I use to give it fragrance.  And you should really use both fixative AND essential oil for long lasting appeal.  A fixative is orris root, sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh and others.  I had forgotten that sweet woodruff dried gives a hint of vanilla in your potpourri and is considered a fixative.

One of my Facebook, master gardener friends and landscape designer extraordinaire, Martha asked for my favorite combinations of materials and scents.  I am sort of boring or maybe traditional is a better word when it comes to potpourri.  I love all of the lemon scented herbs and calendula petals with lemon oil.  I love lavender, thyme, rosemary and rose together with either rose or lavender oil.  I just found a bunch of dried lemon eucalyptus in my herbal stash that smells like Murphy's Oil Soap and depending what else I put into that mix, I might use rosemary oil.  I love pine needles, cones and holly leaves and berries with sweet orange, cinnamon, clove OR pine essential oils.  

These next three ideas are from one of my favorite little booklets called Potpourri Recipes and Crafts by Pat Humphries and Bertha Reppert.  It may still be available from The Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg, PA.

Lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon grass, lemon thyme, calendula petals that have lemon smells and yellow colors in the petals,  use lemon essential oil.

When you have a lot of rose petals, rose geranium leaves, use a spoonful of cinnamon or clove and rose geranium essential oil.

Lots of different mint leaves, dried red geranium flowers (or holly with berries my addition) with pine essential oil.

For Christmas several years ago, I wrote this post for Mother Earth Living called Simple Holiday Crafts with Herbs and in it described a Woody Seed Mix from Malcolm Hillier's book, Christmas.  It incorporated leaves and twigs and seed heads from plants and even gave it a Christmas feel with cedarwood, pine or cinnamon essential oils.  I am such a stickler for a recipe and having every ingredient, but it really doesn't need to be that difficult.  Use what you have.  It may not look like the photo in a book, but if it is pleasing to look at, it will work.

I also think Martha that as a landscape designer, you should look into the book, Potpourri Making by Margaret Roberts which includes lists of herbs to grow for potpourri but adds lists of climbers, trees and shrubs too.  Something some of your clients may appreciate.

These additional books are a beginning book from Storey Publishing Bulletin A-130 called Making Potpourri by Madeleine H. Siegler and a book on the history of both dry and moist potpourris from Ann Tucker Fettner called Potpourri, Incense and Other Fragrant Concoctions may be helpful to those of you just starting out or want the history.  All of the books described have very good and easy recipes for both dry and moist potpourris. 

Yesterday we had to get organized to start sending our Christmas boxes to our friends.  And getting presents like bay leaves jarred and labeled.  Picking out your jam and jellies for the winning reader's box and selecting various jams and jellies to go all over the U.S.  It is an overwhelming task for The Herbal Husband in packing everything, but I get so much joy out of giving what I make that it is worth it. 

So at this writing, we do have a dusting of snow in the 'Burgh.  I changed my banner photo to reflect the snowy landscape.  We are to have temperatures rising later today and snow will change to rain.  I guess a crazy mix later on.  We are almost at the end of my annual herbal giveaway.  If you would like to participate and you live in the U.S., you must place a comment on this link for the original post by Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 5:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time.  There is also a link at the upper right hand portion of my home page to find the original link.  The Herbal Husband said what do you have to blog about now, since the garden is done.  Well, I said to him I would really like to finish my 2016 Trip to England.  Only have four posts out of sixteen done, so will be doing those in the coming days.  Hope you are having a great Sunday.  I need to get upstairs and help with packing boxes!  Talk to you tomorrow! 

This Might Be in the Herbal Mystery Giveaway Box!

Ooh, Looks Like a Bit of Herbal Vinegar for the Winner!

One of the easiest and most festive gifts this time of year or anytime of the year is herbal vinegar.  I used to make a ton of flavors and lots.  Now I only make what I think I can use promptly, herbally speaking.  I'll keep the flavor a secret.  Maybe you have already guessed.  I would use herbal vinegar for, of course, salad dressings, but also they are used in stews and marinades and to deglaze a pan when you are making a sauce.  Here is a link to how easy it is to make herbal vinegar.  Hey I wrote a pretty great post about making herbal vinegar if I do say so myself!  One of my favorite salad dressing books with history on where the dressings came from is by Jim Long.  The Best Dressed Salad is available on his website, Long Creek Herbs.  (This book is just a suggestion.  Not part of the giveaway box.)

