Timeless Herb Secrets

Egg Salad Sandwich With Dill

Here's a mouth-watering recipe I found at The Food and Cooking Network. With over 100,000 world class recipes, the E-cookbooks Library is the leading source of cookbooks on the internet. Unlike most other recipe sites, you can download entire cookbooks with just one click!

This egg salad sandwich is a straightforward classic. Toss some fresh chopped dill with the chopped lettuce and nestle the egg salad between slices of chewy olive bread and the classic is reborn.

For the hard-boiled eggs, use eggs that are as fresh as possible - the flavour will be better and the colour deeper yellow-orange. Best are farm-fresh eggs from the farmers market, but supermarket eggs are fine.

To hard-cook them, place them in a pot, cover with cold water, bring them to a boil, remove from the heat, cover the pot and let it stand 25 minutes. (But you knew that.) Pour off the warm water and peel them under cold running water while they're still warm.

Egg Salad Sandwich with Dill

8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
2 tablespoons minced onion
¼ cup minced celery
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons white vinegar
¼ cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
2 tablespoons chopped dill
8 slices olive bread
Cracked black pepper

1. Chop the eggs. Stir in the onion, celery, mustard, vinegar, mayonnaise and salt.
Cover and chill until ready to serve.

2. Toss together the shredded lettuce and dill.

3. Divide the egg salad among 4 slices of the bread, spreading it to the corners. Grind
black pepper over the egg salad, then place equal amounts of the lettuce-dill mixture
on each sandwich. Top with the remaining bread slices. Cut in half and serve.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Eco-Friendly Cutworm Control - Part 2

In an earlier post we discussed the habits and the life cycle of cutworms.

What follows is a selection of measures that are used by food gardeners to protect their seedlings and to win the battle against cutworms. See if you can spot how these measures actually use the information in the earlier post.

As you know from Food Gardening for Beginners weed control is a critical part of any successful herb and vegetable garden. It is also a powerful weapon in the battle against cutworms as it helps to reduce worm populations. It is at its most effective when weeds are cleared some six weeks before your crops are established.

Mulches, especially an oak leaf mulch, are good general deterrents creating a breeding ground for beneficial fungi which attack cutworms.

The cardboard inner from a toilet paper roll, or a 10 cm paper towel roll, inserted into the soil to create a fence around each seedling is also very effective.

Another even more laborious idea is to 'stake' each seedling with a matchstick, toothpick or nail. This prevents the worm from wrapping itself around the seedling and chomping through the whole stem.

The cutworms can also be repelled by interplanting with marigolds, onions or tansy. You can also spray your seedlings with a very strong tansy brew made by steeping a cup of finely chopped tansy overnight in two cups of boiling water.

Another murderous method is to capitalize on their greediness and set baits made from molasses and sawdust around the seedlings. The cutworms will gorge themselves and, sticky and helpless, will lie on top of the soil where they will either die or are snapped up by the birds.

There you have it, seven ways to help win the battle against cutworms. Let me know which ones worked for you.

Herb and Rose Geranium Punch

Rose geraniums always reminds me of my late granny and for that reason they are one of my favourite herbs. Before I share one of the recipes from our family heirloom recipe book here are some interesting titbits about rose geraniums.

• They are native to South Africa.
• They cool themselves by releasing oil from glands on the back of their leaves.
• Oil distilled from the common rose geranium is often used in the perfume industry in place of the expensive Attar of Rose oil.
• Scented geraniums will grow anywhere other pelargoniums thrive and are very adaptable.

Herb and Rose Geranium Punch

2 sprigs each lemon verbena, mint and sage
1 small sprig rosemary
6 rose geranium leaves
1 bottle chilled dry white wine
1 bottle chilled sparkling wine
1 bottle chilled lemonade
borage and/or geranium flowers

1. Bruise the herbs with a rolling pin and place in a bowl or jug.
2. Add dry white wine and infuse, covered, overnight.
3. Just before serving add chilled sparkling wine and lemonade and float borage and geranium flowers.

For an alcohol free punch replace the dry wine and sparkling wine with a bottle of ginger ale and a bottle of soda water.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Eco-Friendly Cutworm Control - Part 1

Cutworms are true guerilla fighters - greedy, deceitful and destructive.

With their greedy appetites they can be extremely destructive when your seedlings emerge. Moving along the row eating right through the tender young stems, they ruin the whole plant. First prize for them is beans, brinjals, crucifers, cucurbits, peas, potatoes and tomatoes. But almost any seedling will do, as long as it is young, juicy and tender.

Being guerilla fighters they also need to tighten their belts when the situation warrants. So during boot camp they undergo intensive survival training which enables them to survive for up to fourteen days without feeding.

Their dull coloured grayish-brown caterpillar bodies has a smooth, greasy appearance which is well camouflaged. They search and destroy (feed) under the cover of darkness. During the day they hide shallowly in the soil in the vicinity of their next raid. When exposed by a vigilant food gardener they will curl up into a tight ring.

To make things interesting for us food gardeners there are four battalions (different species) of cutworms. The most abundant species in South Africa is the common cutworm - no prizes for guessing that right. The others being the black cutworm, brown cutworm and grey cutworm.

Like their offspring the adult moths are also well camouflaged with their rather nondescript appearance. The forewings are grayish or brownish with dark brown or black markings. The hind wings are usually whitish. They measure about 40 mm across spread wings.

The females will lay 1000 or more eggs in groups on the soil or on the lower parts of weeds and other plants. She also operates at night and her offspring will go through six larval states which they will complete in between 25 to 128 days depending on temperatures. This means that in temperate regions there is fortunately not often more than one generation per year. But in warm climates there may be up to four generations.

They are worthy and destructive opponents and to this end commercial growers often resort to soil insecticides. Unfortunately these insecticides will also kill off a host of other beneficial soil organisms which makes them a no-no for food gardeners.

In part 2 of this article we will look at safe and effective eco-friendly ways to combat these little pests.

Source: Insects and Mites of Cultivated Plants in South Africa by D.P. Annecke and V.C. Moran.