Herbs

Lavender

Lavender is my favorite amongst the herbs that I grow. I love the smell of the flowers. It reminds me of my childhood days where everything is perfumed with lavender like soaps and lotions and perfumes. I always spray my handkerchief with the perfume and smells it every time and it always make me feel…

Spearmint

Spearmint is the most commonly used type in the family of mint. They refer to it as mint in recipes like the Vietnamese summer rolls or in the cocktail drinks like mojito. There are other varieties like peppermint, pineapple mint and chocolate mint. I just like to have them in the garden to use as…

Lemon Basil

Lemon Basil is a special type of basil for me because I use it to flavor my green tea just like the lemon verbena. It really has that refreshingly good taste when you drink the tea with it. I always keep lemon basil in my herb garden but this one started to flower no matter…

Lemon Verbena

Lemon Verbena is my favorite herb in the garden. I like to use it for flavoring my tea. Ever since I recovered from cancer, I have to make sure to drink green tea for its antioxidant properties but I don’t particularly like the taste of it, so I have this idea of putting an herb…

Kinchay

Kinchay is an herb like celery but it is mainly the leaves that are being utilized. It is equivalent to lovage. I use it in stir-fries, chop suey, fried rice and noodles especially pancit bihon. Kinchay would also go together with green onions as a garnish for rice soup we call arroz caldo. The Kinchay…

Oregano

Oregano is an herb that is mostly used in Italian cooking like pizza and pasta. I grow up using dried oregano for meat dishes along with other spices like bay leaf and safflower. I have never seen fresh oregano then. When I started gardening, I tried to look for all culinary herbs I can find….