Yarb Tales

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and helps us to interpret the history of the human use of plants. These are amazing herbal opportunity not to be missed!

2012 Heritage Herb Garden Events

MEADOWCREEKLINK Cold Frame Construction Workshop

February 18, 2012

www.meadowcreeklink.com or call (870) 213-5785

9:00 a.m. (Meet at the Bois D’arc Center near the main OFC entrance)

Heritage Seed Swap

February 18, 2012

1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. (Bois D’arc Center)

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and helps us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and helps us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

The practice of culling is a selective process. With the New Year there is an inherent drive to go through drawers, closets, the freezer and the pantry to discard old, useless stuff, take inventory and make room for prosperity to enter our lives.

Cold frames are the gardeners’ friend in the fall, winter and early spring. The structures can be made of many kinds of materials. The supporting pieces should be strong enough to withstand blustery winds, snow and ice loads; PVC pipe, treated wood, cinder blocks, fieldstone and straw bales have all been used to assemble cold frames. The top covering must allow sunlight to enter the interior; plastic and glass are used in a variety of ways, from using found and repurposed materials, to fancy and expensive kits. Cold frames can be built over pits in the ground that drain well so that plants are protected from hard freeze by the constant underground temperature of 50° to 55° F.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and helps us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

Here we are, poised to celebrate Christmas and then say goodbye and hello to another year. I want to use this space to thank the members of this diverse community who come together to make the Ozark Folk Center what it is. You know who you are. Now consider yourself hugged, if you are a hugging person or simply acknowledged, if that is your preference.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and helps us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

Herbed oils, when safely made, labeled, stored and consumed in a timely manner, are delicious additions to many home-cooked dishes and can also be used in body care products. First, obtain small quantities of high-quality seed and nut oils. Oils become rancid because of oxidation without artificial preservatives. There is no sense in wasting good money on large bottles, which cannot be used quickly enough. Oils should be cold or expeller-pressed, preferably organic; you shouldn’t put any oil on your skin that you wouldn’t put in your body. Many folks change to higher quality oils after researching on how most commercial cooking oils are processed.

Herbed vinegars make creative, tasty and beautiful gifts. Vinegar is used for preserving food such as cucumbers, dill and spices. If you have pickled produce from the garden, then you have already played with the flavor of herbed vinegar.

The basic safety rules should be followed to avoid problems. First, select glass containers that can be sealed with plastic or cork. Metal lids, including canning jar lids, are corroded by the acidity of vinegar. Sanitize your bottles by washing them first and then immersing in simmering water for ten minutes. Invert the bottles to drain out the water and be ready to make the herbed vinegars while the bottles are still warm.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park visually with colors and textures; scents the air with sweet and pungent aromas and helps us to interpret the history of the human use of plants. 

Precipitation has increased while daylight hours have shortened and daily average temperatures are steadily falling. On sunny days, there is still much to do in the herb garden. Though specimen plants are going dormant, we can still see the overall space they take in the garden. Winter greenery carpets the earth. Chickweed, henbit and a host of little annual grasses appear innocent in their youth. These, alongside violets and white asters, both perennial wildflowers, snuggle up tightly to the roots of more desirable herbs. Plants that benefit from occasional division, such as Echinacea (purple and yellow coneflower), oregano and the mints are dormant enough to be extracted from the soil, hacked into pieces and replanted. Volunteer seedlings of parsley and nigella can be transplanted now.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas. With their natural display, the herbs help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

The movement of plants around the world is accomplished, in part, by folks who love them. Early explorers were usually accompanied by botanists who cataloged and returned home with samples of exotic species. New acquisitions were at first guarded in the glass houses and formal gardens of the gentry class. If they were proven hardy and tough, these new herbs and flowers made their way into the gardens of the common people. Sometimes, very adaptable plants escaped into the countryside and became wildflowers and weeds.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center grace the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

As folks drive around and hike through the autumn landscape here in the Ozarks they sometimes come across greenish-yellow fruits about the size of grapefruits, littered under thorny trees with clear, yellow leaves. The common names for the fruit are Osage orange, horse-apple or hedge-apple and the tree is called Bois D’Arc, Maclura pomifera.

