CULINARY HERBS
Their Cultivation, Harvesting, Curing and Uses
By
M. G. KAINS
Associate Editor American Agriculturist
Herbs and Children, a Happy Harmony
NEW YORK
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., Limited
1912
Copyright, 1912
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
Printed in U. S. A.
Ah, Zephyrus! art here, and Flora too! Ye tender bibbers of the rain and dew, Young playmates of the rose and daffodil, Be careful, ere ye enter in, to fill Your baskets high With fennel green, and balm, and golden pines, Savory, latter-mint, and columbines, Cool parsley, basil sweet, and sunny thyme; Yea, every flower and leaf of every clime, All gather'd in the dewy morn: hie Away! fly, fly! —Keats, "Endymion"
PREFACE
A small boy who wanted to make a good impression once took his little sweetheart to an ice cream parlor. After he had vainly searched the list of edibles for something within his means, he whispered to the waiter, "Say, Mister, what you got that looks tony an' tastes nice for nineteen cents?"
This is the predicament of many people these days. Like the boy, they have thin wallets, fat appetites and strong desires to make the best possible impression within their seemingly meager means. Perhaps having been "invited out," they learn by actual demonstration that the herbs can be culinary magic which converts cheap cuts and "scraps" into delicious dainties. This is how they become aware of the fact that, by using herbs, they can afford to play host and hostess to a larger number of hungry and envious friends than they had imagined.
Maybe it is due to these yearnings, and to the memories of mother's and grandmother's famous dishes, that so many inquiries concerning the propagation, cultivation, curing, and uses of culinary herbs are asked of authorities on gardening and cookery. And maybe it is because no one has really loved these simple herbs enough to publish a book on the subject.
That herbs are easy to grow as I can testify, for I have grown them all. I can also bear witness to the fact that they reduce the cost of high living, if, by that phrase we mean pleasing the palate without offending the purse.
For instance, a few days ago a friend paid twenty cents for soup beef, and five cents for "soup greens." The addition of salt, pepper and other ingredients brought the initial cost up to twenty-nine cents. This made enough soup for ten or twelve liberal servings. The lean meat removed from the soup was minced and mixed with not more than ten cents' worth of diced potatoes, stale bread crumbs, milk, seasoning and herbs before being baked as a supper dish for five people, who by their bland smiles and "scotch plates" attested that the viands both looked "classy" and tasted nice.
I am glad to acknowledge my thanks to Mr. N. R. Graves of Rochester, N. Y., and Prof. R. L. Watts of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural College, for the photographic illustrations, and to Mr. B. F. Williamson, the Orange Judd Co.'s artist, for the pen and ink drawings which add so much to the value, attractiveness and interest of these pages.
If this book shall instill or awaken in its readers the wholesome though "cupboard" love that the culinary herbs deserve both as permanent residents of the garden and as masters of the kitchen, it will have accomplished the object for which it was written.
