You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

The Herbal Husband and I set off for Miami Beach (specifically South Beach). My master gardening friends asked "Why?" Even when The Herbal Husband is on the beach, I can find a beautiful garden to enjoy when we are on vacation. So I was able to find herbs on the beach without being on the sand and near the ocean.

I was surprised to find a lovely herb garden at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden right across from the Convention Center and a 25 cent bus ride from our hotel. There were raised beds for vegetables, lettuces and herbs. I spotted chives and sorrel and both tomatoes and tomatillos. You see, when the temperatures are in the 90s tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos lose their flowers and do not produce fruit. As soon as the temperature decreases, vegetable plants can be planted and fruit will be produced.

There always has to be a beautiful rosemary plant. I am always so envious of all of you who can grow rosemary outside year round. The rosemary bush was no exception at this garden not quite as big as Peru, but really fragrant and sculptural.

A beautiful rosemary bush at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

I am also always looking for lemon verbena when I am away. This lemon verbena was not the largest I have ever seen, but it was what was on the herb garden tag that was different. There were small lizards everywhere!

Lemon Verbena and a surprise guest at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

Finally, I was thrilled to see a large cardamom plant, which is a seed that I have used in baking, but had never seen the plant. It is native to India and its black and green seeds are used in meat and vegetable dishes.

Cardamom plant at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

In Scandinavia white cardamom is used in baking. Cardamom is a pod that has an outer flavorless shell and tiny seeds inside that have the intense flavor. If unbroken, the pods keep indefinitely because it protects the seeds from deterioration.  So even at the beach when you are thinking sun, sand and tan, think herbs!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

When you think of Thanksgiving, I hope you think of all the good food, your family and your friends. (And maybe a little sage in the stuffing of your turkey.) One thing you don't tend to think of is Peru. About 26 years ago my adoptive mother was in the hospital so my friend and her husband invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner party in Peru. (That is how I met The Herbal Husband!)

Of course, Thanksgiving is not a traditionally Peruvian holiday, but The Herbal Husband loves to eat well! He also never passes up an invitation for good food! I do not remember exactly what the menu was we had to eat that fateful Thanksgiving, but I do remember that our hosts served wild rice. (They vacationed every summer in Minnesota and a capon.) Neither The Herbal Husband nor I have much family in our immediate area, so we usually are on our own for the holidays. Even if we are invited to a friend's house or we are out of town, we always have to have Thanksgiving dinner of own. Love those leftovers! We just cook a turkey breast since most of the time it is just the two of us, but I think as long as you aren't stuffing the bird, you can do this with a whole bird as well.  If you have to have stuffing, you could make a compound butter and place it under the skin of the bird for maximum flavor. I have included an herbal butter recipe below. This is the way we have found the turkey is the most moist and tender.

Defrost your turkey in the refrigerator as recommended in the instructions. I rinse the turkey in cold water and pat it dry. Make sure you take out any turkey parts and plastic bags from the interior. That has gotten me in trouble in the past! With the turkey breast you usually do not have to worry about that. Here is the recipe we have used for several years now.

A fall sage wreath at Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens.

Recipe for a Great Turkey:

• Roasting pan
• Stick of butter
• Can of cola
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, or more if you like it sweeter
• Salt, pepper and garlic powder
• Turkey breast
• Small lemon
• Small onion
• Full hand of sage, thyme, chives, oregano and rosemary

1. Set oven at 325 degrees.

2. Leave cover on the roasting pan for most of time.

3. Mix butter, cola and hoisin sauce, which you can find this in the Asian section of your supermarket, for basting in a 4 cup measuring cup.

4. Baste every 15 minutes until done.

5. Use salt, pepper and garlic powder on top of the turkey breast.

7. Place a small lemon, cut in half or quarters and a small onion in quarters, a hand full of sage, thyme, chives, oregano and rosemary inside the cavity. You may have to juggle the lemon and onion parts around to hold in the herbs. Again, you could make a compound butter with the herbs, lemon zest and butter and place it under the skin and then stuff your turkey as you usually would do.