The trees or large shrubs have short trunks and a rounded crown. The lower limbs are often shaded out by those growing above and will persist on the trees for years unless they are pruned. Sharp spines immerge from every leaf axil.

Bean Fest 2011 marked the first time I have ever participated as an official cooker. Paul White of Native Tones Landscaping, invited me to work with him and John Jones to cook and season the beans. Paul wanted to use as many local ingredients as we could find to showcase Arkansas and support the farmers that are our neighbors.

In Stone County, Cynthia Cox still had three pounds of garlic left from her crop. We beat the bushes for more, but everyone had either already sold what they grew for market or did not get back in touch. For more information on our farmers’ market, check out www.stonecountyfarmersmarket.com. Several pounds of chiles were donated by Renee Taylor, woman-about-town in Mountain View. We bought a pound of cumin seed from Stone Ground Natural Foods, our local health food store—no one we knew had grown that tasty seed though it could be done next year. Cumin seed is the traditional spice used in southwestern-style pinto beans.

The Sumptuous Herb Harvest Supper and the Herb Harvest Fall Festival, held on September 29 through October 1 is now a vibrant memory. The supper sold out with a long waiting list. The festival had record-breaking attendance. Herb Society of America-Ozark Unit members Dot Sanders, Beth Peck Cooper, Phyllis Williams, Suzanne Runsick, Susan Belsinger and Trish Nelson headed the committees that saturated the senses of our guests with the dances, flavors, sights and sounds of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria on the night of the supper. Diners were greeted by a costumed volunteer dance ensemble as they gathered in the lobby of the Administration Building to await entrance to the reception. Libations and mezes were served around the spring and waterfall garden. The supper was based on the foods of Israel with three plated entrees. The Skillet’s kitchen staff, headed by Barb Wilson worked for days to prepare the dishes for not only the supper but also the two lunches that were included in the festival’s offerings.

Rosemary is the herb of remembrance. We use its sprigs to welcome guests attending our annual Sumptuous Herb Harvest Supper. As a seasoning, it is used either fresh or dried, in chicken, pork, beef, potatoes, beans, corn, breads, and even cookies! This is not a sweet herb, rather, an assertive, pungent, resinous flavoring. It has been used to remedy depression, nervous exhaustion, headaches, poor circulation, rheumatism, dandruff and hair loss. Extreme over use can cause abortion in pregnant women and convulsions.

Over the years the Heritage Herb Garden has acquired at least fourteen different varieties of rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis. There are two distinct groups, the upright and the prostrate. Upright rosemary varieties are usually the hardier of the two. They grow into shrubs that can attain the height of six feet and about the same in breadth. Prostrate rosemary tends to grow down, cascading over walls or setting down roots along low growing branches to form a thick hedge. From the cook's point of view, all rosemary varieties can be used whether thin or thick-leaved, pink or blue-flowered, or pine-scented. The varieties have different aromas, slightly different flavors, and varied physical characteristics, such as plant and leaf size, variegation, flower color, and cold-hardiness. As you visit gardens and nurseries, choose the varieties with qualities that appeal to you.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center grace the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

The rose has been declared the Herb of the Year 2012 by the International Herb Association. Watch for opportunities to learn everything that you might want to know about growing and using the Herb of the Year in the media and in programs during the year shared by experts from national herb and garden organizations. Herb of the Year books are available at www.iherb.org and at the Herb Shoppe in the Ozark Folk Center’s Craft Village. The stinking rose, garlic, was the International Herb Association’s Herb of the Year 2004. Whether you grow it for the food market, braid it with everlastings for home décor, or keep it for your own kitchen, garlic is an immensely valuable herb and now is the time to plant.

Hay fever symptoms have been exploding out of the noses of many of us for the past several weeks. One of the most allergenic plants causing the sneezing, watery, itchy eyes and coughing is ragweed. We in the Ozarks have two native species, common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisifolia and giant ragweed, A. trifida. Both are annuals that produce hundreds of burr-covered seeds that disperse on the fur and feathers of wildlife. Two good points about the plants are that the seeds are important food for songbirds and the leaves are food for the larvae of moths and butterflies.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center grace the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants. You, too, can grow handy, flavorful herbs in your garden.

