Lovage leaves, stems and seeds all taste like celery.  The leaves can be used fresh in salads and fresh or dried in soups, stews, and sauces.  The stems can be chopped and added to salads, cooked and pureed, candied, or used like celery stalks.  The seeds whole or ground as needed, are used in pickling brines, cheese spreads, salads, salad dressings and sauces.  Lovage loves potatoes, tomatoes, checken, rice, creamed soups, savory pies, and steamed vegetables.  Lovage relieves indigestion, bloating, and colic.  It also improves appetite.  Well what do you think?  Sounds like a herb you might want to try, doesn’t it?

Until next month.  The Herb Lady

Tyme is a very small plant, to pack such a large punch.  It adds a pungent, lemonlike flavor to meats, vegetables, soups, stews, and tomatoes.  Can use both the leaves and woody parts because it is so small.  There is different flavors and kinds of tyme.  Lemon, (small bush, strong lemon scent), common,(small upright shrub, variety most often used in cooking),  mother of tyme, (dense mat, good as ground cover), nutmeg tyme, (spicy scent, fast creeper), and woolly tyme, (at home in rock gardens).  So no matter what you want; to spice up your meat, or soup, or stews, or you can just take a walk outside and walk on a path of thme and smell the fragrance.  Tyme can also be used to sooth digestion, to disinfect wounds, and tyme has antiseptic and stimulating properties that make it useful in herbal lotions and baths.  This is a great herb to have in your pantry.  The Herb Lady

Cold weather means heavy stews, and hot soups.  Use bay, parsley, and tyme to help give your dish a more rounded taste.  Healing uses for bay are:  helps settle stomachs, and stimulates appetite.  Can be used externally to relieve muscle aches and pains.  Healing uses for parsley are: relieves bad breath, aids in digestion and relieves intestinal gas.  Healing uses for tyme are;  soothes digestion, has expectorant (mucus-loosening) properties useful for coughs, bronchitis and emphysema.  You can use these herbs to make your stews and soups taste good, while getting the benefit of their healing properties.  The Herb Lady

Well, we have made a full year, and I want to take the time this month to thank my many readers, for their comments and support.  I have enjoyed writing about the many herbs that I use every day, and giving you a little information on the herb and what it is used for.  I still have a few herbs that I haven’t covered, before running out of the herbs that I use, so next year, I may go into the growing of herbs here in the south.  Keep in touch and thank you again for your interest.  The Herb Lady.

OK, its November again.  Last November I talked about rosemary because of Thanksgiving and cooking turkey with rosemary.  Now I am going to talk about sage because you know that you can’t have turkey without dressing and one of the main herbs, to make the dressing is sage.  In my opinion sage is what makes the dressing great.  Fresh sage is also good in biscuits, or if you have some small red potatoes, slice in half, put a leaf of fresh sage in a pan, or cookie sheet, cover with course salt, and put the potato cut side down on the sage, and bake.  Delicious.  Sage is good in all kinds of meat dishes, vegetables, sausages, cheese, and beans.  It also has some medicinal properties.  It is good for sore throats, and research has shown it helps lower blood sugar in diabetics.  This is a must for a place on any kitchen shelf.  The Herb Lady

This is flu season, and there is no reason that you can’t make good tasting dishes with herbs that help you fight the flu.  MUSHROOMS, are great for immune fighting properties.  GINGER, reduces pain and fever, suppresses coughing and has a mild sedative effect.  It also has superior anti-nausea along with anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties.  HOT PEPPER, helps to keep the respiratory system open.  MINT, is a superior digestive aid, relieves indigestion, and suppresses coughs.  SAGE, contains astringent tannins that help treat sore troats.  Except for the mushrooms, the rest can be made into a tea, or you can make a  GARLIC-MUSHROOM-ONION CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP.  Start with chicken, broth, noodles, lots of garlic, at least one whole onion, celery, ginger parsley, mushrooms, and HOT RED PEPPER.  I put in a whole pod, to make it really spicy.  It will really make you feel beter.  The Herb Lady

Dill is a wonderful herb.  Use the leaves to enhance fish, eggs, rice, salads, and just try it on potato salad.  It is great.  Use the pungent seeds in pickles, vinegars, and soups.  Dill can also be used in a salt free diet, as it is rich in mineral salts.  Make dill water for indigestion, hiccups, insomnia, and colic.  Infuse 1/2 ounce seeds in 1 cup boiling water, then strain.  1 tablespoon per adult.  Don’t forget the Dill Dip for the football parties, or the holidays.  Can be dried or frozen.  It is the greatest.  The Herb Lady

Although this herb is a hard herb to grow in the south, for the heat, and humitity, which it does not  like, I have grown it and used it. Tarragon has a sweet peppery flavor.  It enhances flavors of fish, pork, beef, lamb, poultry, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, musrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, peas, parsley, lemons, oranges, rice, and barley.  Use in sauces, omelets, and in vinegar. For maximum flavor add to dishes during the last 15 minutes. Has been used to stimulate the appetite, relieve colic, and to relieve a toothache.  It may be used as an antifungal as well. Its a great herb. The Herb Lady

I decided on lemon grass for this month because I’ve had many people ask me about this herb and its uses.  Use it in Thai or Vietnamese dishes, cut in 2 inch pieces, cook, and remove before serving.  Flavor rice with lemon grass to keep it from being so bland; chop tender stalks in salads, or add to fish or poultry dishes for flavor.  Use the leaves in herbal teas for a stomach soother or can be used as an effective insect repellant and fungicide.  I think this is a herb that can be experimented with.  I hope this makes you want to try something different.  The herb lady

Here are some herbs that make interesting teas.  Lemon verbena, lemon balm, and lemon grass, make pleasant tasting tea.  They can be added to black or green teas to replace the slice of lemon in the ice tea.  Try mint leaves in tea for decoration; basil in tomato juice in the morning, lovage in the evening in a Bloody Mary; borage used in hot or cold teas gives a “lift” after a hard day.  I hope you have fun with your drinks.  The Herb Lady