Sharon asks…
If I wanted to began growing my own herbs is their any recommended ones to start with, you know is there any basic herbs I should make sure I have?
You may want to get one of the herb samplers from e-bay to find out if you have an affinity for working with certain herbs.
Mugwort is an important one. I personally like hyssop too, but some people don’t like the smell. Roses are important for a lot of things, but roses are really hard to grow! Orris is pretty much the same as iris (from what I can tell) and then there is yarrow. Borage is good for bees and for courage spells. Catnip and dill for money spells. (Those two are really easy to grow.) Lavender is very popular for cleansing and memory, though I personally dislike the stuff. Chamomile is very good. Morning glory is used for binding spells (since it’s a vine) and is also a good incentive to get up early in the morning to harvest you herbs. If the morning glory flower has closed up then it’s too late and too hot to harvest your herbs and they won’t smell as good as if you had harvested them earlier in the day. Violets are very good to have but hard to grow.
I’m very fond of milkweed as a magical tool but I have yet to find it in any book. Same with lilac, actually, though I think lilac has been listed as something “calming and cleansing” or similar. You’ll start to get an instinct for this sort of thing after a while.
Joseph asks…
Answers on how to combine different already prepared foods cannot help me. I make my mustard from seeds, ketchup/spaghetti sauce from tomatoes, baked beans from fresh picked beans, etc.
I must admit I am amazed at the number of US recipe sites that comprise recipes that require little more than opening tins. Especially when using fresh ingredients are healthier and make cooking fun. I too make all my stuff from scratch – I cook and freeze surplus tomatoes to use as sauce bases, and cook my own chickpeas/garbanzos for making curries and hummous – the latter being far better then those that come out of a tin and way cheaper.
I’d recommend getting a recipe book that enables you to do a range of foods until you find ones that you like but don’t require hours of preparation. Also I find that the prep gets quicker with experience. One of my favourite authors is Nigel Slater who does a range of books and I use his recipes constantly because they are tasty, different and don’t take me hours.
I anticipate that you are in the US, if so you can get his books from Amazon at the site below.
If you want to try food from the UK, one of the best sites I know is the BBC web site which has an excellent search facility and different types of cusine, again see the link below.
Have fun!
Mandy asks…
It’s cheaper to grow your own from seed. We have lots of herbs in our garden, Mint,Oregano,Basil,Rosemary,Chives,Sage,Parsley,Thyme,Lemon Thyme,Lemon Verbena,Marjoram etc,some from seed but most from tiny plants. They require very little attention apart from weedind & watering & can be dried & put in jars or frozen straight from the plant. Do try it
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