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Growing
Tips on how to grow healthy, flavorful herbs.
Cooking
Featuring 47 herbs and 112 recipes, Herbal Cuisine is an invaluable
resource for anybody wanting to learn how to use these splendid
plants creatively.
Well-being
Herbal Cuisine also delves into the fascinating history and
mythology behind herbs and discusses how modern day health
professionals are using their powerful health-giving properties.
"O,
mickle is the powerful grace that lies in plants, herbs,"
said Friar Lawrence in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
"Mickle" is an old English word meaning great or
much. And great indeed is the powerful grace that lies in
herbs.
Herbs are trendy, both for medicinal and culinary use. However,
1500 years before Shakespeare, the early Greek physician Dioscorides,
wrote his grand treatise on herbs, De Materia Medica.
Thus
for 2,000 years we have been writing about the health benefits
of herbs. Now, scientific evidence confirms this ancient wisdom.
The US
Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry states that
on the basis of fresh weight per gram, herbs are a richer
source of antioxidants than fruits and vegetables. Oregano,
for example, boasts 42 times more antioxidant activity than
apples, 30 times more than potatoes, 12 times more than oranges
and four times more than blueberries.
Antioxidants
in your diet are important because they consume free radicals,
those corrosive, electron-gobbling molecules than are created
during normal metabolic processes and are responsible for
the aging process, especially age-related diseases such as
cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
Besides,
no ingredient enhances food like herbs. They add nutrition,
zest and flavor to meals, enabling the cook to reduce or eliminate
the content of salt, sugar and artificial flavorings.
In the garden, herbs are a low maintenance delight. Few pests
trouble them, and many thrive on neglect. Yet they will yield
boundless delight, visually, aromatically and gastronomically.
When
cooking, fresh herbs are always better than dried. A possible
exception can be made for some teas. For example, when nettle
leaf is freeze-dried and drunk as a tea, it increases the
body's immunoglobulin G, a powerful natural antibody, making
it a very effective treatment for hay fever and other allergies.
Some herbs, like chickweed and lemon balm do not dry well.
Others lose their delicate flavor and are better preserved
frozen, either in small plastic bags, ice cube trays or in
olive oil. Basil is a prime example. A good quantity of basil
frozen in olive oil will provide you with pesto all year round.
Finally, what precisely is an herb? As an herbalist, I will
arrogantly assert that most dictionary definitions are wrong.
For example, The Random House Dictionary of the English Language
defines an herb as "a flowering plant whose stem above
ground does not become woody and persistent." Well, what
about rosemary?
My
favorite definition for an herb is simply "a useful plant."
In my view, any plant that is valued for its culinary, medicinal,
aromatherapeutic, cosmetic or decorative qualities is an herb.
Correspondingly, my definition of a weed is a plant that we
haven't found a use for yet.
Anyway, as Spanish writer and philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset
put it, "To define is to exclude and negate."
Good gardening, good cooking, good eating and good health!
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