Processed the turmeric just for fun. Washed and shredded in food processor (turns everything orange, LOL.)
I’ve vacuum sealed the end result and will grind up in small bunches when I need some. Excited to try it.
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What do you like to use it in?
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Many curry recipes call for turmeric. One I use it in is called Sweet American Curry - one designed for those of us who can’t do lots of cayenne, although it has some cayenne in it. When I worked at NASA an Iranian researcher invited us over for Persian Burgers which had turmeric as the major spice. They are so good and I make them fairly regularly.
It is a medicine in many cultures. The new use on the (American) block is basically making a tea from it for colds, with maybe some ginger and honey in it. Some cold recipes call for milk but I wouldn’t use milk if you have a cold.
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Where did you get the galangal from? I want to grow some…
Darn.
OK I’ll dig some out of the compost bin and send some if you like.
I don’t remember where I got it, but likely an online nursery. The tag said ‘Greater galangal’.
I thought I could get some roots from the Asian market but they only had frozen. Markets near you may have fresh.
PM me if you want me to send some.
I think my rosemary problem was due to excess salts in my water/soil. I recently got a RO filter and flushed my plant well and it seems to have perked up a lot. Before it had basically stalled out and wasnt growing but now its starting to grow again. Tap water here is hard, around 400ppm and I also had been adding fertilizer to the plant, causing salt buildup in the soil. I measured some runoff from my plants and it was running around 2500ppm, some plants dont mind that as much as others. Guessing rosemary might be more sensitive than some of the other stuff I was growing.
Very cool you figured it out! Yes my water is bad too, I use rainwater. I have 2x 50 gallon garbage
cans. I keep them in the garage. I fill a 6 gallon water jug from the 50 gallon cans and fill my watering can from that. 100 gallons is enough for me. If/when I’m low I mix it with tap water to at least thin it out. All summer I collect rain. Actually I filled a 50 gallon can a couple weeks ago when all the snow on my roof started to melt. So I still have 100 gallons right now. Wow what a difference now deposit rings on pots, and the plants seem to love it. I could collect thousands of gallons if I had the storage capacity. It took about hour to collect 50 gallons. In the summer it could take 2 minutes with a heavy down pour.
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So I harvested bunches of basil for making pesto today including the African Blue. @Richard noted in another post that AB basil was 10x stronger than other basils. Has anyone made pesto with this? Bad idea? Any thoughts on it?
Not sure what you mean. It doesn’t die back in your zone? You leave it outside?
No I bring it in. It is very sensitive to cold, it does not go out till night temps are above 60F. It can take 50F but never any lower. Can you have too much basil flavor? I think not, it makes a fine pesto. Use less if you don’t want it stronger.
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I grew African blue basil in San Jose California it stayed outside year round so it can definitely go below fifty degrees.
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Maybe so but in my area that kind of stress can kill it, night after night after night. So I would still advise against it in my zone.
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Ive kinda figured my rosemary issue out. Turns out this rosemary doesnt like heavy soil. I re-potted some plants in coir and keep it barely moist, letting it dry out pretty good between watering. It is much happier now.
![20180618_125226[1]](https://d55v7rs15ikf5.cloudfront.net/original/3X/9/a/9afa96174adfd8c4cadecc3ee4fb9127ced0ea5b.jpg)
In the background you can see one of my older plants which is still in a more normal potting mix and its still not very happy. This is a cutting I took off that plant and rooted which is much happier than the mother plant.
https://www.tenthacrefarm.com/2014/08/the-secret-to-keeping-rosemary-alive-indoors/
More cuttings in coir…
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Good to hear and reminds me I need to start another plant with mine. It’s looking rough after a few years. Time to start a new plant. I grow the Arp cultivar.
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I have no idea what variety this is. They had it in walmart one time and it is much more aromatic than what they usually have, so I rooted it and make my own now. It wasnt a plant but just the fresh herbs they have in small packages.
Yes, I so want to grow those out too. I was going to buy some oregano as it will survive here. Turned out I had some seed, so went that way, got two out in the garden now. I never grew any other kind of Rosemary, this cultivar is fine, I hardly use Rosemary, but always nice to have fresh. It’s very strong, love it.
