A close relative to oregano, marjoram’s  fresh, sweet and spicy taste make it a great addition to meats, fish and poultry. It is especially nice with cheese and egg dishes. Try sprinkling it over steamed or roasted vegetables or add it to homemade tomato sauce to toss through pasta. I love it in a cheesy butter recipe.

Cheesy Marjoram Butter
125g butter
3 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp freshly chopped marjoram
1 tbsp freshly chopped chives
2 tsp grainy mustard
Leave the butter to soften before mixing all the ingredients together. This will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

It is delicious spread on french sticks or ciabatta bread and heated in the oven or grill. Pop a dob on steamed or roasted vegetables, cooked chicken or meat. Try it tossed through hot sweet corn..yum!

We are just back from a fantastic holiday is Peru. Our son Jason moved there two years ago with his Peruvian girlfriend Lorena, they are running a fantastic restaurant called ‘Nanka’ in La Molina Lima. They have a vertical herb garden across one wall which helps set the scene for a restaurant that uses organic, local, seasonal and sustainable produce. The food is fresh, modern and lends itself to sharing, which is the Peruvian way.

We based ourselves in Lima and travelled around from there. Lima is a big city and very busy. For 8 months of the year it is covered with fog, (no sun) that comes in from the ocean, so it is quite weird day after day. Once you move west out of Lima you can catch some sunshine and the mountain areas are really sunny.

Cusco known as the centre of the Inca empire is the main city before heading to Machu Picchu. It has kept its ancient charm and has many interesting streets and buildings of stone. Mud bricks (adobe) are used extensively by the locals for their dwellings and we felt right at home.

Machu Picchu was a highlight of our holiday a truly amazing place high in the mountains. It is really hard to comprehend the how the Inca people created such a place with their bare hands. The rocks they used are massive and they carved them so they fitted together perfectly with no need for mortar. Lots of lateral thinking going on back then.

The sacred valley was also very beautiful.

We stopped at a house that had a red bag on a stick, this means they have chicha for sale.  Chicha is a sprouted corn corn beer, it was really good.

The local women have a real talent for producing fine cloths, woven from alpaca wool, they are dyed using natural plant and insect dyes.
When the Spanish invaded the Incas they realised how special these cloths were and demanded them as taxes.

We went to Isla del Sol (Sun Island), in Lake Titicaca, Lake Titicaca is a huge mountain lake on the border of Peru and Bolivia. There were extensive gardens on this southern tip of Isla del Sol, with many medicinal herbs all well labelled. We attended a ceremony high on a hill overlooking the water. I’m not sure if it was the view or the ceremony, but I felt deep gratitude  for such a wonderful world in which we live.

La Paz in Bolivia an interesting city that starts at the base of mountains and rises up the sandy hills. This is where the famous witches market is held and we had fun looking at the bundles of fresh herbs and the many packaged remedies for every ailment you can think of.

Mistura a huge annual food event was on while we were in Lima and it was great looking through the market area at the different produce that is grown throughout Peru. Choosing a potato for a particular dish here in Peru is difficult..there is sooo many different varieties, in fact there are close to 4000 different varieties.

A trip to the Amazon basin was very exciting, besides seeing heaps of Macaws and other beautiful birds, some monkeys and piranha, we got to see and hear about the uses of some of the medicinal herbs and trees growing in the area.

While we were in Lima we were lucky enough to be invited to the Agriculture University in Lima by Daniel one of Nankas’ Restaurant suppliers of fresh herbs and vegetables. We also went to Daniels farm south of Lima where he grows most of his produce, it is great to see what growers are doing, they are the important link to the food we eat. If you can’t grow it yourself, befriend the grower!

I love the sunny orange flowers of calendula; they brighten a cold winter’s day and warm the senses.

A good way to preserve their orange glow is to make infused oil. It is very easy to make.

