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Now for some advice on selecting which herbs to grow. Most people want to start with, say, half a dozen. All depends on your own taste and requirements. If you eat a salad every day, you will want such herbs as chicory, dandelion, parsley, chives, perhaps Florence fennel (the bulbous root section is used), and basil. If your taste runs to hot savoury casseroles or vegetable and egg dishes, choose some of the culinary herbs like marjoram, sage, thyme, dill, chervil, and winter savory. For cool drinks and fruit cups try salad burnet, borage and all the mints; and for herb teas, some of the best are camomile, peppermint and spearmint, comfrey, lemongrass and sage. For the keen gardener, yarrow, comfrey, valerian, tansy, rue, southernwood—all are valuable as described in their individual chapters; while a selection of the medicinal herbs I would never be without are chives (or garlic), lemon balm, comfrey, hore-hound, horseradish, hyssop, rosemary, sage, thyme and yarrow.
Whichever category you wish to choose from, learn as much as you can about each herb so you can use and enjoy it to the full. This book contains only some forty-odd herbs. Many thousands of plants can be classed as herbs, with characteristics beneficial to man. Another book is already in preparation, extending the list to such plants as nasturtium, calendula, burdock, coltsfoot, Golden Rod, equisetum, and many more. The list is endless.
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Chicken with Thyme
Season a small roasting chicken inside and out. Roast uncovered in a moderate oven for half an hour on each side. Remove the fat from the pan and add 1 whole lemon, cut into small cubes, i cup of dry white wine, 2 tablespoons of red-currant jelly, and several chopped stalks of lemon thyme. Return to the pan, and roast until tender. Serve this dish with whole fresh apricots, stoned, cut, and filled with horseradish and cream cheese. This makes a real special-occasion dinner.
Stuffed Cutlets
1 cup toasted stale bread, diced
1\2 cup sauteed chopped mushrooms
2 shallots, chopped and sauteed Chopped thyme, pepper and salt 1 egg yolk to bind it all together
Cut pockets in chops or cutlets, insert the mixture and fasten with a toothpick. Brown the meat in a little oil, and transfer to a covered casserole, baking in a moderate oven for 20 or 25 minutes. Stir in 1\2 cup of cream, and pour some of it over the chops. Reheat and serve immediately.
When roasting a loin of lamb, put salt, pepper, and chopped garden or lemon thyme between the chops. Cook a sprig of thyme with marrow and zucchini, and put a few leaves with mushrooms. In nineteenth-century France, thyme was used with many vegetable dishes; and seasoned stuffed tomatoes, a favourite of the southern provinces, were often flavoured with crushed thyme leaves.
The plants can easily be increased by dividing a clump and setting out again any rooted portions. Garden thyme grows easily from seed, too. Sow it in the spring or autumn. It will grow slowly for a while, but there is flavour and aroma in even the tiniest sprig, so use it right from the start.
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Petroselinum crispum UMBELLIFERAE Petroselinum sativum
Parsley well deserves its place as the most widely used of all herbs. And it is true that there is often more goodness and nutrition in those sprigs of garnish left on the plate than there is in the dish itself. So eat up every little bit, and bless Mother Nature for her bounty.
Parsley contains vitamins A, B and C in the leaves and larger quantities of C in the roots, approximately three times as much as oranges. Its vitamin A content is more than that found in cod liver oil. It contains the fatty acids necessary to utilize in the body the fat-soluble vitamins, and is rich in minerals of which iron is the most important, but calcium, sodium and magnesium are also present. Apiol, the oily non-volatile liquid found in root and leaves is a powerful digestive aid in the quantities found in the parsley plant, and another substance, apiin, a form of pectin, also helps in this process. Parsley stimulates the whole digestive system, and also the kidneys, to promote healthy action in this most important organ. If your kidneys are unhappy, then so are you; so keep them healthy and functioning well with the addition of parsley every day in your diet.
The herb is as valuable to most animals as it is to humans, although never give it to birds of any type or to pet rabbits. It does not suit their digestive processes at all, and has even been fatal to cage birds.
