Herbs
All about growing herbs and some easy to grow herbs list, from the Have-More Plan
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
ED used to be a little sarcastic about my herbs - referring to my herb garden as "the weed patch." He claimed he couldn't tell seedlings from weeds.
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But since he's seen to what good use I put my few herbs and how little trouble they are, he has a new appreciation of them. Herbs really fall into the woman's department. For although herbs offer a fascinating and learned hobby and can be grown as flowers for beauty, for fragrance, for dyes, vinegars, tea and incense-making, the main use on a homestead is in cooking.
Although I've heard a number of women say their husbands didn't like herbs in cooking, I'm inclined to think that this is one of those preconceived notions that men have about food and ought not to be taken too seriously - especially,when they say it after a dinner they've relished where herbs have perhaps been used without their knowledge in poultry stuffing, soup, tomato cocktail, iced tea, and fruit cup!
I think the reason more of us don't use herbs regularly is because there is so much mumbo-jumbo mixed up in most herb literature just. as there used to be about serving wines. Once people discover, as they have about wine, that you can use any herb you like in cooking, then a lot more of us will use herbs. Of course, certain herbs seem to be "just right" with certain foods.
Any cookbook worth owning, even conservative Fannie Farmer, has something on herb cooking. Usually for the beginner it's too much to take in all at once. So, unless you're an accomplished herb-cook, I suggest you start your herb cooking from the angle of what's easy to grow in a small herb garden.
Herbs take practically no space, and, because most herbs don't need any complicated soil preparation, you can grow them without even bothering your husband by asking him to prepare the ground. Because you need only about a dozen plants altogether; you can probably plan your herb garden and dig it up yourself. Herbs shouldn't be planted in a wet place. A good mix for the soil for herbs is equal parts of compost and loam and double parts of sand - all sifted.
There is little reason for starting herbs indoors. After all, herbs are dried, and when drying is done carefully and the herbs put in screw top jars, they will keep easily from one season to the next. So there's no special need for an early start.
Herbs are propagated from seed, by cuttings or "layering," and by root divi sion. All annual herbs are best grown from seed ... many perennials too.
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