Once you have made this vibrant infused oil you can use it to soothe and heal minor wounds, itchy, inflamed skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and nappy rash. It is also useful for stings, burns, bruises and cradle cap. It can also be used as the base for lip balm, creams and ointments. Read the rest of this entry »

Most herbs like some sun in their lives and when planning a herb garden this is one of the most important considerations. But for those shady spots around the garden that you would dearly love to fill with herbs, try some of the following herbs.

Herbs grown in the shade will require less watering than when grown in the sun, however remember that they may be competing with trees for water. Most shade loving herbs like rich soil and will benefit by adding compost to the area. For the herbs that may get a little leggy, try pruning regularly for a bushier look. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no other herb that refreshes like mint. Popping a few leaves into drinks and meals adds a fragrance and flavour that stimulates the senses and lifts your mood. A sprig of mint happily swimming in an icy glass of your favorite beverage makes you really feel like you are on holiday.

Mint is used as flavouring for everything from toothpaste and chewing gums to alcoholic beverages and herbal Read the rest of this entry »

When we were in London we visited the Urban Physic Garden, this garden was created by a collective of designers, urban growers and, over 150 volunteers, on a slice of unused land in Southwark London.

The urban block nestled between two buildings and backing onto the railway bridge was transformed into a garden themed like a conventional Hospital with ‘wards’ including cardiology, respiratory, psychiatry and dermatology, each filled with herbs relating to the ward. It was put together using recycled timbers, and other would be junk along with donated plants and plenty of volunteers.

The gardens are all in polystyrene containers and are supported in recycled timber frames. The range of medicinal herbs jammed into this block was amazing.

The Cardiology ward included herbs such as ginkgo, rosemary, globe artichoke, motherwort, foxglove, garlic, yarrow, chicory, ginger, chilli and flax.

The respiratory ward contained elecampane, horseradish, angelica, thyme, wild strawberries, caraway mullein and verbena.

The dermatology ward contained Echinacea flowering beautifully, parsley, tea tree, self heal, gotu kola, marigold and aloe.

The general medicine ward contained echinacea, calendula, borage, rue, yarrow, peppermint, lemon balm, angelica and feverfew.

The operating theatre was down one end against the brick wall built from recycled steel poles and timber. This was where talks and lectures were held.

The treatment room surrounded by white curtains where you could book in a massage on certain days.

The Herbarium and X-ray room

The Rambulance café supplied light refreshments from the back of its retired ambulance.

The fire pit was the focal point for evening gatherings and sing alongs.

The eating area was shaded with a sail that had pipes attached to collect the morning dew and rain, this went into holding tanks.

Alongside the water storage area beside the café there was a wall of herbal ‘weeds’ growing beautifully from the run off when tanks were full.

The toilet was certainly an environmental masterpiece. The actual toilet was made from the Queens horses poop. It is fitted with a urine diverting bowl that separates the urine and faeces. Urine contains phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium in the right ratio for growing plants. The faeces from the toilet goes into an anaerobic digester on site where it is converted into natural gas. This supplies the gas for the stoves of the Rambulance café.

The herb tea we had was made using water heated by poop!

The garden, a summer project has been pulled down and was auctioned off in mid August.

I have been busy this last weekend making tinctures to press off in the tincture class on the 8th of October.

I got a little carried away with Elderberries, making 3 tinctures each using

Read the rest of this entry »

Now is the time to plant Borage.

Borage normally self seeds prolifically in our garden, but the wet weather after last year’s crop set seed, really slowed down the self sown crop this year. It gave us the opportunity to plant some in a few different Read the rest of this entry »

Its pumpkin season, we are picking heaps of pumpkins, the pumpkin vine took over the whole bank beside our driveway this year. It has grown with wild abandon, scrambling over gardens and the bottom Read the rest of this entry »

Members of the Queensland Herb society are getting quite excited; it is almost time for our annual event Herb Awareness. The preparations are well under way and the day promises to be packed with lots of ‘herby’ things.

You can wander through the variety of stalls with a huge range of herb plants, fruit trees as well as herbal products including preserves, coffee, teas, spices, skincare, bush foods and wineries, you will also get to sample all sorts of yummy Read the rest of this entry »