8. We cook a 6 1/2 pound breast (unstuffed with stuffing) for 4 hours and it was perfectly moist. It may be more time than you think is necessary, but The Herbal Husband likes his meat and poultry well done!

Here is a recipe for an herbal butter I especially like:

Herbal Butter

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped (your choice)
• 1 clove of garlic, pressed

1. Finely chop herbs and mix into softened butter, add other ingredients.  Put in a covered container.  Refrigerate for 24 hours before using.

2. Herb butter may be kept refrigerated for two weeks or frozen for up to six months.  Put butter on vegetables, pasta, fish, meat, poultry, bread, etc.

Courtesy of  Pete Louquet, Tom Hamlin and Don Haynie, Spring and Summer Herbal Sampler, Raphine, VA:  Mid Valley Press, 1993, page 10.

You can easily double this recipe if you need more butter or butter spread and who doesn't especially at the holidays!

The picture at the beginning of this posting is not my handiwork, but a wreath from the Fall Flower Show at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens several years ago.  Life in the Gardens:  Frabel Glass at Phipps is on now for those readers in the Pittsburgh area.  A very enjoyable day for your family over the Thanksgiving holidays.  Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends from Lemon Verbena Lady and The Herbal Husband!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) is one of my favorite herbs. It needs to be used fresh though. When dried, it loses its flavor. I also love pineapple sage because it is definitely a wonderful fall blooming addition to your herb garden. The hummingbird loves it as well. I have not seen the hummingbird as consistently in the garden as last year. I think the cool summer has kept them from visiting as much.

A blooming pineapple sage plant.

Then came the true test—the Herbal Husband. I tested all three versions on him. We tried the jelly on an unsalted saltine with cream cheese. It doesn't sound good, but it gives you a very clear taste of the jelly. We decided that the rice wine vinegar and lemon juice jellies were best, followed by the white wine vinegar variation. They were so close in flavor though that any of the three were delicious!

Taste testing with pineapple sage jelly, cream cheese and unsalted saltines

Lemon Verbena Lady's Pineapple Sage Jelly

• One 12-ounce can of Old Orchard Pineapple Juice, frozen concentrate, reconstituted with 3 cans of water (It makes three recipes of jelly once it is reconstituted.)
• 2 cups of pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 cups of pineapple sage leaves, packed
• 3 1/2 cups of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, white wine vinegar OR lemon juice, your choice of one
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pouch of liquid pectin

1. Wash and dry the pineapple sage in paper towels, then coarsely chop it. Put the pineapple sage in a large saucepan, and crush the leaves using the bottom of a glass. (I use a food processor.) Add the juice, bring slowly to a boil, and boil for 10 seconds. Remove the saucepan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes to steep.

2. Strain 1 1/2 cups of liquid from the saucepan and pour through a fine strainer into another saucepan. Add the vinegar of your choice (or lemon juice), salt and sugar, and bring to a hard boil while stirring. When the boil can't be stirred down, add the pectin. Return to a hard boil that can't be stirred down and boil for exactly 1 minute, then remove saucepan from heat.

3. Skim off the foam and pour the hot jelly into four hot, sterilized (in boiling water for 10 minutes) half-pint jelly jars. Leave 1/2-inch (or less) headspace and seal at once with sterilized 2-piece lids. I just leave my lids in hot water not boiling until you need them. Can the jars in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

4. To use: I would use this jelly on thumbprint cookies, cream cheese and crackers for a quick appetizer and a teaspoon or two as a glaze for the last 15 minutes of baking chicken or pork.

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

We love to grow our own garlic. The taste is so much better than from the grocery store. 

Here is a variety called 'Romanian Red'. 

It is a long storing porcelain hardneck garlic. It has a hot and pungent flavor with a considerable bite. I never knew there were so many different types of garlic until I attended  the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, New York several years ago. It was just this past weekend, but plan on going next year if you are in the area. It is the last full weekend of September.

