Would you take a look at that rosemary bush? It grows on the side of my mom's house in Arkansas. We took this picture in January, just a couple of weeks ago.
Here are my mom and me doing our Vanna White impersonations... I include this photo only so you can see how truly tall this bush is. Really.
My mom usually cuts it back each fall, but wasn't able to do so this year. Note the new growth in the photo above.New growth.
In January.
I can buy local herbs here at the grocery store pretty much year 'round from a company called Mariposa Farms in Grinnell, Iowa. But at about $3 a small bunch, they're pretty pricey. I brought home several bags and have plans to use them up in some of my favorite dishes.
Leaving the frigid north and basking in the warmth of the south led Michael to talk about where to retire. Boy, wouldn't it be nice to be someplace warm? We could grow lettuce and other greens year 'round in a hoop house, never have to shovel...
Ah yes.
But then I pointed out the horrible, humid, hot summers, when the temperature hits 100 by 10 a.m. and you're held hostage to air conditioning for months at a time.
Besides, we still have fresh herbs in our garden.
They aren't exactly growing.
It's sort of a cryogenic preservation.
Earlier this week I needed fresh sage for a soup I was making. Remembering where in the garden it had grown, I went out with a shovel and did a little excavating... and wa la! Fresh sage!
I harvested what I needed and carefully recovered the rest to protect it for another recipe. The leaves look a little shriveled in the pictures, but they weren't once I brushed all the snow off.
So, who needs to move to warmer climes when you can grow herbs here in Iowa in January?
3 comments:
I bring my rosemary in for the winter. I also grow lemons, oranges, limes and kumquats, right here in Iowa. I bring them in usually by the end of October and they go out about mid April. And I get fruits from all of them! The rosemary smells great in the kitchen.
Oh, that sounds great.
I have two Meyer lemon trees that I bought last year - do you know how long it takes before they flower and fruit? I'm betting they'll need at least another year or two.
I don't have enough sunny window space or I'd love to have oranges and limes!
One of my lemon trees came from Lowe's and I think it fruited 2 years after I got it. Another one I bought in Canada about 10 years ago and gave it to my mother when I left and it still hasn't bloomed. I think some of them are just late bloomers (pun intended!) They tend to bloom for me in early spring and then the fruits form and I pick them in late fall or early winter. I still have 2 lemons left to pick. Now, I get my citrus by mail from Four Winds in California. They have really nice plants.
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