Herb of The Year: Rose

Hi everyone!

Does that surprise you? The herb of the year is the Rose? It surprised me when I heard about it last summer! I never think of a rose as an herb. However, if we refer back to the definition I posted:

What the word “herb” really means
A very fitting definition that defines herbs by their usefulness rather than by their appearance or botanical structure was coined by Holly Shimizu, director of the U.S. Botanic Garden. Holly says, ―Herbs are defined as plants (trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, biennials or annuals) valued historically, presently, or potentially for their flavor, fragrance, medicinal qualities, insecticidal qualities, economic or industrial use, or in the case of dyes, for the coloring material they provide.

Roses definitely fit into that category.

**Very Important: ONLY use culinary roses. NEVER use roses from a florist. They are treated several times with chemicals. Use the roses you grow if you do not use chemicals on them or look for local organic growers.**

Culinary Use

Rose petal and rose hips are used a lot to make jams, jellies, cordials, vinegars and sweets. Rose flavoured Turkish delight has been produced in Turkey since the 15th century and is known there as lokum.

Rosehip syrup is a natural source of vitamin C, containing 20 times more vitamin C than oranges by weight.

Recipe - Rose Vinegar

I found this recipe for treating mild headaches and as a gargle for sore throats. It's also good to use as a facial toner.

Quantities

• 3 Handfuls Fresh Highly Scented Rose Petals (red or deep pink give the best colour).
• 7 Tbsp's Distilled White Vinegar.
• 1 Tbsp Rose Water
• 1 Pint Distilled Water.

Method

• Place the rose petals in a glass container and add the wine vinegar
• Leave the container in a cool, dark place for 1 week, shaking the liquid every day
• Strain through a muslin cloth and discard the petals
• To use, dilute the 1 Tbsp of rose vinegar with 1 pint of waterSource: Herb Society.org

I will be sharing different things I try with roses this year. There are so many fun and interesting uses for them. Who knew?

It’s All About the Worms!

Hi everyone!

Last week we organized a special presentation for the kids during school. It was….Worm Day!

Let me explain.

At the High School we volunteer, we started teaching them about composting. And one of the very best composting is Vermi Posting. This is a worm compost method. The rich black compost that is created through this method is referred to as Black Gold by gardeners. The is the crème de le crème of compost! One tablespoon of this in a houseplant will do miracles for you plant. It is in very high demand and is very expensive.

Given the right environment, the worms will go to work to digest the kitchen scraps and bedding faster than any other compost method. The material will pass through the worms' bodies and become "castings." In about 3-4 months, the worms will have digested nearly all the garbage and bedding and the bin will be filled with a rich, black natural fertilizer and soil amendment. Compared to ordinary soil, the worm castings contain five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphorus and 11 times more potassium. They are rich in humic acids and improve the structure of the soil

Check out this source to read more and to learn how to built and maintain your own worm compost. UNL Extension in Lancaster County

Red Compost Worms

There is a select group of teenagers that have been working with Troy to create this compost and keep it up. Four teenage girls really got involved and decided that this is what they wanted to work on for their project for the FFA Leadership Skills Demonstration Competition.

We offered them the opportunity to practice their demonstration at the princess’s preschool class as a way to prepare for this big competition. The girls jumped at the chance! We knew the kids would love it! hello….we are talking worms here!

The girls did a great presentation and all the kids loved it.

The next day, this modified gray tub made it’s permanent home in the classroom. It is filled with worms, shredded newspaper, a little soil and a pulverized apple to get the worms feeding.

And of course, part of the learning process is to let the kids touch and pick up the worms. Those worms were all over this table!

The children gather around when one of us or the teachers feed the worms. They are excited to realize that their lunch time vegetable/fruit leftovers get recycled by feeding them to the worms.

There are so many amazing lessons that can be taught through this project. I know that our volunteer project aren’t exactly the “norm” for preschoolers but, they seem to enjoy them as do the teachers and even other classrooms want to visit this classroom!

And we have a worm compost and a regular compost at the high school. We are excited because we have been talking with a professional composting company in partnering up with us at the high school for even more learning experience in this area.

Project: Preschool Indoor Herb Garden

Hi everyone!

Does it surprise you in the least that one of the first volunteer projects we did with the Princess's preschool class was to start them an herb garden? Of course not, I didn’t think so.

Kids are like little sponges. If you make something fun and interesting, they just absorb the information up. And when you let them be part of something, they get a wonderful sense of ownership.