Parsley is a highly valued addition to a dog’s diet, and natural rearing methods for dogs make great use of it. As a general tonic, to keep liver and kidneys functioning well, parsley should be sprinkled over the dog’s meal every few days. My own little long-haired Corgi is a walking advertisement for parsley and kelp. Born with her head on one side, and unable to be bred or shown, she was to be destroyed until we took her as a household pet. Now three years old, she has the constitu¬tion and endurance (and appetite!) of a Great Dane, and she was reared on fresh meat with parsley and kelp as dietary supplements, and horseradish leaves and garlic to keep her worm-free and healthy.
To the ancient Greeks, “to be in need of parsley” was to be gravely ill. To them, only parsley was powerful enough to be of use in extremis.
Pliny, that wise old Roman, was one of the first to extol the virtues of parsley. He sprinkled it on his fish-ponds, observing the increase in the health and vitality as well as the number of the inhabitants. So as far back as the first century A.D., parsley gained a reputation it has never lost, that of increasing virility in males and fertility in females. The giving by one woman to another of a parsley root still today brings forth the remark, “Well,, you should be pregnant within the year.” I like to think it is due not to an “old wives’ tale” but to the increased vitality and enjoyment of life that a parsley plant in the garden will give you if you eat some every day.
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Sweet Fennel Foeniculum vulgare UMBELLIFERAE Florence Fennel Foeniculum duke
Fennel was a much favoured herb in the days of the Roman Empire.
So gladiators fierce and rude Mingled it with their daily food, And he who battled and subdued A wreath of Fennel wore.
Longfellow does not say just how the fennel kept the gladiators fit and trim, but we now know that it has a definite action in predigesting and breaking down oily and fatty foodstuffs in the diet. Indeed, Roman matrons also drank fennel tea, and used it when cooking fatty food, not to perform feats in the arena, but to keep their waistlines trim and their figures supple and healthy. Fennel owes most of its popularity to its slimming qualities.
Another, and also very important property of fennel, is its use in eye afflictions. Together with rue, it is prescribed as an eye strengthener and restorer of failing sight. A strong solution of fennel, using the leaves only, is made by boiling them in water until the water is reduced by half. This lotion is applied to the eyes each day, when it is cool. Repeated use is necessary. Exact quantities are not really critical in herbal preparations. The body uses only what it requires of the herb, and discards the rest. There is no harmful build-up as with some types of synthetic drugs.
Fennel produces such a multitude of seed that it naturalizes very easily in one or two seasons. Wild fennel does degenerate gradually in flavour, but makes up for this by hardier insect-free growth.
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Millet Pilaff
If your teeth are your own, and you enjoy using them, try this recipe, a reputed favourite of the ancient Persian kings; but make sure you buy the millet seed for human consumption, not millet birdseed, or the husks will be very unpalatable—more like lead shot than a culinary delicacy. The French White Millet is the best variety, and your health food store should have it.
1 cup millet
1 tablespoon olive oil
3\4 cup cold water
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 crushed garlic clove
2 fine chopped borage leaves Spring onions, chopped
Thin slices raw button mushrooms Young uncooked green peas
Wash millet, and drain. Heat the oil in a large heavy pan and fry the millet until golden over medium heat, tossing over occasionally. Pour in the cold water, salt, soy sauce, and garlic. Cook gently till water is absorbed, grains separate and dry. Remove garlic. Add remainder of ingredients, stir through to heat quickly, and serve at once.
Antipasto
Try this Italian hors-d’oeuvre as an appetizer, or do as the Romans do and have a different breakfast for a change. Serve with crisp bread sticks. Very low on calories!
12 button mushrooms, sliced lengthwise
1 oz. uncooked green beans
2 stalks celery, cut in strips 2 inches long, 1\2 inch wide
1\2 green capsicum, slivered
1\2 oz. walnut halves
Cauliflower florets, sliced 1\4 inch thick
1 small carrot, slivered
Marinade
3\4 cup wine vinegar 1 clove garlic, crushed Pinch oregano, bunch parsley
3 borage leaves, chopped 1 tablespoon raw sugar
Bring marinade to the boil, cool, shake with 5 tablespoons olive oil in a glass jar until well blended (or use blender). Pour over vegetables in a covered earthenware crock, and stir several times in the following two days. Drain, and serve on platter. It is advisable to provide small forks with this dish, as the vegetables may be a little too oily to handle. For a variation, add some fennel or dill seeds to the mixture instead of the oregano.
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