Four to go! Four vegetables and herbs for the small garden!

Part of what I find to be the most fun about a small vegetable garden are the surprises one gets when they find veggies that are ready to eat in the late spring an dearly summer.

Egyptian onions – the top setting onions are one of the earliest plants you'll see growing in the

spring! You can harvest some of the green side shoots early on while waiting for the shallot sized onion at the base of the plant in the fall. When the stalks turn brown you can eat, store or transplant the small onion sets for another harvest the following year! If you have friends that also have gardens and they have there already growing, just see if you can borrow some sets from them for free!

Hot peppers – I generally make it a point to plant three varieties that will be mild, spicy and really hot by harvest time in late summer. This year I planted BananaRama peppers from Burpee, Portugal Hots and a few very hot Habanero's from local greenhouses. These peppers are all destined to be used in chili recipes and beef stir fry. This will be the first time I grown the Portugal Hots and I'll plan to do a report on them at season end!

Basil and Oregano – Here are two, must have, herbs if you like any tomato-based recipes like spaghetti or

chili. The basil is sown from seed while the Oregano was purchased as starts! The leaves of both can be collected and then dried for use all year round! For that reason, I grow a good number of these plants! A nice thing about these plants if the fact that bugs will often leave them alone and you can plant them in any odd nooks or crannies you might have as a fill in that is also quite attractive!

Dried basil is the best!

This time most every year, I have a decent crop of basil plants growing here and there. I always try to plant some for drying purposes since I love to use dried basil during the winter for both my chili and spaghetti dishes. Basil is one herb that retains its essential oils rather well over the winter time if they have been properly dried first.

My method of drying involves a simple process. I gather the leaves then cut them up unto small pieces with a knife. Note that I do not wash the leaves first! That would remove the very oil you are trying to preserve! Inspect them carefully and remove any foreign matter. Next I take a cookie pan from the oven, cover it with paper towels and then will sprinkle the leaf pieces evenly over the top. Over this will go a cooking drying grill that helps to keep the dried leaves safe from the winds. That done, all there is left to do is leave the tray in a sunny location for the day and voila, you have dried leaves that can be crushed by hand and then stored in a suitable container.

On drying basil.

My crop of Genovese basil is now reaching maturity at the end of July. This aromatic herb is something I use a lot of in cooking. I add it to anything that contains tomatoes, especially  homemade spaghetti sauce , a recipe given to me by a fellow blogger.

Preserving the harvest is relatively easy, especially during the hot days of summer. I just strip off the leaves and then place them on large tray on top of paper towels. They are then left in the sun to dry, a process that usually takes just a day. (I try and keep an eye on them especially if I know that there are storms lurking about. It’s very common down here in southwest Missouri to have them popup out of nowhere). More than once I’ve had a batch or two ruined by shower that snuck up on me!

After the leaves have dried, I then take them into the kitchen where I give them a shot in the microwave. (This is done on high for just a minute or so to insure that the moisture has been completely removed). I then let them sit for a bit before crumpling them up by had into small flakes. These are placed into an airtight jar for use later on. By doing this, I will have plenty of this herb for use over the fall and winter months.

When Mr. Basil Got Hitched to Mrs. Tomato

At some point in the hazy past, a marriage occurred between two unlikely denizens of the soil. My friend the basil plant somehow managed to win the affection of the beautiful tomato, a fruit that was at once time thought to be deadly.

Basil came on the scene relatively early in this history of man. It was first noted in India over two thousand years ago where the seeds soon spread to places like Egypt where it was used as one of the embalming herbs in mummies. In ancient Greece it was thought as a cure for the bite of a dragon called a basilisk and so perhaps that’s where it got is modern name.

The tomato, on the other hand is thought to be native to North America. The first records of its appearance were in Aztec records dating about 700 A.D. It got introduced to Europeans in the 1500’s and became an accepted addition to southern European tables from that time on. However, in the northern part of Europe, the wealthy thought it to be poisonous for two reasons; one, it resembled the wolf peach and two, by the effect it had on flatware. Let me explain a bit more about that. It seems that well to do people in that time used flatware made of pewter, which has a high-lead content. Foods high in acid, like tomatoes, would cause the lead to leech out into the food, resulting in lead poisoning and death. Poor people, who ate off of plates made of wood, did not have that problem, and hence did not have an aversion to tomatoes. The first written mention of the tomato in Italy was in 1544; it was often fried and eaten with salt and pepper. This is essentially the reason why tomatoes were only eaten by poor people until the 1800's, especially Italians. Gee could pizza be far behind?

The answer to that question is yes, exactly! What changed in at that point in history was the mass immigration from Europe to America. With this movement came a large blending of cultures. Many Italian-Americans ate tomatoes and brought that food with them. But also, and perhaps equally as important, was the invention of pizza. There is no pizza without tomato sauce, and pizza was invented around Naples in the late 1880's. And so the love affair with the tomato began.

Only in recent times was it discovered that when you bring basil together with sliced tomatoes or in sauces you have two flavors that were just made for each other. So, there you have it. The story of a beautiful, if poisonous lady who married a dragon slayer. A tale for the ages.