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Friday, February 28, 2014

Feedback Friday #2

Hi Everyone, and welcome to Feedback Friday.

Feedback Friday

Feedback Friday is a feature where our customers have a chance to share their experiences with our products.

If you would like to write a post of Feedback Friday, and be featured on our blog, just drop us an email, and we will schedule a date for your post. 

Todays post was written by Karen Burke, a food preservation specialist and master gardener  from Macomb County Michigan.

Here’s what Karen wrote:

Hello everyone!  Karen Burke here. 

I would like to let all of you know how I use DTL Herbs.  I currently teach dehydrating classes and use the "Herbed Salt" on zucchini slices. 

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This is a favorite class snack that I make for them to sample (In season).  What I do is slice the zucchini 1/4" thick and shake the "Herbed Salt" on top, one side only. 

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I then dehydrate at 115°  F until they are dry. (Approximately 8 hours depending on how humid it is)

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These make a wonderful and healthy substitute for commercially processed potato chips.

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You may also want to try their "Chive and Dill Vegi Dip" to dip the chips in!  

Chive and Dill Vegi Dip 2014

I have been using their "Herbed Salt" on my own zucchini chips for over 3 years now and everyone loves them.

I no longer "drop and run" zucchini off at anyone’s house.  In fact I actually grow MORE zucchini! 

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Next month (March)  I will be trying their "Hunter's Blend Dry Rub" on meat to make jerky.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Hunters Blend Dry Rub 2014

 

Thank you Karen for sharing your experience with us!

 

 

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Friday, February 14, 2014

Feedback Friday #1

Hi everyone!

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Welcome to our first “Feedback Friday”! We hope to to feature this a couple times each month.

What is Feedback Friday? It is post written by one of our DTL Herbs customers. The customer will share with us all how they use one or more of our products.

If you would like to write a post, just drop us an email and we will be glad to answer any questions you have!

Now, I would like to introduce to you Lorie, a customer from one of our Farmer’s Markets.

Now, here’s Lorie…

We continually hear what chemicals are added to food. For instance, margarine is a few molecules away from plastic. A fast food chain has decided to remove a harmful chemical that they add to their "fresh bread".  A red slime was previously added to fast food burgers, of course it was labeled as safe for human consumption. MSG has been linked to Chinese food menus and I'm sure other menus.

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We eat foods that have been labeled as GMO, which is defined as,


Genetically modified organism (GMO) an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques.

My son asked me, "why do they have to add all that junk to the foods we eat."  I'm a Registered Nurse and a Certified Herbalist. I'm convinced that our poor health conditions in this country are a result of the chemicals that exist in our foods.

Thomas Edison said, "the doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care and prevention of disease."

Hypocrites, Greek Physician and Herbalist, Father of Medicine said, "Let your medicine be your food and your food be your medicine."

I was introduced to this fantastic small business, DTL Herbs, 3 years ago. Their attention to growing and harvesting herbs free from chemicals and pesticides is exactly what I look for in products. The research and development of herbal combinations is amazing. When shopping during the "warm" months at Farmer Markets where DTL Herbs sells merchandise, their fragrant herbs are intoxicating and freshness is apparent.


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Many people are nervous in using herbs to cook. DTL Herbs has taken out any guess work when it comes to using the dried herbs. The combination of herbs is perfectly incorporated to produce a taste explosion that cannot be produced by store bought products. Herbs not only provide great tasting foods but also make your food healthy.
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I enjoy making Chicken Soup loaded with fresh vegetables and I add, DTL Herbs (and all naturally dried, and grown, peppers from another local business The Garden Hoard).

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I add All Purpose Seasoning Blend, to my soup the last 45 minutes of the simmering stage. The smells coming from the stove,  a warm bowl of soup, during a furious winter snowstorm are more than I can wait for completion.


I have never been disappointed in products purchased from DTL Herbs. Be adventurous, cook with herbs. Be healthier and get rid of the chemicals in your food. DTL Herbs is my choice for my food.

