Volume 9, Issue 5, May 2000
The Black Swamp Herb Socity, with Gardens at the Wood County Historical Center
What’s Happening with Gardens & Group?
April Meeting:
Two guests: Ken Robb, Ida Dahlberg
A reminder about several important decisions that were made.
5 HP Chipper
Jean Gamble moved and Jean Coffield seconded that the chipper donated by Frances Brent be accepted. Motion passed. We need a vehicle to transport it to the Historical Center. We have permission to store it in the service building.
Civil War Reenactment May 20, 21
The group had earlier voted to take part in BG’s Community Day. Angela Bair moved and Jean Coffied moved that we substitute participation in the Reenactment. (The dates overlapped.) We are an important part of the Historical Center and the staff and board are very supportive and appreciative of our efforts. This will be a chance to showcase the late May Garden, give tours, work in the garden (working is known as giving garden demonstrations!) and talk to many people. Members are encouraged to add themselves to the shifts listed below. The more the merrier!)
Saturday, May 20
10 – 12 am – Frances Brent
12-2 pm – Harriet Rosebrock, Sally Halstead
2-4 pm – Marlene Long, Joyce Osterud
Sunday, May 21
10-12 pm – Sandy Hayden
12-2 pm – Nancy Seifert, Ruth Steele
2-4 pm – Jean Gamble, Ida Dahlberg (New member!)
Last year’s Reenactment was the first of what is likely to become an annual happening. There will be action all day long as the Reenactors go through their paces. There also will be a variety of vendors, including food. A competition of art projects is being promoted in the schools in connection with the event.
Look for publicity as date nears.
Ergonomic Program
Dr. Laurie Wilmarth-Dunn led the group in stretching exercises designed to keep the gardener from getting too stiff. The most important principal is to stretch to counteract positions too long held as we plant, weed and prune.
Angela Bair, an Occupational Therapist brought in a variety of tools adapted in common sense ways to prevent gardening injuries through repetitive motions and use of tools inappropriate to a task. Angela has handouts available. Main message – THINK !! My favorite tip: Tools with padded handles.
Next working Saturday is May 13. We will be working with soil amendments and getting reading for May 20, 21 visitors. Come anytime even for a short period.
Next meeting is May 22. (Booklet is in error) This will be a working session with you never know what surprises. Hostesses: Jeanne Turner. Joyce Mueller.
Cooking with Herbs
The first of the fresh herbs are coming in and the grilling season is beginning. Rubs and crusts can be rubbed on dry or spread more easily by mixing with a teaspoon of water or broth. Some suggestions from The Healthy Cook:
Traditional Herb Crust
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 gloves garlic, minced
Makes about 3 1/2 tablespoons
Italian Herb Crust
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind.
Makes about 5 1/2 tablespoons
Greek Herb Crust
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
2 gloves garlic, minced
Makes about 4 tablespoons
French Herb Crust
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
Makes about 5 tablespoons
Mexican Spice Rub
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Makes about 2 1/2 tablespoons
Thai Spice Rub
2 tablespoons chopped fresh lemongrass
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 gloves garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Makes about 3 1/2 tablespoons
Moroccan Spice Rub
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
2 gloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Makes about 2 tablespoons
This is one form of international travel that doesn’t cost much, cuts down on fats and gives you lots of healthy garlic.
From the Library
Two more books have been added to our library. The descriptions that follow are from the manufacturer.
THE EDIBLE HERB GARDEN
by Rosalind Creasy
Using herbs adds depth to your cooking, yet it takes experimentation and experience to learn which combination of herbs works best with which foods. The advice of experts is always a useful shortcut to culinary success. In this book, Rosalind Creasy combines her own expertise with that of several well-known herb growers and chefs to share wonderful ways to enhance food with the use of herbs. Thee are recipes for herb blends, pestos, beverages, appetizers, soups, and main dishes.
As with the other books in the series, there are complete directions for growing and harvesting herbs, an encyclopedia of culinary herbs that describes numerous interesting varieties and their cultivars, and luscious color photographs of herbs in the garden and on the plate.
