Recipes

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!

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 »

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

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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 »

Comfrey is such a great healing herb, the roots and leaves contain Allantoin, a substance that promotes wound healing and tissue regeneration. A poultice of the leaves and or root can be used to heal wounds, burns, bruises, ulcers, dry irritated skin conditions and Read the rest of this entry »

We have been picking heaps of cucumbers from our garden lately; we have a variety called crystal salad. They are a round shape with firm creamy-yellow skin and white flesh. The crop was slow to start, I think the rain scared all the bees away, but eventually we were picking bucket loads of tasty cucumbers. The sweet basil and mint that are growing so well at the moment are calling to be partnered with these refreshing round fruits. The last of our pomegranates are picked and the seeds that are like little jewels will add a sparkle of red to top off a tasty salad.

Salad

4 round shaped cucumbers

1 shallot finely chopped

¼ cup mint

¼ cup basil

¼ cup of Lebanese cress

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

I pomegranate

Dressing

1 tbsp Pomegranate molasses

1 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp sesame oil

salt to taste

Method

First prepare the dressing, place all of the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well, taste and add salt. Set aside.

Cut the cucumbers in half and scoop out the flesh; be careful to keep the skin intact. (Discard the seeds)

Dice the cucumber flesh and put into a bowl. Add the shallots.

Roughly tear the herbs – mint, basil and Lebanese cress and add to the bowl, stir through the toasted sesame seeds.

Just before serving stir through the dressing, then spoon the salad into the cucumber halves for serving.

Top with the pomegranate seeds and serve.

Angelica is growing fantastically in the garden at the moment, a biennial in cooler climates, it often flowers and produces seed in the first year here in south east Queensland. Angelica archangelica is from the Apiaceae family, it is a stunning plant reaching 2m in height when in flower and about 1.5m in width.

The stems can be used when cooking tart fruits in particular rhubarb. It neutralises the acidity, reducing the amount of sugar needed to produce a delicious sweet dessert. The candied stems are used as an edible garnish for desserts and cakes. Read the rest of this entry »

We had a family get together on Saturday to farewell one of our sons and his girlfriend, they are off to Peru to open a restaurant and continue their love of food in the land of the Incas. I busied myself making some dishes to go with the BBQ, Chicken marinated in toasted cumin seed, parsley, garlic, paprika and olive oil, hummus with thyme infused pita crisps, chickpea and kale with bread picada, and a huge salad of herbs from the garden. Our son made a delicious salad of rainbow chard, with fennel seed, red onion, sultanas, parsley, goat feta and toasted pine nuts, Yum. But what will we have for dessert??? Read the rest of this entry »