The Joy Of Using Fresh Herbs

My love of growing herbs began back in the early nineties. 


I was part of a women's group called The Herb Society. 

Once per month, we'd meet and learn about herbs. Designated members would bring a tasty recipe containing herbs for us to enjoy after the meeting.

I recall once we drove out of town to an herb festival. It was great to get together. We became friends, brought about by our mutual love of herbs.

Herbal Treasures, written by Phyllis V. Shaudys, is my very favorite book I happened to purchase at one of the herb group meetings. 

The one you see above is not my original copy. I believe I wore the first one out. I ordered this one from some obscure place online because I wanted another copy.

This book introduced me to tussie-mussies. Or "talking bouquets."

I found an herb tussie-mussie on Pinterest to show you. (Unfortunately, when I clicked through to the website, they no longer had it on the site.)

(Source)

This is a black and white book unfortunately. No wonderful colored photos. Still, it is chock-full of great information.

This book was also my introduction to aromatherapy. 

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For lunch yesterday, I had a baked potato with fresh chives. So nice to just go out on the patio and snip chives for my potato.

Chives

In general these days, life is fairly immediate. In terms of social media, texting, etc. 

We no longer have to own dictionaries or encyclopedias. Everything is right at our fingertips on Google.

Pineapple Sage

 Chocolate Mint

Herbs and flowers are many things to me.

Whenever I've lost a beloved pet, I plant a memory garden in their honor. 

I choose herbs/flowers to describe my love for that pet. For instance, rosemary for remembrance. Chamomile for comfort.

The Language Of Flowers...

Floriography is the "language of flowers," dating back to Victorian times.

It allowed people to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken, through their choice of flowers.

Sounds so old-fashioned, doesn't it? Well, it is. But it's also wonderful.

From the 1855 book Flora’s Dictionary. (Photo: Mann Library/CC BY 2.0)

Here's an article about how flower-obsessed Victorians encoded messages in bouquets.

Using herbs enables all the senses: Sight, smell, touch. Rub the leaf of pineapple sage and you will be rewarded with a gift that is, for me, truly glorious and unlike any other.

Growing herbs gives me joy in so many ways. I have planted wagon wheel herb gardens using bricks as spokes, herb container gardens, herb fairy gardens, etc.  

You can find many of these gardens described in the book.

Getting Unplugged...

So in this era of immediacy, I like to get unolugged from all things electronic and go out to my patio. 

I sit and listen to the birds. Watch the hummingbirds and butterflies gather around my herbs and flowers. They enjoy them as much as I do.

It is the ultimate in relaxation and contentment. A simple gift we give ourselves that just keeps on giving.