Spring Salad Herbs

Spring Salad

The site of spring herbs popping from the ground in spring was a welcome site to people in the pre supermarket era who had little nutritive foods for months over the late winter. These spring herbs or bitters are packed with nutrition and can be enjoyed in salads. Looking around my yard I see tarragon, salad burnett, dandelion, chives and parsley, all of which can be chopped and put on a salad of greens that I buy from the farmers market. There is mustard growing now that would also be great on this salad. The flavors are great and are sure to interest your taste buds.

What herbs do you find for your salads?

Spring Herbs

Spring is a time of joyous anticipation, which in Colorado comes between major snow falls. Under that snow however, I know the herbs are starting to stir and getting all the moisture they need. Chives for me is the first sign of spring. I have a small clump near my back door and the sun shines there to melt the snow pretty quickly. I'll probably snip a few inches of chives to put in cream cheese to have with my bagel. They don't dry well so enjoy your chives now (or freeze some). Clary sage, mint and parsley are also visible at times.

At this time of year I am also thinking about what herbs I didn't have enough of last year so that I can plan to put more in. Among these are calendula, mint, lavender and rose. Calendula I probably use the most of in my skin care products. It is high in carotenoids which help skin cells grow to promote wound healing and help replenish the epithelial cells. This is always important but becomes more so as we age.

Given one extra year mint will probably grow quite sufficient this summer so I won't worry about putting more of that in. I make a mint infused oil to use in many of my products as mint helps to soften the skin and leaves a nice feel. I’ll be putting in more lavender of course, probably one to two more rows. Perhaps another rose bush, but again, with one more year’s growth my roses should be flourishing this summer. I choose my roses based on having high fragrance.

Here are some other things I've seen around the beds.
Sorrel is up, maybe this year I'll remember to make some sorrel soup.

Dandelion is always one of the first to appear. I'll pick a few leaves off these to add to a salad. They are quite good when young, especially among other salad greens.And here is salad burnett which I can also pick now for a salad along with what looks to be like calendula leaves starting to pop through.

Besides planning for this year’s plantings I like to go through what dried herbs I have from last year and use up what is left. One fun way to use up these herbs is to do a steam facial. Almost any herbs will work for this but rose petals, chamomile, mint and fennel are some favorites. Put a handful of dried herbs in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Hold your head over the bowl with a towel over your head to help hold in the steam. Let the steam rise to your skin to hydrate, clean your pores and relax your body. What herbs do you have to use up before you harvest this summer?

This is part of a blog party hosted by Cory Trusty. Who by the way is a Floridian so probably is doing lots with herbs right now and may not understand the northerners snowy spring! You can see what she is up to here:
http://aquarianbath.blogspot.com

My New Rock Garden

Over the past year we have dug into the raised bed against the back of the house to put in a hot tub and a deck. This left a large area of weeds - one of those "I'll get to it someday" areas. Well, my brother and his family visited us last week and my hard working sister in law wanted a project we could do together. Now when someone makes an offer like that I am smart enough not to suggest scrapbooking or going through old photos. Yes, I suggested moving heavy rocks around which worked well since she is younger than I.

First we (or rather she) pulled out all the weeds and moved some rock out of the area. We then put in the cut flagstone path that goes up to the water faucet on the back of the house. We already had the flagstone as well as the other flatter "moss" rock (its really lichen, not moss) from taking down a water fall by the garden pond that we had filled in earlier. We laid the various flatter stones into the ground leaving spaces for plants between them. This is an area I do not want to think about watering so that was taken into account when selecting plants. I also only wanted low growing plants.
Several types of sedum were transplanted from other areas in the yard. A trip to the neighbors yielded some violas and garlic chives. Then from the garden center I bought creeping thyme and Roman chamomile.

Some sand was used to fill in the spaces in the walk to keep the flagstone from shifting too much. Since this area is close to the faucet we put a stand to hold the hoses in the front.

I'm hoping these plants set down good roots and not too many weeds grow. It rained heavily after we finished and I'll make sure the new plants get a good amount of water for the next few weeks. I have a few other flat rocks laying around that I can use to fill in more of the spaces too.

Well, you'd think this would be enough for one person to do, but she insisted on weeding some of my other beds too. Thanks Angela, it was great to see you (and Kelly, Kyle, Emi)!

Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

I hate buying salad dressing when it is just so easy to make. Here is the dressing I made last night for dinner. It was very good and can be altered depending upon what herbs you have on hand.

¾ cup balsamic vinegar
3tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped chives (fresh or frozen)
2 teaspoons mixed dried herbs (I use basil and thyme)
1 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk all

This and That

Winter colds got you down? I will be presenting “Herbs for Cold and Flu” at the Advanced Family Chiropractic Center in Longmont on Tues Feb 10, 5:45. Call them for more information, 303-772-8311. I also sell several cold and flu products including ThymaFlu (an herbal mix for cold and flu) and Herbal Vapor Rub (chest rub for congestion and pain). You can see these products on my newly redone website at http://www.sagescript.com.

Need some last minute Valentine’s gifts? How about chocolate soap? It has the skin benefits of cocoa flavonoids without the calories. We also have Lavender Shea Soap, Rose Geranium Shea Soap, Calendula Oatmeal Soap as well as massage oils.

You can follow me now on Twitter as @Sagescript.