When it comes to saving money by growing your own food, herbs are big-ticket items. Dried herbs from the store are costly, and most are far from fresh. It’s fortunate that many familiar kitchen herbs are easy to grow, and most can be preserved by simply drying them. When alternate methods are needed, such as with basil, they are discussed in the individual entries below.
Tea herbs grown for drinking also deserve a place in the homegrown pantry, and you may be surprised at how many plants — not all of them herbs — are safe and useful when used as tea herbs. Raspberry leaves, for example, impart the musky flavor notes of black tea, and fine bits of dried rhubarb will make any tea taste like lemon. In winter, it’s great fun to get out your collection of dried tea herbs and make up blends for the coming week.
I’ll cover kitchen herbs first, and then come back to herbs for tea. You can add medicinal herbs to your collection, too, but that’s a subject big enough for another book. Besides, when you eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits, and then add refreshing teas made with antioxidant-rich herbs to your diet, you may not need medicinal herb plants beyond a pot of aloe stationed in the kitchen, its magic leaf gel ready to heal minor burns.