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My wife makes a spiced butter log thing out of fresh chopped rosemary and diced garlic, not sure what else is in it. Its great on a steak or burger. Ill have to see if shes got a recipe I can link to. I can eat that stuff plain even, but its very strong, haha. She uses it on lamb chops also and its pretty good like that.
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Rosemary grows like a weed down here…the one I planted a couple years back is the size of small shrub now.like others don’t really have that much use for it…I’ve also had good luck with chives…I’ve got the same batch that was planted 3 or 4 years ago that just keep growing back…it’s amazing…
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Yes, they are like our evergreen, boxwood, etc, in some places. Chives do grow here too, I have garlic chives going a few years now.
Getting used to Georgia? Yeah my basil seems sensitive and it looks fine till it isn’t. I lost one when it got into the 40’s. It just died. Frost certainly will kill it. So that is a solid limit.
Ironic as it was found in Ohio from an accidental cross. I bought it there at Companion Plants, where the cross happened. They have Mexican oregano, hard to find, found it there. The very first post in this thread is a photo of it. here is the same plant today, 2 seasons later.
@JustAnne4, Wiki says it makes a fine pesto!
Mine got rather weak during the winter. It has now made a full recovery.
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I started reading into herbs again (big mistake for anyone with a collector’s mindset), and now I wanna grow them all. No budget, though, so I’m gonna have to start slow. I already had some to start with, so I do have a half-decent collection in progress.
I was growing my fig in a huge container so I filled in the gaps with herbs, but they’ve taken over and the woodier species are competing with the fig. I’ll be propagating them soon as a precaution, and removing them into their own pots. Surrounding the fig, we have Rosemary, Puerto Rican Oregano (Lippia micromera, also called Orégano Chiquito), what is apparently Marjoram, and Cuban Oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus, also called Orégano Brujo). The Cuban Oregano is pretty good, tastes like the real deal; I use it in mashed potatoes and we occasionally put it in sofrito (though my mother prefers the Chiquito for this).
I’m growing Papalo, and it is NOT an acceptable substitute for Cilantro. We make heavy use of Cilantro and the more intense Recao (Eryngium foetidum) in our cooking, curtesy of the sofrito, and the Papalo doesn’t seem interchangeable with them. My parents can’t stand the smell, refuse to even taste it. I tasted it, found it somewhat similar, but the differences are noticeable. The big plants died out, I collected seeds and currently have three little plants growing (and loads of stored seeds. I’m pinching the tops, hoping they’ll grow bushier this time.
The Recao / Culantro / Sawtooth Coriander is growing quite densely in what was intended to be a mere seedling container. They started out small and yellowish from competition, then my mother burned them with concentrated 20-20-20, then they turned into a very lush carpet. This tiny patch will probably be enough to keep us in sofrito for the next year. I also planted a small container tower with them.
I got plenty of Allium varieties and species growing for herb use, but for some reason, Chives and Garlic Chives refuse to sprout for me. I grew the latter once years ago, and it was a vigorous, clumping, spreading, self-seeding grower. I didn’t get to do much with it back then because the snails decided to make it their breeding patch (despite not eating it), and it seemed more like a fresh herb than a cooking herb (so I couldn’t disinfect it by cooking). From what I remember, the taste was delicate, not particularly garlic-like to me, but it didn’t ruin any of the dishes I put it in. I grew standard Chives once, a single seed out of an entire packet, and I eventually lost it (it was with the fig; I managed to save my Walking Onions from that container).
As a garlic substitute, I recently got my hands on Garlic Vine (Mansoa alliacea), and it’s just started pushing new growth. I chewed a leaf, the flavor was unmistakeable but subtle. I did get a hint of bitterness, perhaps fresh new growth would be better for cooking than an old hard leaf.
I recently bought a plant labeled as Lemon Thyme at a local Walmart (originally from Byron Pike Nursery). It was not lemon thyme, apparently. After smelling it’s minty smell and reading up on Savory plants, it seems to be Jamaican Bush Mint (Satureja viminea).