 

The above picture is Cuban Oregano (it is in the pot with the Aloe Vera). This plant started out as a small piece of broken Cuban Oregano from our home. We started it in a glass of water so the kids could see how it grew roots. Once it was big enough, they were part of planting it and now watching how big it is growing.

The Aloe Vera plant was a rescue. At the high school there is a compost pile and a place where people can drop off unwanted containers/pots for the students to use. Well, someone dumped their Aloe Vera plant in the compost pile. It was pretty beaten up but, it gave the kids a fun chance to see a plant being rescued and brought back to life.

Since we volunteer with the high school students as well and have access to their wonderful greenhouse, we have a lot of herbs growing right now. So, starting a small window ledge herb garden for the children at the preschool was just a natural thing to do.

We wanted to have a variety of different types of herbs.

When it comes to watering and taking care of the herbs, the students wait for one of us, then a few kids at a time can take turn watering.

This has become their garden. We are hoping to do an actual outside garden with them in the Spring.

We occasionally will bring in a new herb. They are always so excited when they can pinch a leaf and smell it. They know that this one is a “Pizza Herb” (oregano) or that one is a “Candy Herb” (peppermint). It is so fun to see their faces when the recognition of the scent hits them!

The sense of smell is such a powerful sense. It was interesting to observe one of the children smell the citronella when we first brought it into the class room. When a new herb comes in, they each get to smell it and this child instantly said, “That smells like camping!” This is a 3 year old! How cool.

**The Lincoln Park Indoor Farmer’s Market will be open again this coming Sunday. We will be there and hope you are too!**

 

I’m joining:

Fertilizer Friday

2012 ~ The Year of the Herbs

Hi everyone!

Did you know that 2012 is “The Year of the Herbs”?

The National Garden Bureau and the Herb Society of America have teamed up to name 2012 Year Of the Herbs.

This is the first time the not-for-profits have partnered in their missions to promote gardening and educate people about growing plants.

How exciting is that for Troy and I! We are hoping that this year DTL Herbs will be a fun and prosperous year.

And since this is the year of the herbs, I plan on sharing tips, ideas, how-to’s, recipes and lots of other fun things.

Spearmint from our garden

As part of owning an Herb Business, we do a lot of educating. And we love doing that! We give presentations, classes and just talking to folks who stop by our booth at the Farmer’s Markets.

Here is a pretty good summary definition of herbs:

What the word “herb” really means
A very fitting definition that defines herbs by their usefulness rather than by their appearance or botanical structure was coined by Holly Shimizu, director of the U.S. Botanic Garden. Holly says, ―Herbs are defined as plants (trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, biennials or annuals) valued historically, presently, or potentially for their flavor, fragrance, medicinal qualities, insecticidal qualities, economic or industrial use, or in the case of dyes, for the coloring material they provide.

Source

I am going to be “dabbling” in some different herb uses in this coming year. Most of our business is in the culinary area of herbs. We do offer a fantastic Herbal Salt Scrub but, I have been wanting to experiment in other non-culinary areas. So, I thought 2012 is the perfect time to play with herbs!

Right now, Troy and I are pouring over seed catalogs and online seed sites decided what new herbs we will add to our gardens this year. This is one of our favorite times of the year~~Dreaming and preparing for Spring!

If you are into gardening whether it be flowers, herbs or vegetables, this is the time of the year to start planning out your gardens, beds, pots etc.

 

This week, I am giving a presentation along with a demo on Victorian Tussie Mussies. I will be discussing the different usage, meanings and history on herbs and flowers from the Victorian Era. I am excited. It should be a lot of fun. It will also be our first non-culinary herb presentation.

So, have you been dreaming of Spring? Can’t wait to get outside and get your hands into the soil?

DTL Herb Blends Make Great Spreads!

Hi everyone!

New years day we created a fun finger food dinner for my parents. One of the things we made was a platter of different spreads and breads. With Super Bowl right around the corner, I thought I would share the different spreads that we made using our blends.

Super simple to make because all the ingredients are already in the package of blends except the cream cheese!

1 packet + 1 block of cream cheese = spread

How easy is that!

The blends we used were:

Mediterranean Style Seasoning

Chive and Dill Vegi Dip

Poultry Blend

Dipping Oil Herb Blend

It is best to make the spreads a day or two before you want to serve them. It gives it time for all the flavors to fully develop.

***Note: Although we used one package of herbs to one 1/2 pound block of cream cheese, you could actually use one package to make up to one full pound. The longer they sit in the refrigerator, the stronger they get, and after about a week, they were pretty intense, so if you have time t make them a week in advance, you wouldn't need as much. So, this weekend is the perfect time to get them ready for Super Bowl Sunday.

