Rosemary

Rosemary, like many of our favourite culinary herbs, comes from the Mediterranean region. However it is quite hardy and is grown successfully (to giant, bush like sizes) here in Vancouver. Many people here in Van grow it in their yards as an ornamental feature, or perhaps they choose it for its aromatic properties...
Anyhow, it is very easy to forage around here, but I don't see many people doing that. Probably that is because most people are shy to forage for food in urban areas. However, in the off chance that someone is not optimizing on an opportunity to forage for a delicious ingredient because they don't know what to do with it, I will give you an idea...

combine it with GARLIC!

I season roast potatoes, roasted pumpkin seeds, pastas and breads with this, and that is just the beginning of what can be done. Don't let this free culinary experience pass you by.

How To Trim Herbs

I'm often surprised when I ask someone who I'm cooking with to go trim some herbs from my garden, and they don't know how to do that. Then I remember that I had to learn how to trim herbs too, and I learned it from a book, so I laugh, and go trim the plants with them. Its funny how intimidating a small task can be without the power of knowledge.

There are several ways of ripping plants apart, but if you want to take some plant material while still leaving the plant in good form to keep producing more leaves, then you better listen up. There are three usual ways that I trim herbs, we'll call them 'snipping,' 'pinching,' and 'cutting off.'

Snipping is taking a section of stem, of any length, right above a 'joint.' A joint being a place where either leaves sprout from the stem or two stems sprout off. Snipping encourages the growth of the plant to be directed into the joint, resulting in longer stems and more leaves. Best for the beginning to middle of the growing season, or for slow growing woody stemmed herbs.

Pinching off is taking the top growing leaves, or the leaders. This is best performed at the beginning of the growing season and makes for really bushy plants, and the top leaves are the youngest and most delicious, a nice thing to serve to your favourite people. Can be used on green or woody stemmed herbs.

Pinching is also the way of taking leaves off of trees like this Bay Laurel, except I take the leaf from the bottom instead of the top because I want the tree to be nice, tall and thin, right now, instead of bushy.

Cutting off is the way to harvest green stemmed herbs like Parsley, Cilantro and even Arugula and Lettuces. You cut the stems an inch of two above the soil, and in a little amount of time they will grow back, this method is commonly called cut-and-come-again. This also the way I do my final Basil harvest, when the season is done and I want to make my last Pesto.

Trying to consider how plants will repair themselves afterwards should be enough to guide you in how to harvest from them.

Basil, the peoples favourite

It never seems like I have grown enough Basil, every year the demand far outstrips the supply. So I was happy this year when I discovered that I can start Basil from seed. Herbs generally are suppose to be difficult to start from seed, but that seems to apply only to "woody" herbs, like rosemary, thyme, sage, those hardy perennials that probably are considered difficult to start from seed because they would take a long time. Basil is a soft stem herb, like parsley and cilantro, and therefore (as I recently found out) fairly easy. Whew, that is a nice way to get tons of basil while saving money on starts. The key to starting seeds is to keep them in constant contact with moist soil at comfortable (for them) temperatures. I do that by keeping them inside until big, and misting them with a spray bottle.

I didn't really believe that it would work, so I started the Basil in an egg carton to save on soil. I don't recommend this because there is too little soil to get a good root base before you have to disturb it with transplanting.

To avoid disturbing the seedlings again I transplanted them right into the container I intended them to live in for the rest of the year. I had to move it inside and put it near a south facing window because Basil is a heat lover and in my area should not really go outside until the middle of May.

By June they were big and healthy and we were already grazing on the plants.  I continually harvest my herbs through the year by trimming off just the top few leaves, only taking large amounts once they start to go seed.

Because Basil smells so nice, and I think about things like that, I put the pot between my benches on my south facing balcony. Here the fairly simple yet delicious pesto I made once the plants started going to seed.

Herb Garden Pesto

Process:

Handfuls of Basil

Sprig of Rosemary

Clove of Garlic

Pinch of Sea Salt

Enough Olive Oil to gel

Stir into cooked Pasta, add Garden veggies if you have them