Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses by Kains, M. G.

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

CULINARY HERBS

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LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., Limited
1912

Copyright, 1912

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England

Printed in U. S. A.

Transcriber's Note: The quality of the illustrations are not excellent, but all have been placed.

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 little sweetheart to an ice cream parlor. After he had vainly searched the list of edibles for something within his means, he whispered to the waiter, "Say, Mister, what you got that looks tony an' tastes nice for nineteen cents?"

This is precisely the predicament in which many thousand people are today. Like the boy, they have skinny
purses, voracious appetites and mighty yearnings to make the best possible impression within their means.
Perhaps having been "invited out," they learn by actual demonstration that the herbs are culinary magicians
which convert cheap cuts and "scraps" into toothsome dainties. They are thus aroused to the fact that by using
herbs they can afford to play host and hostess to a larger number of hungry and envious friends than ever
before.

Maybe it is mainly due to these yearnings and to the memories of mother's and grandmother's famous dishes
that so many inquiries concerning the propagation, cultivation, curing and uses of culinary herbs are asked of
authorities on gardening and cookery; and maybe it is because no one has really loved the herbs enough to
publish a book on the subject. That herbs are easy to grow I can abundantly attest, for I have grown them all. I
can also bear ample witness to the fact that they reduce the cost of high living, if by that phrase is meant
pleasing the palate without offending the purse.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Culinary Herbs, by M. G. Kains.

ByM. G. KAINSAssociate Editor American Agriculturist

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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 other ingredients brought the initial cost up to twenty-nine cents. This made
enough soup for ten or twelve liberal servings. The lean meat removed from the soup was minced and mixed
with not more than ten cents' worth of diced potatoes, stale bread crumbs, milk, seasoning and herbs before
being baked as a supper dish for five people, who by their bland smiles and "scotch plates" attested that the
viands both looked "tony" and tasted nice.

I am glad to acknowledge my thanks to Mr. N. R. Graves of Rochester, N. Y., and Prof. R. L. Watts of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural College, for the photographic illustrations, and to Mr. B. F. Williamson, the Orange Judd Co.'s artist, for the pen and ink drawings which add so much to the value, attractiveness and interest of these pages.

If this book shall instill or awaken in its readers the wholesome though "cupboard" love that the culinary herbs deserve both as permanent residents of the garden and as masters of the kitchen, it will have accomplished the object for which it was written.

M. G. Kains.

New York, 1912.

CONTENTS

Page

Preface

v

A Dinner of Herbs

7

Culinary Herbs Defined

11

History

12