One of My Favorite Herbal Authors, Jim Long!

So winter temperatures have hit us and when you aren't used to them, they can bite!  At least there is no snow at the moment.  Hope you are having a great day.  I have a list a mile long to work on.  Soo don't forget if you are a U.S. reader and you are interested in the giveaway, please leave a comment here or on the right side of my homepage.  I will talk to you tomorrow!

Herb Books Are Always A Good Gift!--Updated

I always think that books make a fantastic gift for any subject, but particularly for the herb gardener.  I love all of the classic authors, Adela Simmons, Bertha Reppert, Rosetta Clarkson, Mrs. C. F. Leyel, Helen Morgenthau Fox or Eleanor Sinclair Rohde to name just a few.  My contemporary favorite herbal authors include Emelie Tolley, Susan Belsinger, Jim Long, Tammi Hartung, Rosemary Gladstar, and Jekka McVicar.  Again to name just a few.  A friend on Facebook reminded me of the Language of Flowers and Herbs books that also fill my shelves are also great gifts whether old or new.  One of my favorite contemporary authors is Kathleen Gips and I believe a book in the photo is still available on Amazon.

Always at the Ready for Tussie Mussies!

You might also think about an herbal, spice or tea novel for that someone special.  A new one to me are the Spice Shop Mysteries of Leslie Budewitz.  I have not read any of them yet, but they all have recipes and who doesn't love a good mystery and a recipe too!  The other two series I have read all but the last two or three!  I have a lot of catching up to do.  Laura Childs' tea series and Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series are the other two favorites.  All available on Amazon.

The Spice, Tea and Herbal Mysteries!

A new book by Caz Hildebrand called Herbarium puts a very contemporary spin on the drawings of the herbs or maybe it is a take on the drawings from the old herbals.  Each herb has a page of focused information.  This is a English publication so there may be herbs that a U.S. reader will be unfamiliar with but that adds to the fun of learning, doesn't it?  I would recommend it.

Well, it has gotten colder here in the 'Burgh, but it is December already!  I don't know how the year flew by so quickly!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Four Rosemarys and Zero . . .!

Zero for lemon verbenas.  We had such a mild winter and I still lost plants, but ones that were inside.  We (or The Herbal Husband) get carried away with potting tender herbs up and bringing them in.  This year was a bit different.  We both paid less attention to what was growing or not growing inside.  We lost the savory varieties I was going to talk about.  We lost several scented geraniums.  Some did survive.  And again I killed a lemon verbena in my garden and the one we brought inside croaked too!

In better herbal news, we got four (Yes, you read that correctly.) rosemarys through the winter.  I have always heard that a dry rosemary is a dead one.  So to get four through in great shape is an herbal miracle!  So the varieties are two creeping (can't be more specific), two upright varieties, one called 'Spice Islands' and one called 'Golden Rain' that has a gold variegation.  You can definitely find the creeping variety of rosemary here in the 'Burgh and maybe 'Spice Islands'.  'Golden Rain' was developed by Thomas DeBaggio and I got mine last year on the way to the national herb society meeting at DeBaggio's Herb Farm & Nursery in Chantilly, VA.  Just got their latest catalog in the mail and it is a very good resource for how to grow rosemary.  They don't do mail order, but you can subscribe to their catalog.  It is a good one.

We are supposed to get rain today after eight days of none.  We have been moving plants around in the garden and maybe I will talk about that next time.  Still trying to get the inside of the house moved around!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later!

We Never Have This Much Luck!

Celebrating the 2015 Herb of the Year-Savories-Part Eleven!