THE EDIBLE FLOWER GARDEN
by Rosalind Creasy
The peppery, spicy, sweet taste of many flowers offer an alternative to salt and sugar as seasonings, and they certainly enhance the appearance of any dish – but don’t just randomly toss flowers into your food! You definitely need guidance to use flowers effectively and safely in cooking. Many flowers are poisonous, cause allergic reactions, or simply taste terrible.
Creasy offers the gardener a wide variety of flowers from which to choose. Her Encyclopedia of Edible Flowers contains 43 edible blooms with directions for growing and using them. Aside from discussing their general use as flavorings, she provides recipes gathered from historical documents, ethnic cookbooks, some of this country’s best cooks (such as Alice Waters from Chez Panisse), and her own experience. Many of the ideas are simple, yet elegant -flower butters, flowered canapes, and salads. A citrus dip with begonia petal chips or a pineapple sage salsa will dazzle your guests. Have fun with this one!
Book Mystery
We have a mystery. There is an interesting pile of books with herbal topics that do not belong to us. Has somebody quietly donated them? If so Librarian Jan Bingham will be happy to catalog them and add them to the collection.
Saxon Herbal
For the sickly, take this wort rosemary, pound it with oil, smear the sickly one, wonderfully thou healest him.
Scarborough Faire Seasoned Salt
4 Tbl. dried, crushed parlsey
3 Tbl. dried, crushed sage
2 Tbl. dried, crushed rosemary
1 Tbl. dried, crushed thyme
1 cup salt
Mix and package in large-holed shaker. Useful on meats, fowl, fish and vegetables.
So Many Varieties, So Little Space
Rosmarinus officinalis – the most common variety, this rosemary is a tender perennial evergreen subshrub. “Officinalis” refers to its ancient medicinal usage.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Prostratus’ – creeping rosemary. Excellent in hanging baskets, on banks, and in rock gardens.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Arp’ – an upright, blue flowered cultivar selected for its hardiness. Still not reliable in our area.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Augustiflius’ – also knows as pine-scented rosemary because of its excessive oil content and strong, piney fragrance. Not good in cooking. Grown for pretty, narrow-leaved foliage.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Golden Rain’ – a compact plants with blue flowers and yellowish foliage. Sometimes labeled ‘Aureus’ or gilded rosemary.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Pink’ -upright with shorter leaves and pink flowers. It has a Christmas tree form.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Brendon Blue’ – small slow growing with very dense, glossy, green leaves and traditional blue flowers. This elegant rosemary is suitable for container gardening and bonsai.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Miss Jessopp’ – a lavender-blue-flowered, vigorous, boldly upright variety that is excellent for topiaries or standards.
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Sissinghurst blue’ – exceptionally free-flowering upright, handsome and sturdy. Useful as a standard.
(Standards are the lollypop trees you see in decorators’ magazines. Stake a two year upright rosemary with a straight stem, remove and pinch lateral shoots. Tie with wool to a stake twice the plant’s height.)
Wonderful tales had our father of old-
Wonderful tales of the herbs and the stars-
The sun was Lord of the Marigold,
Basil and Rocket belong to Mars.
– Rudyard Kipling
The world’s great age begins anew,
The golden years return.
The earth doth like a snake renew.
Her winter weeds outworn.
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
“Lavender Blue Farm” has been added to our thank you sign in the garden. Thank you Lavender Blue and thank you Marna Conner for updating the sign. We appreciate our friendly sponsors.
Mint
Rapacious mints, overtaking gardens around the world, are beloved nonetheless for their cool, refreshing tang. Mainly native to far-flung lands from Europe to Asia, mints have been valued since he time of the ancient Egyptians as tokens of esteem, barter, medicine, or flavoring. In herbal lore, mint is he symbol of hospitality.
Because mints spread rampantly from invasive roots, they are ideal for container growing, which will keep them in bounds yet still produce an abundant supply. Grow different varieties in separate containers.
