Guess What They Are

Shown in the above two pictures: they are plants, they are organics. Guess what they are and what they are for?

Basil - My New Passion

I used to like cilantro as a child because of its sweet penetrating aroma. I especially liked to pick and clean cilantro for the New Year's Eve feast so my fingers had the lingering aromatic smell. Not any more. I have now my new passion for basil, or the sweet basil to be exact.

I was first introduced to basil for the well-known Taiwanese cuisine SanBeiJi, a pan-fried chicken with fried basil leaves and sesame oil. The basil smells so good, I started to grow it in our backyard garden. The dish cooked with our organic basil is so tasty, that is when I became addicted to the sweet basil. I bought the basil seeds to grow but didn't succeed. I bought the basil seedlings from the supermarket, but they wilted and died before I got the chance to transplant them. Finally the past spring I bought eight healthy organic (?) basil seedlings from the Worthington Farmers' Market, and it worked out pretty well.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is a tender low-growing culinary herb in the mint family, and it is easy to propagate by cuttings. The strong clove scent of sweet basil is derived from eugenol, the same essential oil as actual cloves.

The word Basil comes from the Greek basileus, meaning "king". Many cookery authors consider basil as the "king of herbs".

Mountain Rose Herbs

Today NPR’s morning edition introduced a Eugene, Oregon-based company Mountain Rose Herbs, which undergoes substantial growth despite the great recession. Eugene, Oregon was a place we planned to relocate and visited last year. Herbs or plants in a broader sense are my lifelong passion, and organics are my new-found interest. All the above three reasons led me into an online research on this company Mountain Rose Herbs.

Since 1987, Mountain Rose Herbs offers one of the most thorough selections of certified organic herbs, spices and botanicals in the United States. Dried herbs, plant extracts, essential oils are among their products, sustainability and fair trade are their pledge, executive pay cap is the lowest level nationwide, not more than 3.5 times of the entry level pay.

Another interesting finding is the Columbines School of Botanical Studies, also based in Eugene, Oregon, which offers an educational program ranging from entry level lectures in community herbalism to a two plus year program including botany, ecology, wildcrafting, plant pharmacy, physiology, pathophysiology, and clinical herbalism.

With all these interesting people, business, and education opportunities, I might have to reconsider our relocation plan.