Do you use bay leaves?

[taxlady]

LOL - those sure don't look like basil or thyme to me!

<snip>

You're right. The leaves are wrong. I didn't notice, but I have a migraine.

 

[pepperhead212]

Mint does grow as a weed. It was planted around my back yard, when I bought the house, so I pulled 6 of them up, and put them in a surrounded flower bed, and it took a few years, but totally filled in the bed, choking out just about everything else. Took several years to get the last one out of the yard!
Mint patch 6-4 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I have 2 friends I save this with, and it never shows! And it is never killed by cold.

I forgot to mention, @dragnlaw - tarragon, while a perennial that comes up almost every year (extreme cold can kill it), I stopped growing it when I found out that Thai basil is a very good substitute for tarragon, and actually tastes better (to me, at least). And I always have it growing, inside or out!

 

[dragnlaw]

I had the most beautiful "bush" of tarragon at the farm. Had to cut it back to about a foot 2 or 3 times during the summer. Was huge and very polific.
I left it with the farm when I moved, never dreaming that suddenly not a single nursery around would have any - and nobody (at least in the nursery's) had an answer as to why.
So I buy those expensive little packets at the grocers when I want/need some. Can never use it all and the rest invariably get tossed.
I will try to root it next time - why did I never think to do that?

I know it's not everyone taste but I especially love it with fish. Of course, licorice is one of my all time favourite flavours,

ps, I'm not very good with Thai basil, either inside or out.

 

[Marlingardener]

Dragnlaw, I make a stuffed salmon with cornbread dressing liberally laced with tarragon. We love it!
I also put a few bay leaves in the pantry where the pasta and flour is stored. It repels pantry moths.
Bay leaves also go into stews, both pork and beef. Fishing out the leaves when the dish is done is always entertaining.

 

[pepperhead212]

@dragnlaw Have you tried rooting that tarragon you buy, and get excess of? Cuttings root very well, dipped in some Roottone, or a gel rooting thing.

 

[dragnlaw]

Dragnlaw, I make a stuffed salmon with cornbread dressing liberally laced with tarragon. We love it!
I also put a few bay leaves in the pantry where the pasta and flour is stored. It repels pantry moths.
Bay leaves also go into stews, both pork and beef. Fishing out the leaves when the dish is done is always entertaining.

Remember to count them going in and count them coming out! LOL

@dragnlaw Have you tried rooting that tarragon you buy, and get excess of? Cuttings root very well, dipped in some Roottone, or a gel rooting thing.

Was thinking of doing that next time I purchase. I have some powder ... somewhere ... all I have to do is find it.

 

[fmw]

Bay is a very popular herb. I use it often.

 

[blissful]

I need to get some bay leaves. I assume I've been using laurel bay leaves. I came across indian bay leaves, they said they were bigger and had a different flavor. Anyone know more about this?

 

[pepperhead212]

Yes, @blissful, those Indian bay leaves look similar, but are a totally different herb. They are known as tejpatta, and what they are actually are cassia leaves, and have a faint cinnamon flavor in them. Often Indian recipes will just refer to them as bay leaf, but these are the ones they probably mean, not the bay laurel leaves we use most of the time.

 

[blissful]

@pepperhead212 THANKS!

 

[taxlady]

Yes, @blissful, those Indian bay leaves look similar, but are a totally different herb. They are known as tejpatta, and what they are actually are cassia leaves, and have a faint cinnamon flavor in them. Often Indian recipes will just refer to them as bay leaf, but these are the ones they probably mean, not the bay laurel leaves we use most of the time.

Don't the Indian bay leaves have what look (in photos) like straight veins running the length of the leaves?

 

[dragnlaw]

Yeah, I just looked it up too, taxy. Sure do look as if the veins run the length - would love to see more pictures that depict them better.

pepper, do you have any that you could photograph for us?

 

[dragnlaw]

It's OK pepper found some good ones.

 

[jennyema]

LOL - those sure don't look like basil or thyme to me!

msmofet - have you done these? or at least one or two of them?
and the base stems didn't rot?

The thyme is dill

 

[jennyema]

Grew 2 mint plants in the corner of my garden abutting my neighbors. By the next year they had taken over their yards and they were having mojito parties!

 

[medtran49]

Mint is supposed to grow like a weed in Britain but I have no luck with it at all. (Tiny pot growing currently, but so small I feel mean taking any leaves from it!) My Bay plant - which nearly died in a pot - is now flourishing, (replanted in the ground) and I absolutely adore going out in any weather to take some leaves from it!

It grows like wild in South Florida so has to be in a pot so it doesn't completely take over.

I had some in a pot with holes in the bottom for drainage sitting directly on the ground. Everything seemed to be okay until 1 year when a hurricane was coming and everything needed to be brought in so things didn't become missiles in the wind. I went to pick up the pot and nope, couldn't pick it up. The roots had grown through the holes. My husband tried to pick it up, nope. This was a 12 inch pot. We ended up leaving it in place and it didn't budge a bit in 110+ miles per hour winds. After the hurricane passed and we got everything cleaned up, I ended up taking a knife and cutting the roots. Bought concrete stepping stones to sit the mint and oregano pots on.

I also ended up with a rosemary bush, about 3.5 feet tall and nearly that around that was planted in the ground.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yep, even in Canada, mint should only be planted in pots. It can and does take over gardens here too.

 

[taxlady]

I have had mint that tried to escape the pot. It sent tendrils into the pots nearby and started growing in them. One tendril was growing along the concrete and heading for the grass.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

"If you run out of deodorant go into the kitchen and put a bay leaf under each arm. It won't help you stop perspiring but you'll smell like soup" ~ George Carlin

 

[neikom729]

i use bay leaves in sauces, gravies, and tomato-based dishes. its taste's very good