Autumn is the very best time to begin a new herb garden. Choose a location that receives at least six hours of full sun and drains well. Fork or dig up all of the plants within the garden boundary. Pay special attention to removing roots. Turn in organic matter. Mulch the paths with bark. Before planting, it is prudent to erect a protective boundary around the new garden space. “Good fences make good neighbors.”

Now is a good time to harvest oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, and winter savory to dry for winter use. The plants will benefit from the pruning. New growth will have time to harden off before cold weather sets in. The essential oils in our Mediterranean herbs will be very strong this year because it has been so hot and dry. There is always a silver lining in the garden, even when the clouds have been few and far between!

If this is the first harvest of the season, there is likely much corrective pruning to do on the day before. Assess each plant individually to give it care. A ‘preparation’ day will divide the work. Plants get pruned up and washed on the first day and then harvested the morning after.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center grace the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants. It is time to plan and prepare for Harvest Festival!

Our community has so much fun in October. The winding roads from every direction into Mountain View are draped in majestic mahogany, orange, and pink provided by dogwood, sweet gum, sumac, and poison ivy leaves. Maple and sycamore trees shimmer gold and the land trails the royal robe with drifts of asters, goldenrod, prairie dock, and wingstem. Yards on farms and in town sport hay bales with pumpkins and gourds piled ‘round. Scarecrow vignettes bring life and comedy to the theatre of autumn. Folks plant masses of pansies and flowering cabbage. Pots of chrysanthemums pop instant color into the displays.

The following paraphrased words are often spoken at the Ozark Folk Center. “My parents and grandparents knew how to do this stuff and I regret that I was too young (disinterested or self-involved) to learn from them while I could.” “Now I want to know.”

Gardeners with that wistful sentiment get a second chance in the book, Gardens of Use & Delight—Uniting the Practical and Beautiful in an Integrated Landscape by Jigs and Jo Ann Gardner. City and country, beginners and old-timers alike can have this story and reference gardening tome.

Part One of the book sets the stage with some background on the Gardner’s family and mind-set. During the late fifties and early sixties, these two raised four children on Jig’s college teacher salary, wild foods foraging and a flock of chickens. Little did they know that they were on the cutting edge of the back-to-the-land movement when they rented a farmhouse in northern Vermont in 1962. They honed their animal husbandry and gardening skills there. When the farm came up for sale they bought their own farm on an island in the North Atlantic. The book is the amazing story of how they survived on what they grew on marginally productive land and created a beautiful home at the same time. Readers will learn from the Gardner’s mistakes as well as their hard-won successes.

The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center graces the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas. With their natural display, the herbs help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

I am writing this column on Monday morning, August 1, 2011. The forecasted highs for this week in Little Rock, Arkansas and Springfield, Missouri are between 98° and 103° F. The Web site, droughtmonitor.unl.edu, features a drought map. We, here in the Arkansas Ozarks, are experiencing a moderate drought and which seems not so bad compared to Texas which has large areas of something awful called “exceptional drought”.

I am writing to you from the International Herb Association Educational Conference and Meeting of Members, held this year in Midland, Michigan. Friends, mentors and my herbal heroes are taking the stage to keep us on the cutting edge of the industry. Like the auditorium at the Ozark Folk Center during the Heritage Herb Spring Extravaganza and Herb Harvest Fall Festival, the seats are randomly filled with intensely interested herbalists. Here, the schedule of subjects and selection of presenters is of the highest caliber. Many of us look around and ask ourselves, “where are all the rest of the people who need this information?” We are hearing about selecting old roses, eating healthily, feeding the soil, growing crops year round in temperate climates, and using social media for marketing, just to name a few topics offered at this event.

Plants and gardeners have to be tough to survive hot and dry summer weather. Those of us who work in the great outdoors may experience muscle cramping. To remedy this, we must drink plenty of water and replace the minerals that are lost through perspiration by eating potassium-rich foods such as bananas, oranges and tomatoes.

During times of stress, our plants need potassium oxide, commonly called potash. This is a major plant nutrient, the K in the NPK fertilizers. It strengthens plant cells, especially the outer “skin” through the production of proteins, sugars and starches. The toughening of the epidermis of plants protects them from disease infection and excessive water loss. Potassium plays an important role in root growth. Without a healthy root system, plants cannot take up enough water and nutrients from the soil.