Identification of Herbs

Each week, I tell myself:  Write your post early.  Stop procrastinating.  Yet, each week, I find myself in a similar predicament, one very similar to many a predicament I found myself in 15 years ago, while in college.  I am sitting at my computer (in college, it was my word processor), at the last minute, trying to decide what to write.  As the infamous philosopher, S. Bauer, once said, “I’m a procrastinator with a problem.”

What should I write?  I toss around several ideas including, tips and tricks for growing peppers, my recent venture to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream shop, a recipe for broccoli and smoked trout casserole created by my husband, and the identification of herbs.  As you can tell by the title of this post, I settled on the identification of herbs.  Why? I often buy dried herbs, and I assume, that some of you, like me, may have difficulty identifying fresh herbs.

Case and point.  Last week, my husband Josh, was at our neighbor Paul’s.  Paul has a lovely garden.  He grows everything from tomatoes, to peppers, to zucchini, to corn, to beans, and peaches.  He also grows herbs and an abundance of them.  When I got home from work, Josh had put fresh herbs Paul had given him in a Ball canning jar and displayed them like a bouquet of flowers.  My response:  Those are beautiful.  What all’s in there?

I was able to identify some of the herbs, like rosemary and mint.  Rosemary has a distinctive look to it and mint has a distinctive smell to it.  However, others in the jar, like this one……..

…….. stumped me.  Here are a couple of chart’s that I found helpful in identifying the remaining herbs, including the oregano, pictured above:

I would also suggest this article:  http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/abraham/fresh-herbs-flavor-the-day-1.312166?ot=akron.PhotoGalleryLayout.ot&s=1.312142.

Happy cooking.

Emily is a wife, mother, and attorney living on the banks of the Ohio.