buying herbs

boyohboyohboy wrote: ok, so now that I am learning to cook, where do you buy your herbs?
i tried to do some fresh herbs from the grocery store this weekend, and it was ok...but I want to get some dried herbs...my mother told me to get them at the dollar store they are cheaper..
where do you get yours?

lovemy2 replied: Do you have any kind of farmer's market? Not sure where you live so it may not be in season right now but we have a Public Market that is an outdoor market every weekend in the summer and it has great stuff like that.....

PrairieMom replied: I get mine from my garden.
You can get them in the spice section at the grocery store. I wouldn't buy anything you ingest at the $1 store. But thats just me, and I am a freak that way.

mommy~to~a~bunch replied:
That stuff is SCARY .

ETA: I buy the organic ones at the grocery store.

boyohboyohboy replied:
thats kinda what i was thinking..
its hard for me to think of using real fresh herbs, i feel like i am adding grass to my food.
how did u get used to it?

i made a beef stew this weekend and added parsley, and i cut it as fine as my knife would let me, which wasnt that fine, and it kinda bothered me thinking of this grass in my food.

how hard is it to grow an herb garden?
we have very little real warm weather..

luvmykids replied: Fresh herbs taste much better, they have a lot more flavor. You can grow a few of your favorites on a window sill. I think they even sell little herb kits.

boyohboyohboy replied: ok then is there a book that tells you what herbs to use in what..or what kind of taste an herb has?
like if i wanted to use lets say, rosemary, how would i know what kinds of foods to put it on..

there is this one time when i first met my husband that he told me he liked oregano so i added it, a lot of it, to some ravioli i had made, it was so bad!!!
he ate it though being such a good sport..

gr33n3y3z replied:
I grow mine also

And I also agree

boyohboyohboy replied: so if i start growing some...which ones do i start with?
i checked out this areo chamber thing and chia also has a starter kit...
which ones did u guys start with?

PrairieMom replied:
I love fresh Dill, and garlic, although, I guess it isn't really a herb, it IS used for flavoring foods.
I guess you just have to buy a few and taste them to see if you like them or not, and experiment to find out how to use them. The ones that I use most are oregano, basil, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder.

lisar replied: I buy them at the Farmers market here. But I plan on planting my own garden this year and plan on growing some.

luvmykids replied:
Rosemary is great with lemon, I get chicken thighs and put them in a big baggie with cut up lemons and rosemary sprigs overnight, then grill them

I agree with Tara, it's worth experimenting to find out what you like before you start growing stuff you don't

eta: You can also go on a recipe site, like allrecipes.com and type in an herb in the search box, it will pull up recipes that have that particular herb in it. Or just try a google search on an herb you're interested in....

Cece00 replied: I dont use fresh herbs too often, I prefer dried honestly.

Remember that when you use fresh, the taste can be a LOT stronger & you dont want to add it as early as you would with dried.

My2Beauties replied: I use dried herbs, I just get them at the grocery store, but my dad also bought me a spice rack when we moved into our new house, so I have a lot of them on that thing too, like 24 of them I believe. Some of them I have never used don't know what they are for. I use garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, italian herbs, seasoning salt, and a few others a lot, can't remember names. Oooh I used cinnamon and mixed it with butter the other night to put on some rolls I made, cinnamon butter....YUM!

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: Stacy you crack me up, "like throwing grass on my food"! You would die if you saw all the "grass" like foods I eat. I just ate an arugula salad for lunch and it literally looks like tall weeds!! Love it!! I agree with the others, just experiment. Fresh really is better than dried. I will always remember this Queer Eye episode that I watched where the cooking guy made fun of the straight guy with dried parsley. He said dried parsley has the equivlance to confetti, totally useless and makes a really big mess. The only thing I used dried for are spices like cinnamon, but anything green, parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, basil, rosemary - fresh. I have a rosemary plant on my kitchen countertop, just snip and add to foods. Yum!

Rosemary is great on chicken or roasts like lamb. Also good on grilled veggies. Thyme is great on beef and lamb, especially in stews. Fresh parsley is great sprinkled on just about anything, I like it on fish with lemon and butter. Oregano and basil are great in Italian meals, like pasta or chicken. You can eat basil raw, just sprinkle on sliced tomatos with mozarella and wahla, caprise salad.

I have bought bulk dried herbs at Sam's or Costco before. They are fine.

boyohboyohboy replied:
I know rae i crack myself up! but i have never eaten as healthy as we should and with our ages getting up there and dh's recent revelation of high cholesterol, it just made me think that we need to change our life styles so we are around for our kids..
my own parent never cooked they went out for all meals. so i never learned to cook. most of what we ate was frozen or already made at the store...

so this is totally new..but so far the few things i have made i do like..

so to me looking at fresh herbs is like looking at grass, its hard to want to experiment with something, that frankly doesnt look like i want to eat it..

but i am looking at some herb gardens now and deciding which ones to get...one of those counter top ones.

grapfruit replied:
I saw on the Today Show (of course ) that dried herbs should be toss and restocked yearly as they lose their flavor. Some chef on the show said that.

Calimama replied:
Oh me either.

I buy mine at a whole foods store.

Brias3 replied: I mainly just get the dried herbs from the store during the winter, but for the last three years, I've planted an herb garden and I LOVE fresh ones when the weather permits!

So far, I've only grown oregano, basil, rosemary and parsley. I suppose I could also try the windowsill pots but haven't done so yet.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: Stacy, I just wanted to say GOOD FOR YOU for making the change and wanting to be healthy for your kids. That is so important! As a child, my mom wasn't much of a cook. She always made dinner, and we rarely went out, but we ate lots of red meat and potatoes, starchy stuff. It wasn't until my father had a heart attack at 40 and double-bypass surgery, that she changed the way we ate and how she cooked. That's when she started having my sister and I cook too (I was maybe 10 or so). And thank god for that, because my parents BOTH are gourmet cooks now and they have taught me a lot of what I know. Not tooting my own horn, but just mentioning how I think parents are such an influence on how kids will eat as adults. If you make poor food choices, eating out too much, they will too. If you don't cook, rarely will a kid learn how either. JMO. So I think you're doing a great job!!!!

My3LilMonkeys replied:
Hey now, I buy a candy bar just about every time I'm at the $1 store - they're just about the only place around that carries Heath bars.