I am always looking for ways to use my rosemary plants before the cold weather comes since rosemary is not hardy for us. The comments from my last posting encouraged me to give you other herbal jelly recipes especially ones with rosemary. Since I do not drink alcohol, I like to make jelly with it. I have a pet peeve though when I am making jelly. If the proportions are not exact, you get an extra 4 oz. jar when you are not expecting it!  I have found that 1 1/2 cups of liquid and 3 1/2 cups of sugar makes four 8-ounce jars of jelly. If you have more of either liquid or sugar, you get that extra jar. So I have changed CERTO's recipe for Herbed Garlic Jelly and made it my own by combining a couple of different recipes. My notes are contained in the recipe.

Rosemary Garlic Jelly
Makes 4 to 8 ounce jars

• Water
• 1 1/4 cups dry white wine (I use Pinot Grigio)
• 1/4 cup minced garlic (I use a whole head, maybe more)
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon butter or margarine
• 1 pouch CERTO Fruit Pectin

1. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Boil jars in water for 10 minutes. Let stand in hot water until ready to use.

2. Mix wine, garlic, vinegar and rosemary in 3 or 4 quart saucepot. Stir in sugar. Add butter or margarine to reduce foaming. Bring mixture to full rolling boil, reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. (This helps suspend the rosemary and garlic in the mixture.) Bring mixture to full rolling boil that can't be stirred down. Take saucepot off the burner and add package of Certo quickly. Return to boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. If there is foam and there should not be much, it should disappear when stirred before placing in jars. If there is a lot of foam, skim it with a spoon.

3. Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with 2-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars in pot or canner and make sure that water covers jars by 1 to 2 inches. Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process the jars for 5 minutes. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.)

4. Use it over a block of cream cheese with crackers or put a teaspoon or two on a piece of boneless, skinless chicken or pork in the last 15 minutes of baking.

This is a great addition to your upcoming Halloween party. I have one more jelly recipe with rosemary in it, but I am tinkering with it. The cold weather is coming so I will be out harvesting the pineapple sage and rose geranium leaves next week for the additional jelly recipes I am making this year. More jelly recipes to share! Please stay tuned!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

We have had beautiful weather here in the western Pennsylvania area, and I have been INDOORS preserving the herbal harvest. We were part of a garden tour this summer, so I wasn't clipping as many herbs as I normally would have. Also, our summer has been very Seattle-like. We have had warm days, cool nights, and unfortunately my basil has suffered. The Herbal Husband wanted me to cut it and make jelly much earlier in the season. I am so glad I waited! 

So I took my basil out of its misery last week and started making scented basil jelly. The recipe is a tried and true favorite of mine from Renee Shepherd & Fran Raboff's cookbook, Recipes from a Kitchen Garden or Renee's website, Renee's Garden. It was also mentioned in the March 2009 Herb Companion article "In Basket." Here is a happy basil bed in Cleveland, Ohio at the Western Reserve Unit's beautiful herb garden at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

I love its jewel tone qualities. I made a box (12 jars) of lemon basil jelly and eight jars of cinnamon basil. I planted three plants of each varieties. Note to self: Plant more basil next year! I think it is so interesting that it looks like there is cinnamon in the cinnamon basil jelly because of its color!

I use this recipe as a quick appetizer. Spoon some jelly over the cream cheese and serve with crackers. Use it in the middle of thumbprint cookies or use it in the last 15 minutes of baking chicken or pork in the oven as a glaze. Herbal yumminess! I am going to be making lemon verbena jelly later this week. I use the scented basil recipe as a foundation replacing the basil with lemon verbena and the rice vinegar with apple cider vinegar. It works very well. I will be making herb vinegar next time. 

Scented Basil Jellies
Makes four 8-ounce jars

• 1½ cups packed fresh anise, cinnamon, opal or lemon basil
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• Pinch of salt
• 3½ cups sugar
• 3 ounces liquid pectin

1. Wash and dry the basil in paper towels, then coarsely chop it. Put the basil in a large saucepan and crush the leaves, using the bottom of a glass. Add the water, bring slowly to a boil and boil for 10 seconds. Remove the saucepan from the heat; cover and let sit for 15 minutes to steep.