Another Favorite English Herb Book

I do have too many herb books which I haven't read!  This is one of the ones that I need to read through in the near future.  H.L.V. Fletcher's book Herbs is the next on my bookshelf.  He talks about there being two savories, summer, the annual and winter, a sub-shrub, but their uses (assuming he means culinary uses) are similar for both.  He calls savory a neglected herb and this is from a book of the 1970's.  Fletcher does admit that nurseries have both seeds and plants for sale.  He calls it out of fashion even if it has a more pleasant flavor than many of the more popular herbs.  It is traditionally used in most stuffing, in sausages and in many meat dishes.  He says that he has heard that it has been used a good deal on the continent.  That there is a recipe for stuffed marrow (a member of the squash family) that needs a bit of savory to liven it up.

He also says it is out of fashion to use it medicinally.  It was once used for indigestion and colic.  There were a dozen other illnesses it was used for, but the medicinal claims were quite modest.  Although it is said to be good when used on wasp and bee stings.  And that is all he has to say about the savories!

Well, the tide has turned in the weather department.  We are on the cusp of winter.  Not quite there yet, but by the end of the week, we will be having temperatures in the 30's and a taste of winter weather.  So the clock is ticking down until the end of the year.  Will I take a break?  Will I keep posting every day?  In any case, I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Celebrating the 2015 Herb of the Year-Savories-Part Nine!

Really Love Books That Delve Into the Old Herbals!

I am going to start by using the very important quote at the beginning of this book:

"The information in The Herbalist's Bible is compiled from a blend of historical and modern scientific sources and from personal experience.  It is not intended to replace the professional advice and care of a qualified herbal or medical practitioner.  Do not attempt to self-diagnose or self-prescribe for serious long-term problems without first consulting a qualified professional.  Heed the cautions given, and if already taking prescribed medicines or if you are pregnant, seek professional advice before using herbal remedies."

I am not an qualified herbal practitioner.  So what I am giving you is herbs for thought, please do further research if you are going to use savory medicinally.

One of my new favorite herb books is this one and I couldn't help but use this book when talking about savory.  If he isn't already, John Parkinson should be on your radar as one of the influential herbalists of England.  I love this book because it gives the page as Parkinson wrote it and then a modern take on the same herb or equivalent interpretation from Julie Bruton-Seal and her husband, Matthew Seal.

They talk about the savories of Parkinson's time being summer savory (Satureja hortensis) which is a tender annual from 4 to 15 inches high and is softer and more aromatic than the other savory of the time, winter savory (Satureja montana) which is a woody perennial, a bit larger with bluish-white flowers and similar to hyssop in scent.

Savory was taken to America by early English colonists.  There are specific North American savories such as yerba buena or Oregon tea (S. douglasii) and Japanese peppermint (I know it as Jamaican mint tree.) (S. viminea).  Both make mint flavored teas.

"Expelling wind:  Parkinson beings with the medicinal use of savory as an aromatic.  He says it will expel windiness in the stomach and intestines, but also go deeper to adjust a displacement of the womb and provoke urination and menstruation where impeded."   The focus of savory these days is on relief from flatulence and stimulating digestion.

"Aphrodisiac:  Savory's supposed aphrodisiac's reputation is probably more a result of its provocative ancient name than its actual effects."  Savory's genus name Satureja which is taken from satyrus or satyr, the drunken and lusty woodland deities.  Parkinson isn't convinced.  He does think that it was a sexual aid.

"Appetite:  Savory does have a peppery taste, especially summer savory which stimulates taste in adding flavor to vegetables, soups, meats and fish.  Savory is a main ingredient in stuffing for the turkey in the U.S., a key component of the Turkish condiment zatar and German cooks call Bohnenkraut or the bean herb to cook broad beans or peas.  It adds both flavor and counters the inevitable windiness.  It is often grown with beans."

"Expectoration:  Cutting 'tough flegme' is an aspect of savory's warming and stimulatory action as indeed is its wakening effects on drowsiness ('the Lethargye')."  The authors say that taking savory as a snuff sounds intriguing and they will try it.

"Eyes & ears: Parkinson's reported uses are probably hardly practiced at all in our times, but his specificity is convincing."  Paraphrasing Parkinson's words "Using the juice of savory in the eyes to cleare the dull sight and using the juice of savory and the oil of rose heated and dropped into the ears to ease them of the noyse and singing in them and deafness also."

