Herbs are in use for so many different things today. Included are crafts, culinary or medicinal potential, making potpourri, ground cover or in landscaping (many are using no-mow lawns of creeping thyme). Others use herbs for a totally organic experience in their health and beauty products.

Preserving your Herbs:

You may dry or freeze herbs for later use, if desired. On a sunny day after the dew dries, cut back herb plants by as much as half. To dry herbs, hang them upside down in a dark, airy, dry spot. They are dry when they are crisp. Store the dried herbs in opaque containers.

You can also freeze fresh herbs by placing them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. They will freeze completely within 24 hours. Then store in well-sealed, labeled plastic bags. Do not pack leaves in a lump or they will be tough to separate later.

Time for Herbs

Chives: Incorporate chives into in salads, sandwiches, and soups and as a garnish. Mix into butter, sour cream or cream cheese.

Basil: Basil's rich, pungent flavor complements garlic.

Sage: combine with other strong flavors. Blend into cheeses.

Thyme: Add to stocks, marinades, stuffing's, sauces and soups. Thyme aids digestion of fatty foods. Add to chicken, fish, hot vegetables, fruit salads and jams.

Oregano (Italian): Infuse as an aromatic tea. Chop finely for salads and butter sauces for fish. Add to meat dishes. Add to pizza, tomato, egg and cheese dishes.

Rosemary ("Blue Spires"): Add sparingly to a wide range of meat dishes, especially lamb and pork. Use to flavor baked potatoes and to make herb butter for vegetables.

Basil (Italian large leaf): Pond the leaf with oil or tear with fingers. Add at last minute to cooked dishes. Sprinkle over salads and sliced tomatoes. Italian large leaf basil in pesto sauce and many Mediterranean dishes add great flavor and flavors blended vinegar dressings.

Corsica mint: This mint not used for culinary purposes, but rather as a ground cover, or in rock gardens. It has tiny pepper-mint-scented, bright green leaves and miniature flowers.

French tarragon: Use sparingly for a warm, subtle, highly desirable flavor, which diffuses quickly through other ingredients. You may use French tarragon in many dishes.

Mint: Infuse either individual or blended mints as a refreshing tea. Use for mint sauce, vinegar, and syrups and with chocolate in rich desserts. Add to new potatoes, peas, fruit salads, drinks and punches.

Parsley (Fine curled): When cooked, parsley enhances other flavors, but adds toward end of cooking time.

Sage (broad leaf): Mix with onion for poultry stuffing. Cook with rich, fatty meats such as pork, duck, and sausage. Blend with vinegar dressings and butters.

Herbs for Cooking, Ornamentation, Medicinal or Decoration

Welsh bunching onions: Bunching onion is a perennial with stately clusters of stalks. Use them in the same manner you would use other onions. To grow, harvest from the outside of the bunch; the center will keep producing offshoots.

Halls Wholly Thyme: Perennial. Creeps tight to the ground and blooms mauve flowers. This thyme is used in ground cover and landscaping.

French Sorrel: Perennial; lemon-flavored lettuce-like leaves. Recommended uses are salads and soups.

Rosmarinus (Officinalis Arp"): Perennial; only variety that can withstand winters. The foliage is excellent for flavoring fish and chicken. The blooms this herb produces go nicely into salads. If planted in the ground, this herb must have protection if the wind chill dips below minus ten degrees.

Salad Burnet: Perennial; known as "cucumbers without the burps" and has cranberry-color flowers in mid-season. Recommended for this herb is use in Greek dishes and in salads. If growing this herb, the plants will require partial shade.

Lemon Gem: Annual; only edible variety of marigold flowers. Leaves and foliage smell and taste like lemon. Recommended for this herb is use in salads or a dessert sauce for sponge cake.

Stevia: Annual. A hundred times sweeter than sugar, experts say. Recommended uses: Add to a bowl of strawberries. Eat the leaves when you get a sugar craving. To grow, propagate from cuttings in soil with a lot of Perlite, this provides air for new roots. Cover with cloth until you see new growth.

Chocolate Mint: Perennial; tastes and smells like chocolate mint. Recommended uses: tea, mint sauce, fruit salads and dips, a garnish and flavoring for puddings and cakes. The leaves dry well for potpourri. For growing, propagate for division in spring or fall; invasive. Plant in a container so mint does not try to take over your garden.