A Love of Herbs

My love for herbs began many years ago when I became interested in natural remedies and decided to do a correspondence course in herbal studies. The course involved the study of a wide range of herbs, their healing properties, and how to make herbal medicines and treatments. While studying the course, I got a job at Weleda NZ Ltd., a manufacturer of natural and herbal medicines and body care products. I worked in the despatch department, picking and packing orders and invoicing, and occasionally helped out in other departments, including a brief stint in the manufacturing department where I had hands-on experience in the making of the herbal medicines. It was a lovely place to work, surrounded by biodynamic gardens of healing herbs.

Weleda homestead

After working at Weleda for six years, I left to pursue my dream of a writing career, but my love of herbs continued in my garden at home. I grow herbs to use in cooking, herbs for healing, and some just for their beauty, and for the folklore and magic associated with them.

Whenever I feel a sore throat coming on, I make an infusion of sage and thyme and gargle with it several times a day.

Thyme

The sage is lovely in stuffing balls at Christmas time.

Sage

To help relieve congested sinuses from a cold, I put a few sprigs of rosemary in a bowl of boiled water, cover my head with a towel, then lean over the bowl and breathe in the aromatic steam. I use rosemary a lot in cooking – rosemary shortbread, rosemary focaccia bread, rosemary roast potatoes, or a few sprigs thrown on the barbecue.

Rosemary

I add a few fresh leaves of stevia, the sugar herb, to fruit when stewing, to replace sugar. This year I’m going to dry the leaves and grind them into a powder to use in baking.

Stevia

Borage is a good companion plant for my strawberries, and it helps to attract the bees.

Borage

Lavender is also a great bee plant. I use it in herbal crafts, and often pick a few sprigs to keep in a vase on the kitchen bench.

Lavender

I keep a pot of Aloe Vera on hand in case of burns.

Aloe Vera

Foxgloves just because they are one of my favourite flowers, and I love the folklore that surrounds them.

Foxgloves

The leaves of lemon balm have the most beautiful lemony scent and possess many healing properties.

Lemon Balm

I use garlic chives a lot in cooking, and their flowers are so pretty.

Garlic Chives

I use basil, parsley and mint a lot in cooking, too. The smell of minted potatoes always reminds me of holidays with my grandparents. It’s nice to be able to go outside and pick herbs fresh from the garden whenever you want to add them to a dish.

Mint

Anise Hyssop is another great bee plant. It is also very pretty and I love the aniseed fragrance of the leaves.

Anise Hyssop

Feverfew and calendulas self-seed throughout our garden.

Feverfew

Calendula

I used to love the mass plantings of echinaceas in the summers when I worked at Weleda. They are used in their medicines to support the immune system and to treat infections.
This year I grew my own echinaceas.

Echinacea

Echinaceas

I am also growing bay, arnica, angelica, and comfrey, but they are only small at the moment.

Garden Journal – January

This month has been busy harvesting foods from the garden and making jams and preserves from local fruit. We have been picking our runner beans regularly throughout the month and started picking our tomatoes the last week of the month. The tomatoes are from a packet of heirloom tomato seeds that I planted, so it has been fun to see what they turn out like, with the tomatoes evolving into an interesting variety of shapes and sizes. I have continued to plant beetroot, carrots and spring onions for an ongoing supply into the autumn.

Harvest from our garden

I had a go at making blueberry jam but it was a bit of a flop as it didn’t set properly. Apparently blueberry jam is tricky to get right. However, it will no doubt get eaten as toppings for desserts etc.

One of my favourite fruits, Black Doris plums, came into season at the end of the month. We found an organic orchard that sell them, not far from where we live, and bought loads to make jams and preserves. The Black Doris jam was a success, and there are plenty of plums left over to make desserts as well as stewed plums to have with our breakfast cereal.

I have continued to make zucchini slices and loaves for the freezer. The one zucchini plant has been providing us with an ongoing supply. I also bottled nectarines and beetroot. This is the first year we have grown our own beetroot and we have been enjoying it roasted and with salads. It’s great that it is so easy to grow, as beetroot is highly nutritious, high in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants, and good for the heart. My new favourite cake is Red Velvet Beetroot cake. There are many variations on Red Velvet Cake, some using red food colouring and some using beetroot. I have adapted the recipes to make my own version  – see below.

There are lots of herbs flowering in our garden at the moment. The blue and purple flowers are very pretty and are good for encouraging bees to the vegetable garden.

Red Velvet Beetroot Cake

This is a moist cake. If it is a little gooey in the middle, don’t worry, it will be all the more delicious!

250g cooked beetroot, grated
3 eggs, beaten
1 ¾ cups raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
250ml vegetable oil
1 cup white flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 180º C.

Beat together eggs and sugar. Mix in vanilla, oil and beetroot until well combined. Add sifted flours, baking powder and cocoa to mixture and mix well. Pour batter into cake tin.

Bake for 45 minutes. Cool and spread with chocolate vanilla cream cheese icing.

Chocolate Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing

2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 tablespoon butter or non-dairy spread, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 ½ cups icing sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter together. Add vanilla. Sift in cocoa powder and icing sugar and mix until smooth and creamy.