2. Strain 1½ cups of liquid from the saucepan and pour through a fine strainer into another saucepan. Add the vinegar, salt and sugar and bring to a hard boil, stirring. When the boil can't be stirred down, add the pectin. Return the portion that can't be stirred down to a hard boil and boil for exactly 1 minute; remove saucepan from heat.

3. Skim off the foam and pour the hot jelly into four hot, sterilized (sterilized in boiling water for 10 minutes) half-pint jelly jars. Leave ½-inch (or less) headspace and seal at once with sterilized 2-piece lids. I just leave my lids in hot water not boiling until you need them. Can the jars in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Recipe from Recipes from a Kitchen Garden by Renee Shepherd & Fran Raboff, Berkeley (Ten Speed Press, 1993).

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

Several years ago, when I opened an e-mail address, I decided that I would not use my real name, but an herb. I had married a gentleman from Peru—The Herbal Husband.  It was easy to pick the herb—lemon verbena. Cedron is Spanish for lemon verbena. It was the herb of the princess (Maria Louisa, wife of King Charles IV of Spain). Don't confuse it with lemon grass. It is a plant of American origin (that is Chile, very close to Peru). It is a perennial in tropical areas that can reach to ten feet high.

It is a tender perennial for us in the north. We always have it on our kitchen windowsill in the winter. When you bring it in, it will play dead and lose its leaves. Use them for tea or in potpourri. I would only use fresh leaves in cooking. Once it is in the house, you should water it every week to ten days. Then in December, cut it back to about 3- to 4-inches. In February, it will resprout and by the time it is ready to go outside in May, you will have a plant a little larger than the one in the photo. Although, this one came from the ground this year! It is a miracle and does not happen regularly for gardeners in Zone 6. It is always very exciting when that happens.

Here are some of my favorite thoughts about lemon verbena.

• In The Herbal Home Companion, Theresa Loe writes that "In Gone with the Wind, lemon verbena was mentioned as the favorite cologne of Scarlet O'Hara's mother."

• "Can be used in place of lemon juice in hot tea and iced drinks."

• In The Best of Thymes, Marge Clark talks about using dried lemon verbena leaves. "I treat dried lemon verbena leaves like bay leaves. Since the leaves are rather coarse and dry. I try to use them whole-leaf so they can be removed at the end of cooking. If leaves are not or cannot be used whole, then chop them fine or, better yet, whirl in food processor or blender to make a powder. Fresh leaves are best for cooking."

• In Growing & Using Herbs with Confidence, Bertha Reppert talks about the history of lemon verbena when she writes "Housewives once sewed lemon verbena leaves into the darts of their Sunday dresses, replacing them when necessary—a fragrant, natural deodorant."

Here is my favorite lemon verbena recipe. I love the recipe because it can be made in my original Cuisinart machine! It is very, very easy! It comes from the March 1990 issue of The Herb Companion.

Lemon Verbena Bread

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon verbena leaves, chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 cup sifted flour
• 2 large eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• Grated rind of 1 lemon
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Glaze

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon verbena leaves, chopped
• Juice of 1 lemon

1. Cream butter with verbena leaves in mixer or food processor. I use my food processor. Add sugar and beat well. Then add eggs, salt and remaining ingredients.

2. Grease loaf pans—1 large, 2 small or 4 minis—and pour in batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes. I usually bake it in one large pan. Bake until bread tests done with a toothpick or cake tester. Meanwhile, prepare glaze. (I usually don't use the glaze. I'm giving it to you because every person's taste is different.)

3. Leave loaf in pan. While it is still hot, pour glaze over it and let sit several hours. Remove loaf from pan. Wrap in foil to ripen overnight before serving, or freeze immediately.

This is what lemon verbena looks like in the garden during September of last year. The flowers are insignificant; the leaves are why you grow this plant. Also, the clear and crisp flavor of lemon is a reason you will want this in the garden. Give it well-drained soil and full sun and you will be rewarded with a 4-foot gem.

So what's in an herbal name? One of my favorite herbs in the world!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

When The Herbal Husband and I said yes to a garden tour this summer, I had envisoned taking out a huge clump of tansy that was trying to control my herb garden. 

