Dirt Therapy

After a truly horrific day at work on Thursday involving broken coolers and hundreds of pounds of food thrown away, I knew I needed a little dirt therapy and stopped by Minnehaha Nursery. I was pleasantly surprised by their selection of native plants and vast quantities of herbs.  I picked up 3 large-leaf Italian basil plants, which is the only way to go when you want to make pesto: the larger the leaves, the less time it takes to pick them. Plus, the large leaves are easy to chiffonade when cooking, and look great in Caprese salad.

I also bought 2 cilantro plants, one flat-leaf (a.k.a. Italian) parsley, lemon balm, a Hot Portuguese pepper, and two Mulato Isleno peppers.  I've never grown or tasted a Hot Portuguese before, but the Mulato peppers are a type of poblano. They're called ancho or mulato peppers when dried, just to add to the confusion that is the world of peppers. 

Poblano:

Ancho or Mulato:

The ancho is probably the pepper we use the most when cooking. They're awesome roasted or grilled, then peeled, and made into green enchilada sauce, diced into pico de gallo, or sauteed with eggs for juevos rancheros. They freeze exceptionally well, and they have just the right amount of heat to go with any kind of grilled meats. The dried version makes for a mean chile or barbeque sauce, and in powdered form is one of the best ways to liven up any Spanish or Tex-Mex food.

But I digress, and back to the herbs we go.

The husband really loves lemon verbena, so to finish of the herb garden we made a trip to Mother Earth Gardens to pick up a pot. We like to put interesting herbs like verbena in our jams and preserves: lemongrass and blueberry, strawberry and basil, etc.  Lemon verbena is also great infused into iced tea and sorbets. 

Speaking of pots, Mother Earth Gardens participates in a flower-pot recycling program-rare and unusual around here.  All you have to do is bring them in and dump them in a giant white container! I got rid of three years' worth of pots, which cleared off quite a bit of space in the garage. 

We re-planted the sage, rosemary, and thyme which we had over-wintered in the house and I hope they really take off once they're settled outside. Since I like to mix edibles and ornamentals, I also bought a few 9-packs of giant red petunias-they should really stand out amongst the various shades of green of the herbs.

A little mulch, a little water, and presto!

An herb garden: