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!

Like many herb lovers out there, I’ve started drying my herbs so I can enjoy summer flavors during cold months to come. I’m crazy about one her in particular: basil. I can only pick so many basil leaves to dry before I give up and take a few to the cutting board to cook with. The smell of freshly picked basil always reminds me of cooking in Italy.

This is where my roommate and I would buy all of our mushrooms in Florence during my study abroad program in Florence, Italy.

One of my favorite recipes I learned while living in Florence, Italy is for Stuffed Mushroom Caps. My roommate and I would always buy too many mushrooms at the fresh market so we decided to come up with this recipe. It used all of our favorite ingredients: basil, garlic and of course mushrooms! Some nights we would substitute mushroom caps for cherry tomatoes and adapt the recipe to include Italian sausage.

Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Makes 26 to 28 servings

• 26-28 white mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons basil, chopped
• 1½ tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
• 1½ to 2 garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (other substitutes include Romano or Asiago cheese)
• ½ cup dried breadcrumbs (preferably Italian-style)
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (an additional tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil will be used to drizzle the baking sheet with)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While the oven preheats, stem all of the mushrooms.

2. Chop the basil cloves and Italian parsley and peal and mince the garlic cloves. Put these herbs in a mixing bowl.

3. Grate the Parmesan cheese and add it to the mixing bowl.

4. Mix in the dried breadcrumbs and the extra-virgin olive oil by stirring the ingredients together with your hands.

5. Stuff the caps with the breadcrumb mixture until there is a slight dome above the mushroom. Place the stuffed mushroom caps on the baking sheet and pop them into the oven for roughly 25 to 30 minutes, or until the breadcrumb mixture is golden brown.   

Do you cook with mushrooms? Share a few of your favorite recipes with us and your recipe could appear online! E-mail snelson@ogdenpubs.com.

Additional mushroom featured recipes:
Stuffed Shiitake 
Baked Polenta with Italian Sausage, Mushrooms and Three Cheeses 
Mushroom Caviar Stuffing 

Additional Italian recipes:
Cooking with KC: Italian Pasta 
Italian-Style Pesto 
Italian Pesto Cheese Torta

Summertime is the season for weddings, vacations and family reunions. This can mean lots of traveling. But for me, the stress of traveling, along with unhealthy eating and germ-infested airplanes often leaves me exhausted or sick.

Try these tips to stay healthy while traveling this summer.

Use herbs to stay healthy while traveling.
Photo By Ferran/ Courtesy Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/ferran-jorda/ 

Traveling Problem #1: Jet Lag

The symptoms of jet lag – fatigue, irritability and disorientation – are caused by your body trying to reset its internal clock to a different schedule.

Try to avoid jet lag by staying hydrated and flying during the day, if possible. Once you arrive at your destination take a walk and try to go to sleep on your local schedule. The next morning, get as much sunshine as possible. Sunlight works to reset your biological clock.

Also try eleuthero or melatonin to prevent jet lag. Take ½ to 1 teaspoon of eleuthero liquid extract three times a day, three days before traveling and three days after the flight. Or take a 1-mg tablet of melatonin one hour before bed for several days after your arrival.

Traveling Problem #2: Motion Sickness

Try ginger to combat nausea associated with motion sickness. Take 500 to 1,000 mg of powdered ginger 30 minutes before traveling, followed by 500 mg every couple of hours. Or chew on a yummy piece of crystallized ginger as needed.

Traveling Problem #3: Colds and Flu

Traveling can mean coming into contact with lots of germs. Take preventative measures such as washing your hands regularly and eating healthy.

If you still start feeling sick, try echinacea and elderberry extract. This can help prevent and treat respiratory infections. Echinacea boosts the immune system and elderberry disarms virus cells. When you first feel yourself starting to get sick take ½ teaspoon of echinacea extract and ½ teaspoon of elderberry extract five times a day.

Also try to amp up your garlic intake to boost your immune system before traveling.

What are your tips for staying healthy when traveling? Leave me a comment and tell me about them!

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! 

On an evening excursion to downtown Chicago last weekend, I stumbled upon a fabulous find. The Lurie Garden at Millennium Park is a well-known tourist attraction to both Chicago residents and visitors. But shrouded in the dark of night, it felt like my own secret garden.

I drove to Chicago for a wedding that went from early Friday to late Saturday, so Sunday evening was my time to explore. After bumping along through hours of construction and traffic, I was grateful to find a tranquil place where noise and distraction couldn’t find me. Even though the street musicians were amazing and the Chicago Blues Festival was raging, I needed a silent break.

Photo by Hometown Invasion Tour/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hometowninvasion

I’m not sure whether I was in the “dark plate,” where the darker, lush plants were, or the “light plate,” which had more colorful vegetation. But after hours of examining GPS screens and reading street signs, the last thing I wanted to do was read a map to find out. I just wanted to explore. I didn’t even want to wrench myself from the moment long enough to take pictures, not that I could have seen much in the dark.

Photo by Zolk/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zolk/

Next time I hope to go a little earlier before sunset so that I can not only take more photos, but also read the placards with plant listings and go for a guided tour. Lurie Garden also offers an interesting lecture series covering topics from sustainable strategies to natural lawn care and workshops that give a closer look at the perennial garden. The only vegetation I could actually see was great plumed grass and foxglove. I never thought of myself as a “city girl” because I’ve never lived in a big city, but the fact that I could identify only a few of the plants has put me to shame.

That’s another benefit urban gardens provide. Not only do they contribute to urban revitalization, decrease climate change and provide free entertainment, but they also give us the knowledge of plants that we lost when we started moving away from nature. I love Chicago’s motto, “Urbs in Horto.” It certainly was the “City in a Garden,” I just wish more cities were.

Photo by Ariel Tilson

I don’t know if I’d enjoy a walk through the Lurie Garden in the daytime as much as this first time. I want to selfishly keep my experience to myself. The moonlit stroll through Lurie Garden felt so romantic and private, that is, until the security guards chased me out to lock up for the night.

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.” 

How can an herb festival in a town of 26,000 draw a crowd that’s well over 20,000 strong? To know the answer to that question, you’ll have to contact Mary Anne Potter, founder of the event that has been growing since 1993.

The festival is held the first Saturday of June, and is hosted by the Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Garden Club. I was fortunate enough to be in Ponca City, Oklahoma, (about four hours to the south of our offices here in Topeka, Kansas) for the weekend and was happy to visit the festival and meet Mary Anne.

Photo of Mary Anne

The event is held on the grounds of the Cann Memorial Botanical Gardens, a 10-acre historical botanical garden located in Ponca City and donated by Elsie Cann Brown, in honor of her mother, Mary Cann, who loved gardening. I couldn’t help but think, as I walked through the truly lovely, peaceful gardens, that a daughter couldn’t pay a better homage to her mother than this.

Photo by Adam Gault, Oklahoma Today Magazine

The nicely displayed booths were full of plants, potting sheds, quilts, herbal vinegars, soaps, bird houses, (I bought one for a wedding present and now wish I had gotten several more) baskets and more from nearly 100 vendors who came from throughout the region.

I wasn’t able to attend any of the educational seminars that accompany the festival, but they sound enticing and are held in the beautiful, historic Cann home on the garden’s grounds (which the event’s proceeds help support).

I liked so much about this event. First, it made people happy—you could see it on the faces of people stopped at the booths, on the sidewalks, and especially on people schlepping plants and packages back to their cars—and that’s a great thing, especially these days.

I also loved that it is a truly heartfelt celebration of herbs and gardening, maintained year after year by Mary Ann Potter and her energetic cohort in the Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Garden Club. And I loved that it was an event of which the Ponca City community is justifiably proud.

Photo by Adam Gault, Oklahoma Today Magazine

The sense of civic involvement and appreciation was practically palpable there, and I think that’s a factor we often leave out in thinking of such events. It isn’t just about the herbs (although thank-you-thank-you-thank-you for that), it’s about the community and that amazing web of connections that are formed, challenged and (mostly) strengthened by such huge undertakings.

We hope you’ll let the world know about your herb or gardening event through our online calendar, available here (or by checking the homepage www.herbcompanion.com and scrolling down the left side to “Calendar Events” in the “Herb Basics” box).

And if you hear of such an event in your community, let us know. Then be sure to attend. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Culinary herbalist, cookbook author, writer and food photographer, Pat Crocker is passionate about food and herbs. Visit her at www.riversongherbals.com.

How should I communicate the joy, peace, friendship, grace and love I experienced at the recent Herb Society of America Educational Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan?

With few words and many pictures.

The annual event represents for me, an opportunity to spend time in beautiful gardens with some of the country's most experienced gardeners, chefs, artists, writers and botonists. At the two-day conference we learn from each other, from intensive seminars, from workshops and from touring gardens.

This year, we visited some public and private gardens in beautiful Michigan. As always we were greeted with warmth and enthusiasm.

On both the pre- and post-conference garden tours, there were both quiet and secret places for humans

…and birds.

There were serious teaching gardens..

…and there were places of pure whimsey.

We saw cottage gardens...

…Asian-inspired gardens...

…and the 4-H Children's Garden at MSU.

We ate..

…and we drank.

And as always, the herbs were in focus.

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!

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden while visiting St. Louis. The 79-acre national landmark features a beautiful display of flowers, herbs and plants from across the world, including an amazing orchid garden, a Japanese strolling garden, a geodesic dome, an arid-climate garden, a Victorian garden (complete with hedge maze), a rose garden and even an iris garden.

The first stop on the tour, conveniently located near the restrooms, was the orchid garden. Lately, I have become fascinated with orchids. Right now, I have a 4-foot moth orchid (Phalaenopsis amabilis) and a jungle monarch orchid (Oncidium maculatum), both of which are doing surprisingly well. However, neither of them are nearly as exotic as some of the ones in the display! This is a Brassia rising star, which is a spider-like orchid.

These beautiful red flowers, which I believe to be ginger blossoms, were everwhere in the geodesic "rainforest" dome of the garden called the Climatron. The Climatron is the first climate controlled green-house dome of its kind and, in my opinion, the single most fascinating part of the botanical gardens.

Here are a couple shots of the interior of the Climatron geodesic green-house dome. The dome covers a half-acre area and contains thousands of plant species - a microcosm of the rainforest. It includes a handful of tropical, medicinal herbs and spices such as banyan (used to treat diabetes), ginger (for motion-sickness), neem (a repellant against viruses, bacteria and insects, such as lice), pineapple (aids in the treatment of swelling and inflammation), artemisia (calms stomach aches and fever), nutmeg (said to fight diarrhea) turmeric (a spice in curry that may reduce the risk of cancer) and wild plum (used for treating various skin conditions like acne and eczema).

In the footer of our trip, we visited the extensive gift shop, where, in addition to the many garden tools, plants and books for sale, there was one item I just couldn't leave without. Meet Henry the Talking Gnome.

Simply press and hold the button on Henry's foot, record your message and listen to a gnome-version of your voice peep from your new petite pal. Hours of fun if you're like me, and one of the highlights of our trip. I would definitely recommend this as a gift. While it was a little pricey, the gnome should be sure to get a laugh out of you and your friends.

Fortunately for us, the talking gnome has created something of a cult-following on YouTube, spawning hundreds of "webisodes" of the gnome's life. See one YouTube user's demonstration of the talking gnome below, and follow this link to get your own! Tell them The Garden Gnome sent you.

Italy holds a special place in my heart—I lived there for four months while studying abroad in Florence. When I read about the earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy on April 6, I was overcome with emotions. I looked around my home and felt terrible that I had a roof over my head and there were tens of thousands homeless. According to BBC News, 1,500 people were injured and 90 people have been reported dead. That number is expected to rise.

The tragedy in Italy made me grateful for the beautiful days I had during my study abroad experience. As an art history major with a focus on the Italian Renaissance, I studied abroad to experience the art I had been studyng.

While I was in Italy my taste buds transformed. I went from strongly disliking many vegetables, red meat and garlic to incorporating them into my cooking. Prior to Italy, my cooking consisted of the microwave and a pack of frozen fish sticks!

My Italian apartment was centrally located and close to the old train station, which was converted into a fresh market.

The bottom level offered meats, breads, cheeses, dried goods and coffee; the upstairs offered all the fresh produce you could ever dream of. I picked out my vendor for all of the different food groups and returned to them throughout my time in Florence.

Once I built a relationship with the local street vendors, I asked them for the best way to prepare certain types of food. Eventually they caught on and realized I had no idea what I was doing in the kitchen. Many people, including the butcher and my unfortunate next door neighbor—whose apartment constantly smelled like my burnt cooking—gave me cooking advice. Even though I went to Italy to develop an understanding of its art history pallet, I also came home with a better understanding of cooking.

One of my favorite dishes I made, and finally was successful in pulling off, was Ten Herb Sausages (Salsicce alle dieci erbe). Now I make it whenever I start to miss Italy. Although I’ve prepared it countless times, there still seems to be something missing. It might be the difference in produce, or it might be the difference in meat.

I think it’s missing Italy.

Ten Herb Sausages (Salsicce alle dieci erbe)
Serves 4

• 8 Italian sausages
• Fresh sage, chopped
• Fresh basil, chopped
• Fresh thyme, chopped
• Fresh marjoram, chopped
• Fresh mint, chopped
• Fresh tarragon, chopped
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• Fresh rosemary, chopped 
• Shallots and celery stalks, chopped
• ½ cup white wine, dry
• 2 tablespoons water

1. Prick small holes into eight sausages to avoid splitting.

2. Place the sausages in a pan with 2 tablespoons of water and cook for roughly 10 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Add herbs, taking it easy on the stronger herbs like rosemary.

4. Add the celery and shallots and allow dish to cook for a few more minutes.

5. Add wine and cook until evaporated.

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!

Last Friday I was a bridesmaid for one of my best friends. So Friday morning found me doing inventory before leaving for the festivities:

Dress? Check                      

Shoes? Check                           

Wrap? Check

Minimal, yet comprehensive makeup supply? Check

Am I wearing a button-down shirt that won't ruin hair and makeup at the last minute when I change? Check

I was ready to leave for the reception site (where we would all primp together in the hours precluding the ceremony), wearing proper down-time pre-wedding yoga pants and flats, tossing a flat-iron in my tote with some mints. And then my phone rang. It was another bridesmaid, and she needed a favor.  

"Listen, you know that stuff you had at the bachelorette weekend?"

www.BodySenseShop.com

Ah-ha. A month previously, at the bachelorette weekend festivites, I packed a bottle of Brittanie's Thyme Organic Acne Treatment. Unsuprisingly, with a bevy of ladies who stretched their schedules to travel for the party (a combo of stress + airports + rich food + cocktails), we had some uninvited guests - pimples, that is. My bottle of Brittanie's Thyme was in high demand.

"Could you bring that organic stuff with you?" she continued.

The thing is, Brittanie's Thyme (a mixture of witch hazel and lavender and tea tree essential oils) is dependable. It dries trouble spots right out, and works quickly. And unlike pimple creams (which leave a white film), it can be used right before applying makeup so that it can continue to work. The scent is quite strong if you are unused to essential oils (like some of my friends), but by the end of the wedding experience several of my fellow bridesmaids were devotees.