The suspect plants are pictured in the left and part of this photo.

Then I started to see signs of life—beneficial life at that! So much for jetisoning the tansy! As the tansy was growing and swallowing up more and more of the back of my herb garden, I noticed the ladybugs were moving on to the Russian sage. 

They were taking a small tour of my herb garden. The ladybugs were nowhere to be found on garden tour day. I was hoping to show them off to the visitors in the garden. Maybe because it rained, they moved under the leaves to keep dry. They were back in full force today with the hot sunny day and welcomed visitors in my herb garden. I have joined the Lost Ladybug Project and uploaded my photos to their website. They identified my little darlings as multicolored Asian ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis). So think twice and check carefully before you want to take out that aggressive herb that is taking over your garden!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

I'm always searching out herb gardens, herb lunches, herb dinners and herb plants when I'm traveling. Any combination of the above and I'm a happy herbal camper. (My idea of camping though is the Holiday Inn!) It gets a little annoying for The Herbal Husband. He has been known to find herbs for me to make me calm when I was frustrated by a bad travel day. When we were in the Loire Valley in France for our 20th anniversary trip, I found the most unusual herbs. Not because of what they were, but because of what was attached to them!

Yes, the French love their escargot and maybe if you add a little butter and garlic to the rosemary plant in the picture, it would make a wonderful dish!

I have fourlined plant bug problems here in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania and they are bad enough—but snails! In their defense, I must say that they have an attractive shell. I also found a snail on a fennel plant when we went to the Garden Festival of Chaumont-Sur-Loire.  

They used snail shells to make an arrangement in one of the exhibits. See? They do have a purpose in life!

I guess I just like my herbs without the snails!

My final story is one of the perfect rosemary plant or hedge! Rosemary is a tender perennial for me in the Pittsburgh area. There are many of you that can grow it all-year-round without protection. You are very lucky people! It is like that in the Loire Valley.

We passed this hedge many times while we were visiting our friends. On our last day, I asked if we would pass it one last time so that I could take a picture of it. I got out of the car and pointed my camera and the owner came to see what was going on. Our friend went and introduced himself and explained to him in French that I loved his rosemary hedge. He gave me a big smileand was very pleased that I loved his rosemary.

Enjoy herbs (and a snail or two) in your life every day! 

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

During my stay in New York City I was able to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens ("Herbal Escape: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens") and the New York Botanical Garden.

I went to Grand Central Station and took the Metro North train to the New York Botanical Garden. They even have their own stop! I really enjoyed the Home Gardening Center, which was very nicely presented and had wonderful lettuces, edible flowers and other spring veggies.

The Herb Garden was another intimate space designed by Martha Stewart and her team. It was very well proportioned and had benches so that you could enjoy the space. As an accent, bay (Laurus nobilis), the 2009 Herb of the Year was used as a standard.

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory reminds me of my own Phipps Conservatory in my hometown, Pittsburgh. There was a beautiful and colorful spring flower show. So fragrant and lovely.

Believe it or not I even saw a turkey grazing on the lawn!  Guess he or she knows a good thing!

So my timing was only briefly bad, and overall I had two wonderful visits to two of New York's favorite gardens! Visit them if you are in the New York City area this summer. They both have many gardening programs for the entire family. Get the next generation involved for their sakes!

To find out more about the Lemon Verbena Lady’s travels in New York City, read “Herbal Travels: New York Botanical Garden.” 

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

Timing is everything, especially when you are visiting herb gardens at two of the most well known gardens in the New York City area. I have always wanted to visit both the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden. I got my chance the last day we were traveling in New York City.

I started my day traveling by subway to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I had good news and bad news when I got there. The good news was that before noon, it was free admission. (And that's when I arrived!) The bad news?  It is was really bad...the herb garden was under renovation and would not open until this summer! Still, I took advantage of the time that I had. 

The Shakespeare Garden (above) is a beautifully intimate garden with all of the flowers and herbs mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. 

The next place I ventured was the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden (above), which has all of the classic elements Japanese gardens have.