"Sciatica:  Again, using savoy as a hot poultice with white flour to ease nervous pain, gout or sciatica sounds excellent practice, but this is a forgotten remedy."

Finally "Insects:  Parkinson's mention of using savory to alleviate bee or wasp stings may have its source to Virgil, who suggested growing the plant near beehives for this purpose."

I think there is so much from past practice that may still be useful as a home remedy and this book is really relevant if you want to see a side by side comparison of old and new.  As I have said and it is mentioned in the book, please use caution if you want to try any of these remedies mentioned.

No sight of snow or cold weather.  We are just getting warmer in the 'Burgh!  It was almost 70 degrees for the Victorian Christmas Tour yesterday!  More about that in a later post.  Trimming back the herbal containers that have started to go south.  Don't want to overwhelm The Herbal Husband with herbs that aren't doing well inside.  Posts for later this month!  Hope you are having a great day, talk to you tomorrow!

Some Last Minute Ideas for Christmas Gifts, Herbally Speaking!

The 2016 Herb of the Year Calendar from Susan Belsinger!

Always on My Kitchen Wall!

Two of My Favorite Herb Magazines!

Latest Issue of Mother Earth Living on Stands December 15th!

Maybe a Membership to the Herb Society of America will be on your list!

When in Doubt, New Varieties of Herb Seeds Are a Winning Gift for an Herb Gardener!

These 31 days of blogging in December have given me a lot of light bulb moments so far.  Yesterday my 2016 Herb of the Year Calendar from Susan Belsinger arrived in the mail.  This calendar has morphed through the years into what I think the Herb of the Year calendar should be an in depth look at the Herb of the Year month by month.  Finally, you will learn all you wanted to know and possibly more about Capsicum the 2016 Herb of the Year.  As I hope you can see the calendar arrived with an adorable handwritten note from Susan, an extra touch!  So if you are trying to decide what to get that herbal person in your life or maybe just for yourself, click on over to Susan Belsinger's website and check out the calendar as well as all of her books.  Hopefully I will get to meet her one day.  She spoke for the local herb club and I was in France in 2007.  I think she understood!  The next calendar choice is from Maggie Oster another of my favorite herbal authors.  I have several of her calendars and perhaps all of them.  I like that she does a different herb each month and has tips strewn throughout the days of each month.  You can find her calendars and books at Amazon.

The next category is magazines which I love to read almost every day and sip a cup of herbal tea while reading.  The Herb Quarterly magazine is the oldest herb magazine left dating from 1979.  It has gone through some bumps in the herbal road, but I think there is some very strong writing and great herbal information.  Also there is The Essential Herbal magazine as Tina Sams the Editor writes The Essential Herbal magazine "is written by, for and about herbie people and the things they love - HERBS!" This magazine is the David among the giants and is doing well and increasing each year in size and content.  I just read that they have to increase their price for a subscription next year.  So if you are looking to get a subscription for yourself or an herbie person in your life, you will save money if you subscribe before the end of this year.  Also I guest blogged for The Herb Companion magazine which is now Mother Earth Living magazine for several years and the herbal content has been increasing over the months.  So there are three different and unique magazines that my fulfill your need for herbal material.

The next category is herbal memberships.  We are lucky enough to have several herb clubs in the Pittsburgh area.  The Herbarist magazine comes with a membership to the Herb Society of America.  You can join the local unit in my case the Western Pennsylvania unit or be a Member at Large which is what I am.  I just don't have the extra time to volunteer.  So I have chosen the Member at Large route, but you still get all of the benefits of membership.  My herbal companion, Bonnie and I attended the annual meeting of members in Williamsburg this year and next year it will be in Ashville, NC on April 29, 2016.  They are a great group and maybe group participation and learning about herbs is for you.

The next category for this post is seeds and their catalogs.  New varieties of herb seeds are coming on the market each season.  These are just two of the many catalogs I will receive over the coming weeks.  Pinetree Seeds is a company I have ordered both vegetable and herb seeds and always reasonably priced.  It looks like they have a new nasturtium variety that I may have to try.  Johnny's Selected Seeds is an employee-owned company in business since 1973.  Really I have said this before some seed catalogs have great growing information that I keep them by the garden door and Johnny's is always one of those special catalogs.

