These recipes are quick and fun and can make a light supper or great appetizer for summer entertaining.
Sage Cheese Spread
1 cup dry cottage cheese
1/2 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated and at room temperature
4 tsp. chopped fresh sage (or 2 tsp. dry)
1 tsp. prepared mustard
Mix all ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.Store in crock in refrigerator at least 24 hours before using.You can place this in small crocks and give as a favor to guests to take home as well.
Dilly Shrimp Dip
8 oz. cleaned and chopped shrimp
8 oz. cream cheese
2 T. sour cream
1 Tbls. catsup, mayonnaise and mustard
2 dashes garlic powder & Worcestershire
1 cup celery, chopped fine
1 Tbls onion, chopped fine
1/2 tsp. dill
1 Tbls parsley (or you can substitute 1 1/2 Tbls Marcy's Dill Dip Herb Mix)
1/2 tsp. horseradish
Whirl everything in blender until smooth and creamy.Chill before serving.
Cultivation of Tri-color Sage Site: All sage plants like full sun with a light, dry, alkaline, well drained soil.
Propagation: Garden sage can be easily started from seed. All forms take easily from cuttings, rooting time is about four weeks in summer, I recommend using a cutting from a plant you like the look of for this variety.
Growing: Plant 18 to 24 inches apart. Prune frequently to attain bushy plants. If leaves begin to yellow, roots need more space. Sage can be grown indoors if you have enough sun. Lightly prune plant back after flowering in June. Tri-color is not allways hardy above zone 6, so depending on protective snow cover you may need to treat it as an annual.
Harvesting: During the growing season, singular leaves can be picked straight from the plant after it has reached 5 to 6 inches. Branches can be cut after it is 8 to 10 inches tall.
Culinary Uses: Sage has a very strong flavor. Its main role is to accompany onions in the traditional stuffing for poultry. It is also a wonderful accompaniment to veal and pork and goes well with sausage, kebabs and some bean and tomato dishes. Be...
Every year I scour the catalogs and websites of my favorite nurseries looking for something new to experiment with for a season.Sometimes it is an herb that dopes not grow well in Illinois and I need to prove that to myself.Other times it is one I have heard about but never grown.Sometimes it is a cultivar of a plant I love so I want to see what someone else has crafted into a new plant.When the Herb Companion magazine came up with a list of five plants to try in 2010, it got me thinking of my own list of plants to recommend.So here are 5 plants to try out in your garden this year.In the next 5 days I will give information of growing cultivating, harvesting, and using these same five plants.
Mexican oregano(Lippia graveolens) -While not actually a member of the oregano family it still possesses the requisite essential oils that provide oregano's heady, easily recognizable fragrance and piquant flavor. Mexican oregano has a sweetness and intensity that many gourmets prefer to the flavor of the true European or Mediterranean...
My favorite culinary herbs -- Greek oregano, thyme, dwarf lavender, winter savory, common sage, tarragon, and exotic mints -- have as many uses in the garden as they have in the kitchen. These are mounding plants that have gree or gray-green foliage and grow between 6 inches and 2 feet tall. All of them fit nicely among annual flowers, perennials, vegetables and even evergreens.
Here are some attractive mates to these and other herbs:
Annuals: alyssum, dwarf nasturtiums, calendulas, zinnias, and marigolds.
Perennials: coreopsis, purple coneflowers, and all sorts of dianthus, geraniums, and yarrow.
Vegetables: peppers, eggplants, and bulbing fennel.
Evergreens: low shrubs, such as germander, and dwarf forms of boxwood, myrtle, and barberry.
Maybe you don't want an entire herb garden but the flavor and look of herbs appeals to you.... Then here are some tips you can use for incorporating herbs into a floral landscape.
.
Mounding Habit
Herbs with small green-to-gray-green leaves and a mounding habit-namely, Greek oregano, sweet marjoram, French thyme, creeping winter savory, common sage, tarragon, and spearmint-work well as background plants that complement brighter colored flowers.
.
Color and Texture plants
sfdgsfdg
Herbs with unusual colors and forms-such as common chives, with its tubular, grasslike foliage and lavender flowers, and Chinese chives, which has straplike leaves and white flowers-make showy accent plants. I'm especially partial to one of their relatives: society garlic, which has straplike leaves and bears tall spikes of lavender flowers from May through October. This plant is bulletproof in my Los Altos, California, garden (USDA Zone 9), and its flowers taste great in salads. I also gravitate toward the ornamental sages 'Icterina,' 'Tricolor,' and 'Purpurascens', which make lovely stand-alone plants .
Not all perennial herbs are good in containers.Some grow too large or too vigorously for the confining space.Others do well in a pot or window box.
When choosing perennials for the container, try dwarf varieties or hybrids which generally have all the flavor and scent of the original cultivar, but often have a more decorative leaf and generally a smaller growing habit.
Here are a few of my most favorite:
Tricolor Sage -- a smaller version of sage with a variegated leaf of gold and green with a red stem that has smaller leaves and a less woody stem.Nice in a large window box or as a focal point in a round pot.If you are planting it in a container 12 to 18 inches in diameter, you must plant it alone as it will have a large root system that will choke out other plants if the pot is too small.They are shorter, growing only 8 to 10 inches the first year.
Prostrate Rosemary – Usually the genus name is Rosmariius Irene, long arms with flexible stems and a habit that causes it to fall over...