We shaped them into logs and rolled them up in wax paper, you could use plastic wrap instead if you wanted.

Serve with breads and/or crackers for a delicious and different spread!

Your guests will love them!

I have to confess we all decided that both the Chive and Dill Vegi Dip and the Dipping Oil Herb Blend were our favorites! We like them all but, these two really stood out as new favorites!

If you want to purchase any of our products, Troy will be at the Lincoln Park Indoor Farmer’s Market the day of Super Bowl from 12:30-4:30.

If you want to purchase before then, just call us at:

734 265 0358

or email us at:

dtlherbsltd@gmail.com

If you can't make it to the market, give us a phone call or an email and we will work out a way to get you the product you need. 

Off to School We Go!

Hi everyone!

Troy and I have decided to return to school and get our Master Gardener Certification. It just made sense to us since we have a herb business.

Our table at a local Farmer’s Market this past summer. 

We both love to grow herbs, veggies and flowers so, going back to school to acquire new skills and knowledge is exciting to us.

Our Future Master Gardener taking care of “her” herb bed.

A big part of getting the M.G. certification involves volunteering with the community and educating others.

One of our herb presentations

We do presentations at different venues.

Growing Basil at the local high school greenhouse (hydroponically)

We are a volunteer business partner with a local high school agriculture program.  Troy has been working extensively with the kids regarding herbs and composting.

End of the year tea herb harvest.

In the Spring I will be working with the kids in creating tea gardens and how to create blends.

We love working with the public and educating as much as we can. We have a small herb garden in the Princess’s preschool class. Kids are so eager to learn. So, working with children is one of our favorite volunteer projects.

So gaining more knowledge and being able to share that is something we are really looking forward to!

Sharing a Little from Our Recent Show

Hi everyone!

We had a show last night in Wayne so, I thought I would share a little of our table.

Most of you know that DTL Herbs LTD stands for Diann, Troy and Lia. Well, the little Miss Lia part of this company decided she wanted her own product to sell. One that she could make by herself.

This is what we came up with.

She has packaged a blend of herbs and oats to feed Santa’s reindeer. She is so excited to have something to help out Santa on his big night!

She sat at her little table and asked people if they would like to buy her new product!  She is very proud of this!

We also introduced our new Herbed Salt. This salt blend is 50% salt and 50% freshly dried herbs, including a touch of onion and garlic. You are going to love it! As we worked to get the blend just right, we would test it on freshly popped hot popcorn. Oh, it is fantastic on popcorn! When those herbs hit the hot popcorn you instantly get the scent of the herbs! And the heat just opens up the herb flavors!

We also introduced our new service of offering Custom Labels. We will customize your label for free when you order a dozen or more of the same product. 

And we do presentations. We have different herb related presentations to offer your group. It doesn’t matter if it is just a small or a huge group, we are happy to work with you to customize the presentation to your needs!

That’s what is new with us here at DTL Herbs LTD. Hope to see you at some of our upcoming shows!

Taylor Town Trade Center

We have made arrangements to be at the Taylor Town Trade Center on Ecorse Road every Friday from Noon to 6:00 pm.

We had hoped to be able to start that this week, Nov 4. But a scheduling conflict is keeping that from happening.

Please accept our apologies.

And as always, if you need product and are in the downriver area, just give us a call and we will make arrangements to get you what you need.

Look for us at Taylor Town every Friday beginning November 11.

Rubbed Sage.

Have you ever seen a recipe that calls for rubbed sage and wondered whether there was any difference between rubbed sage, ground sage and dried sage?

Well, there is.

Sage, (salvia officinalis) is a Mediterranean herb with a very intense flavor.



Although many purists will tell you that the only good sage is fresh sage, there are actually many applications for dried sage.

If you buy Dried Sage, you will generally find dried whole leaves in the jar.
You can use them whole in chicken soups or other similar applications where you want the flavor but not the leaves. Leaving them whole makes it easier to remove the leaf after you are done cooking.

If the entire leaf is ground into a fine powder, this is called ground sage. It is dense and heavy, like any powdered herb.


Rubbed sage consists of dried sage leaves that have been rubbed between two hard objects, (your hands will work just fine to make your own) so that the soft outer part of the leaf crumbles away leaving the harder stem to be discarded.

Rubbed sage is light and fluffy and looks almost like cotton.

There are many reasons to use rubbed sage instead of ground sage.

Rubbed sage, because of the friction, has the oils already disturbed so they will release into your food more quickly.

