Herbs, Neon and Other Spices

Neon signs make food taste better, and so do candles. Herbs help, too, along with the smells of butter, melted animal fat and carbon. So, the best tasting food is seasoned with herbs and is eaten under the glow of a neon sign with a small flame flickering on the table. Mmm..... The Good Life!

A walk through Seattle's Pike Place Market can get a guy motivated to learn something about food. No harm in learning something new.

















I decided a good way to learn about herbs was to grow some. I got some from the local hardware store between the Chevron station and McDonald's. Friends also have good suggestions.

These are some of the planters containing the growing herbs.















Basically, you can just clip a few leaves and stuff them between a couple of pieces of whole wheat bread-- toasted and buttered. There's more to it than that, but it's a start.

The herbs I'm growing this spring and summer-- cilantro, parsley, chives (onion and garlic tasting), sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, spearmint and basil. Some grow better than others, aphids like some and avoid others, some grow fast but others slow, etc., etc. It's a learning project.

Here are my chives, rosemary, basil, cilantro, spearmint and sage--












































































Before this little project, the only spices I knew were salt, pepper, butter, ketchup, mustard, garlic, onion, Bar-B-Q sauce, Tabasco, cinnamon, cream and sugar. You can do a lot with those. Still, there's always more to learn about spices and herbs, and an easy way to do it is to plant them and water them. Plus, a guy can really begin to appreciate the knowledge and use of herbs by others.