Although there are only about 25 true species of mint, natural and artificial hybridization has yielded several thousand variations, with much confusion as to the naming of all of them.
The different varieties of spearmint are the best for cooking, whether with various meats, beans or grains, soups, vegetables or desserts; or made into herb butters and vinegars. Peas, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes are particularly good with mint.
Mint I grow in abundance and in all its varieties. How many there are, I might as well try to count the sparks from Vulcan’s furnace beneath Etna.
– Abbot Walafrid Strabo
Down by a little path I fonde
Of mintes full and fennel green.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
Chicken Coop Crowing
Well, we don’t have building specs yet; no second round of bidding has started; the future still looks good.
Living in the present as we must and do here are some here and now changes.
A workcrew of two swept and brushed a winters worth of accumulation and spider webs away.
They went through and composted the piles and bundles of herbs from another season and another series of projects.
Many small – for the convenience of the moment- items have been added:
- paper clips
- marking pens
- rubber bands
- craft sticks of two sizes
- a pump of soft soap
- paper towels
- a pump of Lava soap for really dirty and itchy days
- box of individual water bottles
- a rechargeable electric trimmer
- trimming sheers
- additives for compost
- disposable latex gloves
- scissors for dead-heading
We add supplies with two things in mind- helping the garden and helping the gardener.
There are a number of clipboards, some of which have time sheets, job suggestions, additive formula. Members are encouraged to write what they have done in the garden and to make suggestions for things needing doing. Needed supplies should be listed. Individuals may make purchases and give receipts to Sandy Hayden, treasurer.
Decisions, Decisions
Our herbal calendar for May looks a bit overwhelming with Second Saturday workday, Civil War Reenactments, followed immediately by the regular meeting.
In May there are established gardens to be cleared primped and planted. New gardens that need to be planned and planted (and even dug.) Orphan gardens – no one has said, “I’ll make you mine,” to be kept respectable as other duties permit. Plants to be found or purchased as replacements, soil amendments to be mixed – after harvesting and sifting the compost. Did anybody fertilize the roses? Is there Preen on the gardens that won’t have new seeds planted? Have the butterfly bushes been cut back? Has anyone seen the butterfly weed yet? Will the tansy ever be controlled in the year 2000?
Just take a deep breath and pick what time and job best fits into your schedule. Things get done. Because of the composition of the group regularly weekly times have not worked out. OK, we are a creative group.
Individuals coming out solo, or with a friend have done wonders. Our working meeting nights seem a bit harried, but lots is accomplished. Even when turnout is rather low, the second Saturday Work Day accomplishes much.
Which brings us to the importance of maintaining the work sheets and job sheets in the Chicken coop!! Don’t forget our little roofed “mailbox” attached to the back of the Slaughterhouse. Valuable Reference Books in Residence!. Use them.
Return of black and white
Fashionable in “My Fair Lady“
Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done. (I remember vividly the year, inspired by Organic Gardening, we tried to grow zucchini on a vertical pole.
Well, it can be done, but the zucchini are not happy about it.)
The costs of our beautiful color issues turned out, on analysis, to be astronomical. Each color page, if done by Staples, runs .95 a side. Done on a home printer it eats cartridges like a Japanese Beetle feasting on a yellow rose. We are pledged to stay on budget and we can’t do it that way.
Any future color issues will be a present from the editor. Done, because it is so much fun! A form of self indulgence.
Growing Gardens
The ugly and dangerous tin house and surrounding debris have been removed, and Lynne, Jean and Wendy are now free to plan and develop the proposed Children’s Garden. Looks like pizza will be the theme. Thanks to Wood County Maintenance for prompt action.
Monica Ostrand, naturalist and prairie restoration expert came out and weeded the true weeds, did some replanting and in general restored order to the native garden. Watch for further low keyed surprises. (Oak-Savannah plants ARE low keyed.)
A butterfly-hummingbird plant mix has been spread on the area west of the men’s privy. This is another orphan garden. Won’t someone adopt?
In the Garden
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw:
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a bettle pass.
– Emily Dickinson
