Parsley-sage-rosemary and thyme ?

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KG Tony
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Don't seem to have had a problem - you can always add the cloves a little later if they're getting cindered.
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Ricard with an H
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What I did try was to crush garlic into the oil I use to coat the potato chunks. Oil, chopped rosemary and crushed garlic. The best roasties I ever made were under a leg of lamb, the lamb was on the oven griddle rather than in the pan, they were verging on cremated but she said they were perfect.

The potato stacks also made her smile. How to keep your woman happy, Eh.
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If you are trying to roast them in the traditional sense, it is far too hot for garlic, but they will still crisp up if slow cooked as well. Just experiment with your cooking style Richard.
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How do you people fare with tarragon? I love to use tarragon and know that French tarragon is the one to have rather than Russian but even when buying a plant of supposedly French tarragon, it never has the strong and very distinctive tarragon taste as the sprigs one buys at the supermarket. I believe one can't grow French tarragon from seed but perhaps I am wrong in that.
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Ricard with an H
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I had some French tarragon plants, they were very pungent. I froze the pickings and found that to better than drying. After two years I lost the plants, I think I accidentally cleared them out when I was doing some early weeding. The plants die back in the winter to look insignificant amongst weeds is all I can come up with as an excuse.

Just to illustrate how strong they were, the plastic bags that I froze them in were permeated with the smell of tarragon and it leaked to other parts of the freezer.

I had so much tarragon I didn't know what to do with it, I couldn't give it away. My few neighbours must have very basic cooking skills, they didn't know what to do with coriander so I didn't try tarragon on them. Same with other neighbour a little further away.

Herbs are lovely to cook with and though we have dried herbs for the convenience I'm sure using fresh makes me feel superior to my previous self even though I have always had a huge range of spice seeds to grind down or bash in the mortar and pestle.

What about those curry leaves, can we grow those ?
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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Ricard with an H
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Just thinking, I shouldn't really criticise those neighbours for not knowing what to do with coriander just because they only ever used dried mixed herbs. On studying Jekkas herbs, I wouldn't know what to do with most of them.

Another neighbour dries all sorts of weird stuff and feeds it to her husband in drinks, she swears that comfrey tea makes a massive difference to his daily behaviour. I doubt she cooks with her dried (White-Witch) compounds because she also doesn't appear to know what to do with coriander and tarragon though whatever it is she's feeding him I ought to get onto it because compared to me he is very active.

Comfrey has a lots of uses, I have a comfrey farm yet only use it as a nutrient for my garden. How about a nutrient for me ?
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Comfrey tea is supposed to be a good anti-inflammatory, my dearest tried it on me once a day for a week she said it would be good for my arthritis ,it did nothing but the taste was ok
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Ricard with an H
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I suppose if one of the big pharma companies start marketing comfrey excellence we will be instilled with confidence just like they are still spearheading for statins and that controversy goes on and on.

Thanks Geoff and robo for your contribution.

The problem we have is knowing that digitalis will kill us but is a valuable medicine.
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I made the mistake of growing Russian Tarragon - brute of a plant & very evasive, but it doesn't have the roundness of flavour of the French Tarragon and is lost in a sauce for chicken. I have found Sarah Raven is selling French Tarragon plants but the seed catalogues popping through the door are only offering Russian.

Digging up the Russian I have that has escaped is on my to do list. Coriander leaf I do not like - bit of a marmite thing is that, but I grow it for the seeds which I prefer. Got my eye on those paprika chillies that I have seen also this year, love paprika! Thinking will smoke & dry them to make my own, but will see how they fare.
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Ricard with an H
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It was only since joining this forum that I realized how many people dislike coriander, presumably it's the soap flavour ? I started growing 'Calypso' as a result of a reccomendation, it isn't soapy or at least it is less soapy. I throw soapy coriander away.

I have a half kilo of coriander seed that I intended to use in bread making, dark rye sourdough with juicy currants, black treacle crushed coriander inside and out. Coriander seed like the leaf can vary in taste.

She bough a loaf of fruit rye sourdough by Alex Gooch, I would love to know where he gets his currants. Very juicy, in fact I must e-mail and ask him though since supply some branches of Waitrose he must be a very busy man. Alex was the first baker I joined for a single day course, Alex is a very enthusiastic baker though based on the Welsh side of the border so you may not find his bread traveling very Far East or south.

The reason I bought that up is that I'm slowly learning about the quality of ingredients making such a difference to a finished product though sourcing quality this far west can be difficult. I can't paneer anywhere round here, in fact for years it was only Sainsbury that stocked it. Now it's stocked by Waitrose, I have four packs of paneer hurtling along the M4 in this direction as I type at just before 7 am in the morning. The girl is on her way home to Wales.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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Pawty
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Hi,

We use tarragon (French). I harvest throughout the year and add (roughly chopped) to a couple of bottles of white wine viniger for the following year - makes amazing béarnaise sauce! I fear the plant is on its last legs after around 5 years. I split it as recommended but it didn't like it.

This year I'm going to try cumin seed - you start it this year then harvest the seeds next. Probably seems a long wait and hard work, but I figure you get some flowers for the bees and butterflies and apparently the seed is so much stronger than bought.

Also going to grow 'Papalo' (Porophyllum colorat) ' which apparently is a good substitute for coriander and a bit spicy - for chilli and salsa.

And all the usual of course .... I've got quite a collection of mints now!

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Ricard with an H
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Hi Pawty, I also had a good collection of mints courtesy of Geoff, they not as robust as I expected though I suspect keeping them in pots doesn't help. Im thinking of corralling them in one of my raised beds. Same with the first year of French tarragon, even though I read that it hates pots I tried it. When I moved it into a bed the following it went mohoosive, I think it may have been ok for another few years if I hadn't accidentally dug it out when trying to clear some heavy infestation of creeping buttercup. I always have chives but rarely use them because I don't know how and whilst I'm not scared of taking a risk I hate throwing food away.

Papalo sounds interesting.

This year most of my raised beds will be nurseries for perennial wildflower some of which shouldn't be naturalised in this area, its to combat the very invasive weed bank I have that makes it difficult for annuals.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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Chives, we use the flowers pulled apart on salads as well as wild garlic flowers when we can get them, the stems we chop up and throw in salads and anything else we fancy
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Ricard with an H
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Chicken stock is waiting on the hob to be turned into either slightly thickened soup or a chicken broth type to support dumplings. I had often wondered about adding herbs to my dumplings though this may upset anyone with Jewish blood. Chicken soup was known as "Jewish penicillin", my mother who had lots of Jewish friends often made it to cure colds. Ok, it wouldn't hold up to scrutiny but it is comfort food and cheap these days.

£2.35 today for a small chicken seems impossible, we only had chicken for Christmas. I don't remember how we got chicken soup so often other than mothers contacts amongst German POW's and German Jews who responsible for some good eating and what was possibly the first regular sourdough breads.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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