Sweet Herbs
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| Exposure: | ☼ | ?"?" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property. |
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| Water: | ◍ | ?"?" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property. |
Read about Sweet Herbs in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Sweet Herbs. The term "sweet herbs" has long been applied to the fragrant and aromatic plants used in cookery to add zest to various culinary preparations, principal among which are dressings, soups, stews, and salads. At the commencement of the nineteenth century many were to be found in gardens and kitchens that now have been dropped entirely or have but very limited use. Perhaps no group of garden plants during this time has been marked by so little improvement. Except in parsley, very few distinctly new or valuable varieties have been produced or disseminated. This is mainly due to the prevailing ignorance of their good qualities, to which ignorance may be charged the improper handling, not only by the grower, but by the seller and often by the final purchaser. With the public duly awakened to the uses of herbs, improvements in growing, handling, and in the plants themselves will naturally follow, to the pleasure and profit of all. In this country the herbs best known and appreciated are parsley, sage, thyme, savory, marjoram, spearmint, dill, fennel, tarragon, balm, and basil, arranged approximately in their order of importance. Since parsley is more extensively used as a garnish than any other garden plant, it is grown upon a larger scale than all other herbs combined. Hence some seedsmen do not rank parsley with sweet herbs. Sage is the universal flavoring for sausage and the seasoning par excellence for rich meats such as pork, goose, and duck. It is more widely cultivated than thyme, savory, and marjoram, which have more delicate flavors and are more popular for seasoning mild meats, such as turkey, chicken, and veal. With the exception of spearmint, without which spring lamb is deemed insipid and the famous mint julep a thing of little worth, the remaining herbs mentioned above are scarcely seen outside the large city markets, and even there they have only a very limited sale, being restricted mainly to the foreign population and to such restaurants and hotels as have an epicurean patronage. In many market-gardens especially near to the large cities, sweet herbs form no small source of profit, since most of them, when properly packed, can be shipped in the green state even a considerable distance, and when the market is over-supplied they can be dried by the grower and sold during the winter. Probably more than one-half the quantities used throughout the country are disposed of in the latter manner. As a rule, the herbs are grown as annuals and are propagated from seed sown in early spring, though cuttage, layerage, and division of the perennials are in favor for home practice and to a certain extent also in the market-garden. Commercially they are most commonly grown as secondary crops to follow early cabbage, peas, beets, and the like. In the home-garden they are frequently confined to a corner easily accessible to the kitchen, where they remain from year to year. In general, herbs should be planted on good light garden soil of fine texture, kept clean by frequent cultivation, gathered on a dry day after the dew is off, dried in a current of warm, not hot air, rubbed fine and stored in air-tight vessels. For specific information, see articles on the following: Anise, Angelica, Balm, Basil, Caraway, Coriander, Dill, Fennel, Hyssopus, Mentha, Origanum (Marjoram), Parsley, Sage, Samphire, Savory, Tarragon. Also book on "Culinary Herbs," M. G. Kains. CH
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Sweet Herbs. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Sweet Herbs QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)