Remember your local herb shops, farms and small businesses this time of year.  I am going highlight a couple near and far.  Rosemary House and the Repperts got me started blogging many years.  Molly Sams, their intern did a blog post for them recently highlighting some great gift giving ideas.  I couldn't have said it better, Molly.  Here is a link to that post:  Holiday Gift Giving Ideas.  And then the near suggestion would be one down the hill from me off of State Route 8 called the Tea Loft that sells hand blended teas from Tupelo Honey Teas and locally made accessories, gift baskets and events and classes.  The Tea Loft is in Building 4 in the Allison Park Industrial Complex and it is a very cozy business once you get inside.  My favorite tea of Tupelo Honey's is a local blend from her Yinzer Tea Blends called Black and Gold.  "Spicy with a bit of sweet just like our city."  My friend Bonnie and I are planning to go back for a cup or pot of tea and take goodies to share.   So think about your neighborhood businesses and please support them during the holidays!

Hope I have given you some ideas for your herbal holiday shopping.  A gray and warm day in December!  I'll take it.  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you tomorrow!  
 

Herbs in Containers and the Long Vue Acres Garden Club!

Getting All of the Herb Combinations Planted!

A Jam Packed Table!

Packed Up For the Trip Home!

Had to Have a Map to Get Them Back in the Car!

The Herbs Looked Very Good in their Containers!

Yes, I am still blogging!  I just got caught up after my last post in a trip to the national Herb Society meeting in Williamsburg, VA.  Then I came back to temperatures in the high 80's while I was away and the gardens looked completely different.  And I was getting set up for my talk last night to the ladies and gentlemen of the Long Vue Acres Garden Club.  I think they had fun.  It got very happy and loud as I passed around snippets of herbs.

Colleen who is program chairperson won The Bountiful Container book which Maggie Stuckey so graciously autographed and sent to me.  This is a great book because you have two experts on edibles in containers.  It not only has plans of containers but also recipes and information on vegetables, herbs, fruits and edible flowers.

A Wonderful Book If You Are Going to Grow Edibles in Containers!

Just wanted to say again because I think this may have been lost in the discussion.  I used the shallow containers last night to get the most herbs packed in my presentation.  The containers you would have to use would be deeper so the multiple herb combinations could survive through the season.  Hope that is clearer.  I gave them a big handout to read and study.  So everyone has extra homework over the summer!  They were a great group!  I also wanted to mention that they gave me a lovely book called Herbs! Creative Herb Garden Themes and Projects by Judy Lowe.  Can you believe I don't have this one and I am excited to share it with you in some future post!  Thanks again Long Vue Acres Garden Club! 

A Wonderful Thank You Gift From the Club!

I also wanted to give a big shout out to my dear Herbal Husband!  He really helped get me ready and organized so that last night was fun and not stressful.  You are the best! 

So I'm going to work backwards and try to get you caught up in what's been going on in and out of the garden.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Four-Lined Plant Bug Damage Already and An Herbal Retail Experience!

Not An Herb But Four Lined Plant Bug Love Certain Perennials Too!

We have been slowly weeding and getting beds ready to plant seeds.  Yesterday, we came across the damage of the four-lined plant bug.  I associate the emergence of these pests with the blooming and leafing out of forsythia.  It is one of their favorites and it is blooming and leafing out all around us!  I did a post about them for Mother Earth Living called Herbal Pests:  The Four-Lined Plant Bug.  They really only do cosmetic damage and the plant starts to grow new leaves even before the bugs are gone, but it can be six weeks of herbal pain until they are gone.

Also got out and had an herbal retail experience at the local Garden Symposium co-sponsored by the Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny County, the Penn State Center Pittsburgh and Shady Side Academy.  Got several wonderful scented geraniums, a couple of lavenders and a clematis that is more like ground cover than a climbing vine.  Oh and a couple of agastaches.   

Herbal Retail Delights!

Latest Book from My Favorite Horticulture Teacher, Jessica Walliser!