One of my favorite views in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was the Bluebell Wood—and it was in bloom! This place is a very favorite area for all kinds of photographers and artists. It was such great timing for me to see it while it was in full bloom!

This was the most disappointing moment of my visit—when I got to the herb garden. They actually had it fenced off so I couldn't even get a sneak preview! Howeve, I did enjoy a few retail experiences buying those wonderful guide booklets that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden produces. So while my herb garden timing was not so good, my visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was a success on many other levels.

To find out more about the Lemon Verbena Lady’s travels in New York City, read “Herbal Travels: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.” 

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

The Herbal Husband, a friend from Peru and I took a train trip to New York City last week. I got to spend one of my days at the beautiful Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. In response to Letitia Star's blog, "Herbal Travels: Chicago Botanic Garden" (which I loved when we went on a cold, rainy and windy day in October), I would have to say that The Cloisters is my favorite walled garden.  Really, I probably should have been a medieval scholar or a horticulture major in college. I turned out to be an art history major and that has been very helpful in understanding the relationship between gardens and art. They are intermingled here quite masterfully.

The Trie Cloister Garden is home to a collection of plants native to the meadows, woodlands and stream banks of Europe. 

The plants grown here are found in the tapestries and artwork found inside the museum. The café surrounds this garden which is a very colorful garden in spring and by the heat of summer becomes a green garden. It was a restful retreat even on a cool day. I enjoyed the small sparrows drinking from the fountain.

In a monastery, a cloister is a square or rectangular courtyard surrounded by covered passageways. The yard enclosed within the arcades is known as a garth. The garth is situated to the south, providing the monks or nuns a place to enjoy nature without leaving the monastery or convent. The plan is typically medieval. A fountain is in the center of the crossed paths and divides the garden into quadrants. Each quadrant has a lawn and an apple tree. This garden is the ancestor of our ornamental gardens. In winter, the arcades of the cloister have glass to protect the tender plants from the winter cold and wind.

I loved the standards of myrtle, bay and the pots of dittany of crete.

I got to talk with the gardener who tends this garden. She was getting the garden ready to plant most of the herbs for the season. The plants are labeled in each bed according to their medieval uses such as cooking, medicine or magic, among others. Many plants had multiple uses and all were thought to have medicinal properties. The garden has raised beds, wattle fences and a wellhead. There are four quince trees at the center of the garden. Tender plants are grown in terracotta pots and moved inside in winter, a common practice in northern Europe throughout the late Middle Ages.

The Cloisters has family events going on during the summer. The other bonus of visiting The Cloisters is that you can visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art the same day for free. I took the bus and saw a slice of life in New York City. The Cloisters also has a blog called The Medieval Garden Enclosed, which gives an inside look at The Cloisters and its gardens. Hope you have a chance to take a road trip this summer and visit this herbal treasure!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

I thought I would take a break from stories about Peru. I was inspired by Taylor Miller's blog (The Garden Gnome), Giving the White House a Green Thumb. This was a lettuce bed in the early days of our kitchen garden BD (before deer). We also have rabbit fencing surrounding the garden now and repellents work for deer browsing. When we forget to spray the repellents, the deer remember to eat! (Learn more about repelling deer from your garden.) 

Whether you have one bed for your kitchen garden or many beds, herbal kitchen gardens are making a huge difference in many lives all over the world. (Learn more about creating your own kitchen garden this summer.)

Several years ago, I went to France with my husband to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Our English friends, who we stayed with in the Loire Valley, took us to the Château de Villandry. I thought I had died and gone to herbal heaven. It is breathtaking and spectacular all at the same time. It was the last great château to be built in 1536. After the gardens were turned into an English park in the late 19th century, the house and gardens were restored by a Spanish scientist in the 20th century. Thank heavens! The herb garden was placed in a separate location than it was in medieval times. I was really looking forward to seeing it but was disappointed–the herb garden was clipped so severely that I could not recognize my favorite herbs. This one is lemon verbena!  Doesn't look at all like it, does it?

