Your Newspaper - HomeStyle - Get Crafty and Get Cooking with Herbs

Posted on: March 19, 2007

Get Crafty and Get Cooking with Herbs

Simple to maintain and full of fresh aromas, herbs are the secret behind must-have dishes and must-do projects.

By Teresa Odle
CTW Features

Ellen Spector Platt cooks with lots of herbs. “When I add fresh herbs to any recipe, it really transforms the dish and it goes from being sort of ordinary to something that’s really delicious,” she says. And Platt knows her herbs. She’s grown and dried 500 different kinds of flowers and herbs - first from her rural farm in northeastern Pennsylvania and now from her home in New York. Platt has authored books on herbs and flower-and-herb crafts. She says people are enchanted by the aromas and tastes of herbs and that lavender, the most popular herb she sold, offers a nostalgic link to grandmothers, mothers and aunts.

Like many herbs, lavender is easy to grow, great for cooking and can add beauty and pleasant scents to your home. In fact, nothing beats herbs as a healthy pick-up for favorite recipes, a home décor or gift item, and mostly a good reason to get outside and garden.

Easy to Start

Getting started is easy, says Ellen Zachos, a New York-based horticulturalist, instructor and garden author. In fact, her new book on gardening basics, titled “Down & Dirty!” (Storey Publishing, 2006) offers an herb window box as one of the 43 “fun and funky first-time projects” that are highlighted. Instructions include choosing a few easy herbs to grow – basil and rosemary, for example – and how to plant your first window box. “In general, the sunniest spot is really important. And in a window box, you want to make sure you give each herb 6 inches of growing space,” says Zachos.

As for herbs to avoid in your box, Zachos says cilantro is tougher to transplant. And she cautions new gardeners not to place mint in a container with any other herbs. “It’s just a big thug in the garden; it has a wonderful taste, but it needs its own section or its own pot or it will just take over the whole garden,” she says. You can grow herbs in the ground or in containers. Just try to give them at least six to eight hours of sunlight per day.

Lavender-Spiced Potato Salad

Lavender is in the rosemary family and is one of the five “herbs de Provence,” says author Ellen Spector Platt, who uses it in just about any recipe that calls for rosemary:

Small potatoes with skin on, such as red bliss (boiled and cut into pieces)

1 cup plain low-fat yogurt

2 cups chopped celery or young lovage leaves

1/2 cup chopped chives or green scallions

1 tbsp fresh lavender flower buds (1/2 tbsp dried)

2 tbsp Dijon style mustard

Salt and pepper

Edible leaves or flowers for garnish*

*Platt uses purple basil leaves, blue borage, dill, calendula, nasturtium or other edible flowers. She says you also can take any favorite potato salad recipe – or buy it ready-made – and add the lavender and edible flowers to walk in with a dish that demands attention while tasting great and unusual.

Source: “Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb” by Ellen Spector Platt (Stackpole Books, 1999)

Use Them or Lose Them

Some herbs are perennial and will come back the next year if you either cut them back or keep the pots in a protected area, says Zachos. Try under the deck or in an unheated garage. But others, like basil, are annual, and it’s a shame to waste those delicious leaves. Zachos cuts all the stems off her basil, rinses them, picks off individual leaves and lets them dry. “That’s really all you have to do. You can pull out a handful of leaves, let them thaw, chop them up and cook,” she says. You also can make and freeze pesto or dry the basil.

To dry herbs, bunch the stems together and tie them with an elastic band, then hang them upside down in a warm, dry, dark place for two to three weeks. Zachos cautions not to tie them with string. “As the stems dry, they shrink; if you use string, they’ll just fall right out of the string,” she says. Dried herbs pack double the punch of fresh herbs, so use half the amount in recipes that call for a fresh herb, says Platt.

Get Crafty

Zachos uses dried herbs to make flavored vinegars and gives them in decorative bottles as gifts. Once you’ve got the hang of growing herbs, test your creativity by cutting fresh flowers for arrangements, making wreaths, scented pillows or potpourris, or other craft projects. “When designing wreaths and other decorative items out of herbs, you get the look and you also get the scent,” says Platt. You can make pleasing wreaths with relatively few supplies and little expense. Straw- or moss-covered forms are available at most craft-supply stores. Depending on the design, you’ll need some floral wire and pins, glue (or glue gun) and shears. Add flowers or berries for color.

Rosemary is one of the easiest herbs to grow as a perennial in many zones. It’s become popular as topiary. Once the single stalk plant reaches a height of about two feet, remove all lower growth to form a ball at the top. Or cut it into a Christmas tree shape for a fragrant and attractive holiday decoration.

Zachos says that herbs are not only popular because they’re simple and inexpensive to start, but also because “people love to gratify the senses.” Herbs gratify us with their visual appeal, their taste and their aroma. Get down and dirty – and creative – and go herbal.