Herbs..and other Topics..

Hello..Today is once again lovely..no complaints here..considering the news predicted a rather rainy day. Possibly we will receive a rain shower tonite.. Tomorrow I may take a trip to one of my favorite spots..I have mentioned this place before. Stream Cliff Herb Farm.. though I just seem to refer to it as.. the herb farm. I imagine they have lots of goodies waiting to be sold.. and the tearoom's chicken salad is just divine!! I can't wait!! I always pick up a few herbs when I visit there. You can always count on finding some new and different plants..things you can't find at Home Depot or Lowe's. I was actually at Lowe's last night getting a few bags of Garden Soil..I'm going to try the instant gardening thing..They had this shelf of dollar plants. Oh WOW!!! A Budget gardener's dream..There were tons of pansy's, though I didn't indulge in those because it will be getting warm soon,..and their season is about spent.. However, there were some Snap Dragons..I was going to buy some of those this year in honor of my Grandmother Marjorie. Snap Dragons were one of her favorite flowers, along with Roses, Poppies, and Gerber Daisy's! I have been thinking of her alot lately.. Maybe because spring has arrived, and she loved spring. Plus I would start my annual Friday day trips to her house to help her with her garden.. To her tribute..she was out there hoeing up into her 90's wow!! So last nite I got 3 packs of pink snap dragons and planted them today in a new little patio garden I fixed last year. Yesterday I started all my herb seeds and several vining plants. Moon vines, Morning Glory's, and Hyacinth Beans.. Three of my favorite Vines. I'm anxious to see how my Borage and Broom does this year..oh and the Cowslip and Comfrey too..the others are pretty regular favorites of mine.. You know the standards..Basil. Oregano, Thyme, Sage, Marjoram, Cilantro, and Lavender. I always have great success with all those it's the new ones that will pose a challenge. Time will tell..
What can you do with Herbs?

I love this herb spiral..a great space saving way to grow your herb garden!!
In addition to the obvious purpose of using herbs in your cooking and culinary creations, herbs can be utilized in a myriad of ways to serve a wide variety of purposes. Probably the most common alternative use for herbs, and many would argue it's primary function, is for medicinal and healing purposes. Dating back to before written human history, the use of herbs as culinary additives was probably less for taste, and moreso as a response to the harmful potential of food-borne pathogens. As a result, tropical environments where pathogens are most prevalent have been the source of the world's spiciest foods. Clay tablets that date back over 5,000 years have been discovered which list hundreds of medicinal plants, many of them common herbs as we know them today. Throughout the written history of mankind, herbs and herbal preparations have been used to treat illnesses and conditions afflicting not only humans, but there is strong evidence to suggest that even early primates ingested medicinal herbs to treat injuries and illnesses. Herbs as medicine can be ingested whole in many ways, including herbal teas, known as tisanes; herbal juices, or in a dried form. Other methods of administering whole herbs include infusions, which is extraction by steeping in hot water; decoctions, which are long-term boiled extracts of roots and barks; maceration, where plants are finely cut and steeped in cold water. Herb tinctures use alcohol to suspend the essence from the herbs, while herbal wine and elixirs are low alcohol content herb extracts. There are also dry extracts in which the plants are allowed to evaporate their liquid content into a dry mass, which can then be contained in a capsule or tablet. Many herbs can also be applied as a topical skin treatment with essential oil extracts used to create creams, lotions, balms, salves, and oils. Herbs have also been used as a compress with crushed or rehydrated dry herbs applied directly to a bandage, which is then placed over a wound. Another widely used medicinal use is aromatherapy, whereby the fragrant liberation of the essential oils in herbs is used to combat pain and anxiety, while reducing stress, and promoting relaxation through the olofactory senses. Today, hundreds of products are manufactured from herbs or have herbs incorporated into them.