We recently returned from a trip to England. We drove one day to Grafton Underwood and came upon this Englishman starting work on his allotment in early March. He paid 4 pounds (about $5.60) for his plot, which will feed his family and leave enough left for a donation. 

Last week, I did a presentation on herbal kitchen gardens for a local garden club last week–I wrote this ode and would like to share it with you.

Ode to Herbal Kitchen Gardens

The Greeks and Romans celebrated with bay.
The monks grew their sage and thyme and used them every day.
Walls were built around to protect the young herb plants.
The monks needed diversity and left nothing to chance.
The English used the front yard to start the four square plot.
The rosemary, kale and roses were raised and eaten on the spot.
The French made their potagers as pretty as a picture.
Then planted lettuces, marigolds and young fruit trees to add to the mixture.
Washington, Jefferson, FDR and Obama had kitchen gardens in their blood and some haved lived into the next generation like new edible flower buds!
So plant an herbal kitchen garden this very day and you will start reaping the bounty in every savory way!

Hope you are starting your own herbal kitchen gardens because, among other good things, it brings beneficial insects and wonderful, flavorful meals using all of the various herbs you have grown.

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

We continued our tour of Chaclacayo and literally stumbled into an herbal clinic and botanical garden in a residential neighborhood. It was called the Instituto Peruano de Investigacion Fitoterapica Andina, founded in 1983 by a Polish priest. It is a private, non-profit, scientific medical, health care and promotional association. It had a walled garden and was very secluded and peaceful. 

We had a little tour of the grounds. There were various animals around the grounds, including a tortoise, monkeys, birds, guinea pigs and rabbits.

My Spanish is unfortunately only the bad words, and fortunately, she didn't use any of them! I did understand some of the tour though. There were rooms that were right in the garden for the consultations and treatments.

No wonder  people returned regularly to this beautiful spot. Our guide told us that they treated many diseases, including cancer. All of the herbs were labeled and some were recognizable, including, rosemary, fennel, comfrey and salvia.

A tiny part of me was hoping I could get a treatment of some kind while I was there. We were lucky to see this true herbal paradise!

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

I enjoy my life every day because it is full of herbs and herbal thoughts.  Twenty-two years ago I married my Herbal Husband whose birthplace is Lima, Peru, and in 2006 we traveled there for a visit.

Peru is a magical place, but it struggles to survive on a daily basis.  One bright spot on our last visit was to the Agricultural School where our friends' two sons attended classes. It has a market each week where they sell produce and herbs that are grown by the students. 

Coming from a nontropical area of the United States, I am always jealous of how enormous some herbs can grow in tropical zones. In Peru, this particular rosemary was as big as a small car!  The students used it for propagation and would make a lot of beautiful rosemaries with it!

We then went to the foothills of the Andes Mountains and Chaclacayo.  A much smaller city than Lima and there we went to the central market and found the salsa man. 

He sells his homemade sauces and heads of garlic to the locals.  Yes, there are supermarkets, but the old traditions of the marketplace are still important.  The market is where the action is.  I loved his location because he was bathed in natural light unlike the other stands that had one small lightbulb to light their areas.  He obviously had the spot of honor in the market.  He makes red sauce, green sauce, orange sauce and the famous yellow aji of Peru made into a delicious salsa.  His salsas were in demand as you can see he was doing a brisk business.

Here is a salsa recipe that is typically Peruvian:

Salsa Peruana Aji de Miguel
(Miguel's Peruvian Aji Sauce)

Serves 3/4 cup
Heat scale:  Hot

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 or more fresh aji chiles, seeds and stems removed, minced, or substitute yellow wax hot chiles or jalapenos
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1. Heat the oil in a small skillet, and when it's hot, add the chiles and the garlic, lower the heat, and stir constantly to avoid burning the garlic. 

2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. 

3. Simmer for ten minutes and then serve over potato or beans.

Recipe courtesy of Dave DeWitt, Mary Jane Wilan, and Melissa T. Stock, Hot & Spicy Latin Dishes: The Best Fiery Food from Las Americas (Prima Lifestyles, 1994).

Hope you enjoy it!  Please let me know if you do!