My final purchase was the latest book from my favorite horticulture teacher, Jessica Walliser.  I have already read a bit and I loved your confessions, Jessica!  Will look forward to reading the rest and making a review in the coming days!

We had one of the more beautiful days today, sunny and warm.  Getting beds weeded and ready to plant seeds.  Although we are going to get strong storms tomorrow night into Monday.  So I told The Herbal Husband that we would work on clearing a second bed tomorrow and then postpone seeding until the storms pass on Tuesday or Wednesday.  At least we separated the seeds to be planted from the ones to plant later.  Never a dull moment.  Hope you are getting your gardens ready to go.  Maybe another savory post next time!  Talk to you later. 

Celebrating the 2015 Herb of the Year-Savories-Part Five!

One of the First Herb Books I Bought!

The Complete Herb Book by Maggie Stuckey was one of the first herb books I bought way back in the early 1990's.  Remember I really started gardening with herbs seriously when we bought our house in 1989.  This is a small paperback jammed packed with herbal information, recipes, crafts and gardening tips, etc.  It has given me an immeasurable wealth of information over the years.

On the traditions of savory, it was brought by the Romans to the United Kingdom and northern Europe and became important in the kitchen and for medicinal purposes.  It was said that the juice of savory was used for ringing ears, a poultice was used externally for joint pain and even for arthritis and a tea made from savory by the American colonists was said to lift the spirits and then there was savory and the power of the aphrodisiac.  One 17th century herbalist warned that "It is forbidden to use it much in meats because it stirreth him that useth it to lechery."  Fair warning!

In this digital age, I e-mailed Maggie this morning asking permission to share some of her recipes in the book.  She wrote right back and gave her permission.  So wonderful to share our knowledge and she has inspired me my whole herbal life.  So here are a couple of my favorite uses for savory from Maggie Stuckey's The Complete Herb Book:

Herb Blend No. 1--Meat and Vegetable Dishes

2 parts marjoram
2 parts savory
1 part basil
1 part thyme
1 part tarragon

Bouquet Garni for Fish

2 tablespoons celery leaves (I used lovage)
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 bay leaves, broken into pieces
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried savory
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed

Mix all ingredients; divide into three equal portions and tie into cheesecloth bags (or I use the teabags or spice bags that are made of muslin).

Mediterranean Rice (Serves 4 to 6)

1 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh summer savory
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh marjoram
1-1/2 cups chicken or beef stock
1-1/2 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes

Saute the onion and garlic in oil over low heat until soft.  Add the rice, thyme, oregano, savory and marjoram and cook for a few minutes more, stirring constantly.

Add the stock and the tomatoes; cover and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for approximately 50 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender.

The Herbal Husband is the rice cooker in the family, but I do do a version of rice that he loves.  We're going to try this recipe this summer.  It just sounds so fresh and tasty.

I'm also doing a container class at the end of May and Maggie has co-written one of my favorite container books with Rose Marie Nichols McGee called McGee and Stuckey's Bountiful Container.  In The Complete Book of Herbs, she mentions a couple of combinations with savory for containers that sound good.  Salad burnet, creeping savory and woolly thyme in a container and then a window box for summer with basil, calendula, chervil, chives, dill and summer savory.  Thank you Maggie Stuckey for letting me share your savory recipes with my readers!  You can find all of her books through Bookfinder.  She also sent along a photo of the latest cover of The Complete Herb Book.

A More Up-To-Date Version of the Cover

So hopefully we will continue to learn about savory together.  I have read a lot more information about the 2015 Herb of the Year.  So please stay tuned.  It has been a blustery day here in the 'Burgh.  Rainy, sunny and sort of warm.  Better than it has been.  The daffodils are slowly rising from the ground.

The 'Goodwin Creek' lavender has slowly dried out from over watering.  Please if you get an Easter plant and it is in a foil wrapper either take it off entirely (less festive) or poke large holes in the bottom so that the water drains out of the wrapper and the container.  I said to The Herbal Husband that if we take the lavender out of the container, I thought that we could squeeze another cup of water out of the soil.  Never a dull moment here.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  I'll talk to you later.