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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 29, 2019 17:59:22 GMT -6
Wow! This website has a lot of hidden pages!
How did I miss this thread all the way from February until the last week in June?
Hi, Bon. That's a serious list of herbs!
I've been growing the same blue spearmint since 1992. I bought a start of it from an herb grower in Bixby, Oklahoma while I was wiring a paper machine at the Kimberly-Clarke Paper Mill. It was so good, that we've kept it growing through all these years, at two different locations.
I grow garlic, though no specific variety, and I also grow Rosemary and Italian Basil.
I used to grow all the herbs for Tahlequah City Hospital, but since they sold out to become Northeastern Health Systems, they no longer care what the food tastes like and started buying the canned stuff from U.S. Foods and other big box vendors. Since then, I've not planted nearly so many varieties. Plus, I lost my sense of taste and my sense of smell about 6-years-ago. (That really puts the kibosh on your ability to really appreciate the finer herbs and spices).
I miss being able to taste all those things.
Since so many months have passed, since February, how are your herbs getting along? Let us know.
What kind of sausage are you making?
Do you have any recipes?
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Post by macmex on Jul 3, 2019 8:58:18 GMT -6
That's really impressive Bon! Resourcefulness is an important trait for making it in this day and age. I always say that cooking is a foundational skill for living well.
Mint should handle wet conditions very well. It's so very hardy!
I have three strains of mint going. 1) A mint I got from a friend I've known since the 1970s. She retired in Owasso, OK and, when we moved to Oklahoma in 2005, we visited her. She gave us a cutting of her mint, which she so loved. This mint has hairless, large leaves and an excellent spearmint flavor. I lost track of it some years ago, when we moved our garden over about 15'. But last year I rediscovered it in the weeds along the road, next to where the garden used to be. It's in no danger of disappearing.
2) We have a small leafed wild mint growing along our creek. About 10 years ago I went overboard on making cuttings by pushing pieces of it into the banks of the creek. Now we have a huge patch of it. It has good flavor. Yesterday I observed that we have "rafts" of it growing with their roots completely submerged by the creek, which has not yet gone down to normal levels.
3) Hank Ballard, one of our Tahlequah members gave me some thornless blackberries, this spring. In their roots I found a plant of yet another spearmint. This one has darker, shinier leaves than any other I've seen. They're also large.
Here's a link to a blog I did on Cooking To Stretch Your Dollar
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 4, 2019 17:03:37 GMT -6
That was a great report, Bon. I always get uplifted by reading your posts. You have a real enthusiasm for cooking and growing your own ingredients, and it is highly contagious. (I like that). I need an enthusiasm booster now and again!
I currently have a sinus infection, straight from the bad place and can't taste anything again. I get down in the dumps a little bit about not being able to cook anymore because I can't taste anything. I enjoy cooking. (Though, I can no longer 'wing it' I can still follow a strict recipe), so I can still make things that other people enjoy, but it's just not the same as tweaking a recipe to make it special for the family to enjoy.
That's why I especially liked reading the part about you and your Son making the sour cream and chive, baked potatoes. That's what makes a family so special (good memories from Mom's kitchen).
My Wife has been making homemade ice cream, from leftover, frozen coffee that she saves each day. We have one of those old wooden ice cream makers that hold about 2 gallons of ice cream. We got out an old, heavy quilt and showed the kids how we used to do things growing up, Back when someone had to sit on top of the ice cream maker to weigh it down, so another person could turn the crank handle.
(Everyone in the family would get a workout by taking their turn on the crank.) That was what made ice cream so special when we were kids, not the fact that it was just ice cream, but the fact that everyone had a hand in making something special.
I've never understood why cooking is not taught as a 'Science' starting in grade school going right through until graduation. It's probably the most important art to master in your lifetime.
Everyone needs to know how to fend for themselves in the kitchen. Otherwise, we end up with a lot of people who don't know how to take proper care of themselves or their family and that results in poor nutrition.
Poor nutrition results in a poor quality of life. Without a fundamental knowledge of effective food preparation, everyone in the family suffers. After all, really good cooking is absolutely a Science, if you don't know what temperature accomplishes a certain desired outcome in the oven, or at what time to add milk to grease and flour; to make good gravy, or how to make a rue, or don't know the characteristics of sugar and starch, you might as well just move into the nearest McDonald's because that will be as good as food ever gets.
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Post by macmex on Jul 5, 2019 5:51:40 GMT -6
So very true about the value of cooking. It should be a required course of study for everyone.
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