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 littlesweetheart to an ice cream parlor. After he had vainly searched the listof edibles for something within his means, he whispered to the waiter,"Say, Mister, what you got that looks tony an' tastes nice for nineteencents?"
This is precisely the predicament in which many thousand people aretoday. Like the boy, they have skinny purses, voracious appetites andmighty yearnings to make the best possible impression within theirmeans. Perhaps having been "invited out," they learn by actualdemonstration that the herbs are culinary magicians which convert cheapcuts and "scraps" into toothsome dainties. They are thus aroused to thefact that by using herbs they can afford to play host and hostess to alarger number of hungry and envious friends than ever before.
Maybe it is mainly due to these yearnings and to the memories ofmother's and grandmother's famous dishes that so many inquiriesconcerning the propagation, cultivation, curing and uses of culinaryherbs are asked of authorities on gardening and cookery; and maybe it isbecause no one has really loved the herbs enough to publish a book onthe subject. That herbs are easy to grow I can abundantly attest, for Ihave grown them all. I can also bear ample witness to the fact that theyreduce the cost of high living, if by that phrase is meant pleasing thepalate 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 otheringredients brought the initial cost up to twenty-ni