I killed off my Sage plant from excess pruning (it was with the fig), and managed to sprout some seeds of it. I also sprouted a seed from a package that was labeled “Oregano”, no idea if it was Greek (O. vulgare hirtum) or Italian (O. x majoricum). I can’t tell the difference, this is my first time growing true oreganos other than the alleged Marjoram. (Note: I have no reason to distrust the marjoram, except that it came from a local nursery, which rarely concern themselves with botanical nomenclature; I’m very much a stickler for botanical precision). The Sage & Oregano:
I recently got a Thyme Plant as well, and have no idea the precise species for it (I imagine it’s Common Thyme).
I turned a laundry basket into a container, and after growing a season’s worth of cilantro, I’m now growing Genovese Basil for pesto (with some Parsley and a Carrot for good measure). I’d like to get my hands on the Perennial Basils, but I’ll start where I can.
In some plastic shoeboxes full of water, I’m growing standard Fish Mint, Vietnamese Coriander (Persicaria odorata) and Rice Paddy Herb / Ngo Om (Limnophila aromatica). I don’t know what to do with the Fish Mint, I wanted the citrusy variant but settled for the standard form, and I find it’s “raw fish” taste unappealing (I don’t know why I expected a “cooked fish” flavor). The Vietnamese Coriander is actually a much closer match for Cilantro and Recao, a promising addition to my herb collection. As for the Rice Paddy Herb… I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve tasted it, and it actually tastes pretty good, and like the descriptions say: citrusy and cumin. It’s apparently an uncooked addition to whatever dish you’d use it in, but I haven’t a clue where I’d use it in my local cuisine. I’m thinking of cutting up some sprigs and adding them at the end of the next batch of shrimp we sauté at home, as a start. It had some pretty flowers not too long ago, but it hadn’t occurred to me to take their picture.
And finally, a Pandan plant that’s starting to grow to big for its pot. I haven’t stuck it in the ground because I get the feeling it’ll take off like a rocket, and I still haven’t settled on an adequate place for it.
I’d like to ask… would Rice Paddy Herb and/or Pandan paste be a good addition to an otherwise standard basil pesto recipe, or would the flavors clash?
I bought a plastic “half barrel” planter recently where I hope to start my herb garden. I have a few possible ideas for planting schemes ranging from light to very dense, but still haven’t fully settled on anything since I’m still missing plenty of herbs (I have a list of annual, biennial and perennial herbs). I’m mainly focused on perennial herbs at this point, but I do wanna grow the others as well, and I’d like to get more of these planters. Here’s some ideas for the half-barrel, drawn up on my phone’s notepad:
Top left would be four very large woody/shrubby herbs, things like Rosemary, Tarragon, the tropical Oreganos, etc.; basically four of what would otherwise be solitary herbs.
Top right would be an 8-point asterisk configuration of low-growing perennial herbs (Origanums, Thymes, etc.) surrounding a taller herb, like Sage.
Mid left is a sparser version of top right, a 6-point asterisk configuration instead of 8-point.
Mid right is an alternative to top left: three large shrubby herbs instead of 4, with three smaller (but not low-growing) herbs between each of the larger ones (things like Sage, Tarragon, Winter Savory, etc.).
Bottom is a denser version of top right, with Alliums planted between the center and the edge.
The outer asterisk (not to be confused with the asterisk configurations I mentioned for the half-barrel options) would be solitary herbs, grown in 3gal or larger pots.
Here’s the actual half barrel on the couch:
*Edit: I cringe when re-reading and finding my mistakes. Oh well, I’m not doing serial-re-editing to fix all that mess; just this one little notice. You’ll know them when you see them.
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we grow parsley, oregano, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, sage, cilantro, basil and bergamot. I also have a large patch of white sage growing that is native to the region.
I’ve been trying to control the mint, my partner picked out pineapple mint a few years ago and now I’m just battling it every year of course.
I would love to grow bay leaves but I think we are in the wrong climate. I put in saffron crocus last year but only one bulb survived squirrel predation
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