herbs.... what took me so long???

okay, so i've always liked basil with my tomatoes, rosemary with my potatoes, and fresh cilantro in salsa, but still i've never really been all that into herbs. yeah, weird, right?? especially since i really do like to cook. this year i planted a few herbs around the tomatoes, but still, nothing really remarkable. but oh boy how this is about to change. you see last weekend i took a trip to asheville to hang with my cousin and her two daughters and to do some produce shopping at the tailgate markets. i was most excited to find some fresh cut naturally grown corn from ten mile farm. i love fresh raw sweet tender corn kernels cut right off the cob and mixed into a summer salad. one of my all time favorite foods. but i will get to that in just a minute, back to the herbs..... so yeah, not really into herbs. well lately i have become a little obsessed with them. cutting them, bringing them inside to look pretty, putting them in pitchers of tea, cooking with them, and who know..... propagating them. i had no idea that you could cut off part of a stem, put in it a jar of water, and in a few days have roots. i've done this before with my house plant, and we've all done the tooth picked potato in a jar of water, but i never though of doing it with my herbs. yeah, i know, i'm slow. so, herbs in a jar, not only pretty but very functional.

check it out!! roots!!

i'm sorry to get so excited, but that is just cool. 

i think i am going to plant these in little pots to put on the windowsill in the breakfast nook.  

so with this new found love of herbs, i decided to kick up the summer a notch and add basil and cilantro to my summer veggie salad. easy, raw, and delicious. 

corn cut straight off the cob and into the bowl, cucumbers, onions (all local and naturally grown), tomatoes, basil, and cilantro (all from my garden), organic olive oil, organic lemon juice, salt to taste. mix and serve. so cool and refreshing. oh, you want a close up.. okay. 

one other herb project that i got going on, is a run away cilantro plant that popped up out of nowhere and then proceeded to bolt before i had any veggies to go with it. so i left it alone in the hopes of harvesting some coriander seeds. at this point i've got seed pods on the plant, now i just gotta figure out how and when to harvest and dry them. 

next post.... tomato and pepper update.