Thank you Lorie for sharing with us and for being such a wonderful DTL Herb customer!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

An Ethical Dilemna*

*I find it mildly disturbing that spellchecker keeps autocorrecting the word “dilemna” to “dilemma.”  As part of an several generations who were taught to spell it with an “n” I don’t care what the ancient Greeks did.  I personally will continue to use the more traditional spelling despite the efforts of a robotic dictionary to change my ways.

 

We are not a health food company.  We don’t sell capsules or powders designed to increase joint health or improve memory.  We don’t sell additives or supplements or herbal health shakes.

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We don’t want to replace the food you eat, or even provide your daily meals.  We just want to share the message that Herbs Make Good Food Taste Even Better.

Herbs make good food taste even better

So we set out to create products that you can add to your fresh vegetables,(Organically grown if you choose)

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  or your chicken …  (free range antibiotic free if you desire,)

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or your bread…   (gluten free is up to you,)  

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…to help whatever you choose to eat taste even better than it did before.

But just because we don’t sell heath foods, that doesn’t mean our products aren’t healthy. We grow without the use of any chemicals.  We don’t use pesticides or herbicides (even the word ‘herbicide’ makes us shudder) or chemical additives.  We grow our plants as close as possible to the way they would grow in the wild, naturally and without interference.  We believe that they develop the best flavor that way, and we believe that the less chemicals we put on our food, the healthier that food will be.

The DTL Herbs Jingle

And, so although we don’t set out to produce Health Food per se, (that’s one of those fancy Latin phrases that makes one sound all smart and stuff,) We do try to produce Healthy Foods.

We don’t use MSG or any kind of flavor enhancers or artificial preservatives.  We don’t use artificial flavorings, instead relying on the natural flavor of the herbs that we grow, and in only a few case do we add coloring, generally for identification purposes in products that look so similar that we can’t tell them apart without opening the package and tasting or smelling them.

We have a wide range of products with no added sugar and several products with no salt, and they are very popular.

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But there are times and places where sugar and salt are necessary, or at least important factors in recipes.  There are chemical processes that take place when food comes into contact with sugar or with salt, that effect the flavor, the texture, and the ultimate result when cooking. 

And since our goal is to help everyone make good food taste even better, we try to provide a wide range of products, so that those who are not interested in eliminating the sugar or salt from their diet have options available to them.

And of course to appeal to a wide range of individual tastes as well.

So some of our products contain sugar and/or salt.  In fact, our dry rubs begin with a sugar/salt blend that makes up a large percentage of the finished product. 

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The sugar and salt work together to tenderize the meat and lead to a juicer more tender end result.

We grow as many of our ingredients as possible. But it simply isn’t practical to manufacture our own sugar or salt.

This brings us to an ethical dilemna.

 

 

We can buy salt, mined, refined, packaged and distributed right here in Michigan. 

This supports our local businesses, keeps money and jobs in our community or our state, and helps promote our local economy. 

 

 

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Or, we can use sea salt, produced somewhere in the Middle East, or in the South Pacific. Or some other overseas location.

Sea salt is generally acknowledged as having higher amounts of trace minerals and although still salt, being a bit healthier.

 

 

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We face an even greater dilemna with Sugar.  We can buy sugar made here in Michigan, from sugar beets grown here in Michigan. 

Again, this supports our local businesses, keeps money and jobs in our community or our state, and helps promote our local economy. And it supports the farming industry here in Michigan.  An industry that we want to support whenever we can.

 

 

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However, it is virtually impossible to find sugar beets that are GMO free.

Research at the Saginaw Valley Bean and Beet Farm has enabled farmers to harvest more beans per acre and remain No. 1 in dry bean production nationally.

And although cane sugar is produced in limited quantities in Michigan, sugar cane is not grown locally, because of the climate.

We have experimented with Stevia as a sweetener, but Stevia does not interact with salt to tenderize meat the way sugar does, so it is not an effective ingredient in dry rubs. And although Maple Sugar is made here in Michigan, it has a completely different flavor profile that would change the taste of our products. 

So once again, we choose between using a locally made product that is perhaps less healthy, or in the case of sugar, contains GMO’s, which we try to avoid, or using a product produced somewhere else and shipped into our state.

It seems that whichever we choose, there will be a portion of our customers who are unhappy with that decision.

So we can only do what seems right to us.

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What would you do?