Little Known Facts about Common Culinary Herbs
In your garden you will have your culinary herbs, and growing them for use in your cooking will of course provide all the herb garden delights that you are looking for. But it is a little known fact that most culinary herbs have been for centuries, or perhaps even only recently, discovered to have many beneficial medicinal uses as well.
Fennel. As a herb, fennel leaves are used in in sauces for fish and in mayonnaise and is excellent to season pork roasts and spicy sausages, and the ground seeds of fennel are used as an ingredient of Chinese Five Spices and of some curry powders. However fennel is thought to possess diuretic choleretic and anti-microbial actions. The seeds and the roots will help to open obstructions of the liver, spleen & gall bladder, and therefore useful helping with yellow jaundice, and gout. can be used as a spice as well as a herb.
Dill. Its fernlike leaves are used to flavor some fish, such as gravlax, also soups, and pickles. However it is known that dill contains carvone, which has a calming effect on your digestive system. Romans considered dill good as a tonic and historically was used as a weak tea given to babies to get rid of colic and hiccups. Dill seeds are high in calcium and said to promote lactation in nursing mothers. seed like fennel is used as a spice, and dried dill leaves are used as a culinary herb.
Ginger is typically used as flavoring in cakes, gingerbread, biscuits, ginger ale and ginger beer and of course is an important constituent of curries. But ginger has always been known for its healing powers. In medieval times it was considered as a cure for plague, whether it was really effective for that has not been proved, however test have shown that it is effective in preventing travel sickness. There has been recent research that shows taking ginger tea will prevent migraine developing, will aid arthritis and even lower cholesterol.
Oregano is very important as a culinary herb, widely used in European, and Latin American cooking and unlike a lot of herbs dried usually has more flavor than fresh. However very recent research has claimed that oregano is better than any manufactured drug in the treatment of MRSA.
The Tea Tree
The Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), of all herb garden delights, although difficult to propagate, is one of the best herbs to have in your garden or to grow inside if you cannot provide the semi-tropical conditions outside. The tea tree is native to hot climate and acid, well watered soil. If your garden will not provide these conditions, then the answer is to provide space in a greenhouse or even indoors.
Asking what is the tea tree useful for would take far too long to answer because its oil has such a wide variety of uses with its antiseptic, antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. It was discovered in Australia, and used by Captain Cook, to make a tea by boiling the leaves. His crew drinking this would not be attacked by scurvy which killed sailors deprived of vegetables on long voyages. Of course long before Captain Cook arrived at Botany Bay, the indigenous Aboriginal people had known of and used the tea tree benefits for thousands of years.
Until your bush is three years old it will not be mature enough to harvest, but while you patiently wait for that you must prune it back hard in order to keep it small and nicely shaped. Most herbs do not like to sit in wet soil but your tea tree must be in soil that is always damp, but do not go too far it does not want soggy. Water it regularly and well, but never over water it.
As the bush matures it will flower, giving pretty little white rose-like flowers in late spring, and will produce seed. These seeds if collected and planted will provide new plants. You have waited patiently for three years; now the bush has flowered, the fresh leaves must be harvested frequently right through until late autumn, always pruning hard to maintain size and shape. Pruning is so important because left to grow on, a tea tree will reach 20 feet or more in height within a few years.
Your bush will stay healthy if lovingly given plenty of water and is dressed with some organic fertilizer every few weeks, and no matter how hard it is pruned and harvested the bush will very quickly recover. Being an evergreen your bush should be given fertilizer right through the year.
You may be one of the lucky ones having the right conditions for growing your tea tree in the garden, please remember though that if there is any chance of cold weather the bush will have to be moved to a warmer place to protect it. If you are not that lucky, do not despair; you can grow them in a greenhouse or indoors and it is easy and fun. Plant into the largest pot you can conveniently handle. Fill with non peat compost which must be acidic and rich in nitrogen.
The tea tree is ideal for growing as a bonsai tree because it will grow so quickly. The roots must be carefully trimmed, frequently and regularly and this will produce a small but beautiful knurled and thick miniature tree within a few years; which will provide an excellent ornamental conversation piece.