Rubbed sage also is lighter, and less concentrated, so a teaspoon of rubbed sage will be less intense than a teaspoon of ground sage. Sage can be a very intense and overpowering herb, and using rubbed sage in place of ground sage allows you to keep the sage flavor more subtle.

If you are following a recipe that calls for ground sage, and you want the sage to be a dominant flavor in the dish, you would need to use twice as much rubbed sage to have the same amount of flavor as ground sage.

You can make your own rubbed sage by taking a dried leaf of sage between your hand, holding it over a plate, and rubbing it briskly between your palms. The powdery soft portions of the leave will crumble away onto the plate leaving the hard stem in your hand.
The stem part is edible and has flavor, but is tough and will feel like you are eating sticks and twigs if you get it in your mouth when you bite into your stuffing or sausage.

The stems can still be used to brew tea or in any other application that will be strained or filtered before serving.

Herbed Olives

Hi everyone!

I love olives. I mean looove olives! I could just sit and eat a jar of them while watching tv. And I really love the gourmet olive blends you can find at olive bars in grocery stores or specialty shops.

I took these pictures at our local Kroger store.

I try to stay away from this section of the store! Why?

That’s why! Now don’t get me wrong, I have had many lack of willpower moments. I am only human after all.

Today, we are going to make our own gourmet olives! Yum!

Here is my basic recipe. I do make different flavors with different added goodies. I will give you those ideas at the end of the post.

What you will need:

• And airtight container
• 2 Tbs Olive oil
• 2 cups olives (your choice)
• 1 Tbs fresh Rosemary (about 1/2 if using dried)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 Tbs Fresh Oregano (1 Tbs if using dried)
• 2 Tbs Fresh Lemon Zest

In a bowl add olives and olive oil and mix. In a mortar (or bowl) add all the other ingredients and mash up. I add a little of the olive oil. You don’t need it to be completely paste like. You just want to bruise everything so the oils are released. Add to the olives and mix well. Refrigerate for one week. Of course, I have rarely let them sit that long. I just can’t help myself!

These would be so pretty in an old canning jar with a label and ribbon and given as a gift. I will be making gift baskets for the holidays and this is one of the things I plan to include.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, you can get good sales on olives. I used all fresh herbs from our garden plus garlic we just harvested. So, this is a very thrifty way to have gourmet olives. Way cheaper than the olive bar prices.

These are so nice to have when you have friends over. Create a little appetizer plate for everyone to nibble on.

 

Other things I add to  olives are:

Jalapenos

Lemon thyme

Pickled Cocktail onions

Marjoram

Roasted Red Peppers

Just go to your local olive bar and see what different things are added to all the olive combinations. Lots of fun ideas and tasty!

**Edited from original post at The Thrifty Groove.

Big Buck Contest

We are pleased announce our Big Buck Contest.

(And for those who got offended when I suggested they enter, please note, it is A Big BUCK Contest, not A Big Butt Contest.)

Here are the rules:


This contest will be coordinated through Facebook, so in order to enter, you,

must have, (or have access to), a Facebook account.

Here’s how it works.

Pick up a postcard with the DTL Herbs LTD logo on it from any of our market or show locations. Let us know you will be participating.

When you get your big buck, make sure at least one picture of you and your deer includes the postcard, (or any of our products,) with the Logo clearly visible. If we can see our logo, your face, and your deer, the picture qualifies.

Post the pic of your buck on Facebook, and share a link to that photo on our wall at

www.facebook.com/dtl.herbs.ltd. You are now officially entered.Winner

The first 5 people who enter by posting a qualifying pic will receive a free packet of Hunters Blend Dry Rub.

We aren’t Boone and Crockett or Pope & Young, so don’t worry about official scoring. All those numbers get confusing, (and don’t even get us started on normal vs. abnormal or typical vs. non-typical). Just count the number of points.

The qualifying entrant with the most points, whose photo is linked to our Facebook wall, will be deemed the Biggest Buck

The person who posts the Biggest Buck photo will be the winner of our Big Buck Contest, and will receive a Deer Hunters Gift Pack containing One package of Hunters Blend Dry Rub, 1 jar of Applemint Jelly and One package of Chili Seasoning.

In the event of a tie, a winner will be selected from among tied entrants by random drawing.

The contest ends and a winner will be selected Nov 18, 2011. The winner will be notified through face book.

A Big Thank You!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note to say thank you to all our wonderful customers and the great vendors for making the Wyandotte Farmer's Market so much fun and such a great success! Today was our last market day for Wyandotte and what a beautiful day it was!

We are still at the Wayne, Livonia and Redford Farmer's markets.

Keep checking back here often to see where we will be throughout the winter months.

Thanks again Wyandotte!