Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses

Part 1

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CULINARY HERBS

Their Cultivation, Harvesting, Curing and Uses

M. G. KAINS

Associate Editor American Agriculturist

Ah, Zephyrus! art here, and Flora too! Ye tender bibbers of the rain and dew, Young playmates of the rose and daffodil, Be careful, ere ye enter in, to fill Your baskets high With fennel green, and balm, and golden pines, Savory, latter-mint, and columbines, Cool parsley, basil sweet, and sunny thyme; Yea, every flower and leaf of every clime, All gather'd in the dewy morn: hie Away! fly, fly!

--Keats, "Endymion"

NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUeBNER & CO., Limited 1912

Copyright, 1912 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY All Rights Reserved

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND

Printed in U. S. A.

* * * * *

PREFACE

A small boy who wanted to make a good impression once took his little sweetheart to an ice cream parlor. After he had vainly searched the list of edibles for something within his means, he whispered to the waiter, "Say, Mister, what you got that looks tony an' tastes nice for nineteen cents?"

This is precisely the predicament in which many thousand people are today. Like the boy, they have skinny purses, voracious appetites and mighty yearnings to make the best possible impression within their means. Perhaps having been "invited out," they learn by actual demonstration that the herbs are culinary magicians which convert cheap cuts and "scraps" into toothsome dainties. They are thus aroused to the fact that by using herbs they can afford to play host and hostess to a larger number of hungry and envious friends than ever before.

Maybe it is mainly due to these yearnings and to the memories of mother's and grandmother's famous dishes that so many inquiries concerning the propagation, cultivation, curing and uses of culinary herbs are asked of authorities on gardening and cookery; and maybe it is because no one has really loved the herbs enough to publish a book on the subject. That herbs are easy to grow I can abundantly attest, for I have grown them all. I can also bear ample witness to the fact that they reduce the cost of high living, if by that phrase is meant pleasing the palate without offending the purse.

For instance, a few days ago a friend paid twenty cents for soup beef, and five cents for "soup greens." The addition of salt, pepper and other ingredients brought the initial cost up to twenty-nine cents. This made enough soup for ten or twelve liberal servings. The lean meat removed from the soup was minced and mixed with not more than ten cents' worth of diced potatoes, stale bread crumbs, milk, seasoning and herbs before being baked as a supper dish for five people, who by their bland smiles and "scotch plates" attested that the viands both looked "tony" and tasted nice.

I am glad to acknowledge my thanks to Mr. N. R. Graves of Rochester, N. Y., and Prof. R. L. Watts of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural College, for the photographic illustrations, and to Mr. B. F. Williamson, the Orange Judd Co.'s artist, for the pen and ink drawings which add so much to the value, attractiveness and interest of these pages.

If this book shall instill or awaken in its readers the wholesome though "cupboard" love that the culinary herbs deserve both as permanent residents of the garden and as masters of the kitchen, it will have accomplished the object for which it was written.

M. G. KAINS. New York, 1912.

CONTENTS Page

Preface v

A Dinner of Herbs 7

Culinary Herbs Defined 11

History 12

Production of New Varieties 15

Status and Uses 19

Part 2

Notable Instance of Uses 21

Methods of Curing 22

Drying and Storing 25

Herbs as Garnishes 30

Propagation, Seeds 32 Cuttings 34 Layers 36 Division 37

Transplanting 39

Implements 41

Location of Herb Garden 44

The Soil and Its Preparation 45

Cultivation 47

Double Cropping 48

Herb Relationships 49

The Herb List: Angelica 55 Anise 59 Balm 63 Basil 65 Borage 71 Caraway 73 Catnip 77 Chervil 79 Chives 80 Clary 81 Coriander 82 Cumin 84 Dill 87 Fennel 89 Finocchio 93 Fennel Flower 94 Hoarhound 95 Hyssop 96 Lavender 97 Lovage 99 Marigold 100 Marjoram 101 Mint 105 Parsley 109 Pennyroyal 119 Peppermint 119 Rosemary 120 Rue 122 Sage 125 Samphire 129 Savory, Summer 131 Savory, Winter 132 Southernwood 133 Tansy 134 Tarragon 134 Thyme 137

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Herbs and Children, a Happy Harmony Frontispiece

Spading Fork 1

Barrel Culture of Herbs 2

Transplanting Board and Dibble 5

Assortment of Favorite Weeders 8

Popular Adjustable Row Marker 10

Popular Spades 13

Lath Screen for Shading Beds 16

Harvesting Thyme Grown on a Commercial Scale 18

Garden Hoes of Various Styles 20

Dried Herbs in Paper and Tin 22

Herb Solution Bottle 24

Paper Sacks of Dried Herbs for Home Use 26

Part 3

Hand Cultivator and Scarifier 27

Flat of Seedlings Ready to Be Transplanted 32

Glass Covered Propagating Box 34

Flower Pot Propagating Bed 35

Holt's Mammoth and Common Sage 38

Marker for Hotbeds and Cold Frames 39

Leading Forms of Trowels 40

Wooden Dibbles 43

Combination Hand Plow 45

Surface Paring Cultivator 47

Thinning Scheme for Harvesting 48

Center Row Hand Cultivator 50

Hand Plow 52

Prophecy of Many Toothsome Dishes 56

Anise in Flower and in Fruit 60

Sweet Basil 66

Borage, Famous for "Cool Tankard" 70

Caraway for Comfits and Birthday Cakes 74

Catnip, Pussy's Delight 78

Coriander, for Old-Fashioned Candies 82

Dill, of Pickle Fame 86

Sweet Fennel 90

Sweet Marjoram 102

Mint, Best Friend of Roast Lamb 106

Curled Parsley 110

Rue, Sour Herb of Grace 124

Sage, The Leading Herb for Duck and Goose Dressing 126

Holt's Mammoth and Common Sage Leaves 129

Part 4

Dainty Summer Savory 130

Tarragon, French Chef's Delight 135

Thyme for Sausage 137

CULINARY HERBS

In these days of jaded appetites, condiments and canned goods, how fondly we turn from the dreary monotony of the "dainty" menu to the memory of the satisfying dishes of our mothers! What made us, like Oliver Twist, ask for more? Were those flavors real, or was it association and natural, youthful hunger that enticed us? Can we ever forget them; or, what is more practical, can we again realize them? We may find the secret and the answer in mother's garden. Let's peep in.

The garden, as in memory we view it, is not remarkable except for its neatness and perhaps the mixing of flowers, fruits and vegetables as we never see them jumbled on the table. Strawberries and onions, carrots and currants, potatoes and poppies, apples and sweet corn and many other as strange comrades, all grow together in mother's garden in the utmost harmony.

All these are familiar friends; but what are those plants near the kitchen? They are "mother's sweet herbs." We have never seen them on the table. They never played leading roles such as those of the cabbage and the potato. They are merely members of "the cast" which performed the small but important parts in the production of the pleasing tout ensemble--soup, stew, sauce, or salad--the remembrance of which, like that of a well-staged and well-acted drama, lingers in the memory long after the actors are forgotten.

Probably no culinary plants have during the last 50 years been so neglected. Especially during the "ready-to-serve" food campaign of the closed quarter century did they suffer most. But they are again coming into their own. Few plants are so easily cultivated and prepared for use. With the exception of the onion, none may be so effectively employed and none may so completely transform the "left-over" as to tempt an otherwise balky appetite to indulge in a second serving without being urged to perform the homely duty of "eating it to save it." Indeed, sweet herbs are, or should be the boon of the housewife, since they make for both pleasure and economy. The soup may be made of the most wholesome, nutritious and even costly materials; the fish may be boiled or baked to perfection; the joint or the roast and the salad may be otherwise faultless, but if they lack flavor they will surely fail in their mission, and none of the neighbors will plot to steal the cook, as they otherwise might did she merit the reputation that she otherwise might, by using culinary herbs.

This doleful condition may be prevented and the cook enjoy an enviable esteem by the judicious use of herbs, singly or in combination. It is greatly to be regretted that the uses of these humble plants, which seem to fall lower than the dignity of the title "vegetable," should be so little understood by intelligent American housewives.

In the flavoring of prepared dishes we Americans--people, as the French say, "of one sauce"--might well learn a lesson from the example of the English matron who usually considers her kitchen incomplete without a dozen or more sweet herbs, either powdered, or in decoction, or preserved in both ways. A glance into a French or a German culinary department would probably show more than a score; but a careful search in an American kitchen would rarely reveal as many as half a dozen, and in the great majority probably only parsley and sage would be brought to light. Yet these humble plants possess the power of rendering even unpalatable and insipid dishes piquant and appetizing, and this, too, at a surprisingly low cost. Indeed, most of them may be grown in an out-of-the-way corner of the garden, or if no garden be available, in a box of soil upon a sunny windowsill--a method adopted by many foreigners living in tenement houses in New York and Jersey City. Certainly they may be made to add to the pleasure of living and, as Solomon declares, "better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox with contention."

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