How yellow is your macaroni salad? If you haven’t used turmeric before, be warned, “This is one yellow, but tasty, salad!”

Turmeric can spice up any salad. It has a pleasing spicy taste, in the way of a mild mustard. It’s not even mildly hot in the kind of heat that feels like it’s burning your tongue, but it gives a very slight tongue tingle when you eat enough.

Turmeric macaroni salad using one teaspoon turmeric powder instead of mustard.

This Indian spice gives a bright yellow color that’s almost psychedelically bright. At first I thought it would be a turn off, but nobody seemed to mind the color as leftovers were gone the next day. This macaroni salad uses turmeric powder instead of mustard, so it might be called a mustard substitute.

Turmeric Macaroni Salad Recipe

Boil a large pot of water and cook half a box of macaroni for about 13 minutes, until firm. Drain, rinse with cool water and shake off excess water. Transfer to large serving bowl.

While the noodles cook, chop any selection of available vegetables. In this case we chopped 2 stalks celery, grated 1 large carrot and sliced 1 fresh garlic sprout. Try adding chopped broccoli, cauliflower, onions, crushed pineapple or boiled eggs.

In separate small bowl, or mug, mix: 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 tsp. turmeric, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 2 tsp. honey, 1 tsp. cider vinegar. Add to macaroni and vegetables and mix well. Cut sprigs of fresh dill or parsley over top for serving.

One such spice is curry, a favorite food for many in India and nearby regions of the world. It’s so popular that curry is the name used for the food dish and for the spice used to make such a dish. Turmeric is the actual spice that is used to make curry. It is a deep yellow powder that is obtained from drying and grinding or pounding turmeric roots.

Turmeric root plant, Curcuma longa. Image from Franz Eugen Köhler, 1897, public domain in US.

The root of the turmeric plant contains a chemical called curcumin which is purported to have a number of health benefits. The anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin may be responsible for the observations of improved health when curry is eaten regularly.

Pre-clinical studies have shown that curcumin has positive effects on the brain in rats that were engineered to have Alzheimer’s disease. After being fed a curcumin-laced diet the rats were healthier. Their maze times improved, which speaks to a better memory, and the degree of inflammation in the brain was reduced. Perhaps one day a drug can be developed from this knowledge that will aid Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Curcumin has been shown to have anti-cancer properties, at least in Petri dishes, but those early studies spawned further investigation. At a hospital in the UK a clinical trial will study a combination therapy involving curry capsules and a chemotherapy agent on bowel cancer. It is purported that a combination of the spice plus a chemotherapy performs much better than either one alone in fighting cancer. The ultimate goal of the research is helping to understand if there are benefits to using curcumin, and if so, how much is needed.

The theory is that curcumin somehow latches onto a cancerous or damaged cell and that may trigger cell death. Killing cancerous cells is paramount to success in riding the body of cancer as that would halt the spread of the disease if the affected cells could be destroyed. Esophageal and bowel cancer are being targeted by research teams studying the health effects of turmeric and curry.

Some other benefits of turmeric include that it aids digestion, fights infections, improves skin conditions, helps heal stroke damage, and may improve the memory of dementia patients. With all these benefits, why not have a weekly curry meal?

We invite you to share your stories on how the spice turmeric has been good for your health. How do you cook with turmeric and do you find that it aids digestion? How else do people use turmeric root or preparations with curcumin?

Lemon balm was planted last year from seed and a couple of small plants survived winter here in Central Pennsylvania. They got a bit of a late start, so instead of using this herb last year we let the plants grow to establish themselves.

Lemon balm seems to be a hardy plant as evidenced by its surviving the freezing conditions. Witness the dark edges in the photo below.

(Click on any photo to see a larger image.)

Lemon balm survives freezing. Photo taken 30 March 2012.

Plants left open in the garden with no protection from winter weather overwintered just fine. The leaves are developing to a bright green color. I was very glad to have placed a long skewer into the soil next to each herb plant that was left in the garden. That way, in my early spring cleaning and weeding I wouldn’t (and didn’t!) blindly take out a potentially useful herb. It’s a good idea to mark perennial plants, like lemon balm, with stakes or some other kind of marker.

Perennial lemon balm growing bright green in the garden. Photo taken 2 May 2012.

The plants continue to grow strong now. Perhaps they’ll be good for companion planting. Does lemon balm provide any bug-away benefits? Maybe it would make a nice plant pesticide or plant companion. So, that’s it for now — the lemon balm gets to stay in the garden to act as a repellant for insects until we learn more about lemon balm and all its uses.

The citronella-like smell is what turns me off for using this herb in food, but the odor and taste probably change upon heating or blending with other herbs, so it’s worth trying out. Does anybody out there care to mention how you use lemon balm?

This is just one example of why it’s not a good idea to blindly take herbal preparations. We just don’t know enough about all the chemicals inside the multitude of plants that are used in herbal remedies.

In the reported study 83% — a whopping majority — of the people with upper urinary tract cancer were found to have changes in their kidney DNA related to a toxin from birthwort and that are known to lead to cancer.

The researchers concluded that a primary component in birthwort, called aristolochic acid, is responsible for damage to the urinary tract and kidneys. This is one nasty chemical because it damages DNA. Our bodies can correct some DNA damage as we grow and make new cells, but the damage done by consuming birthwort accumulates and eventually spells disaster.

Unfortunately, this research is only highlighting a known problem. The U.S. FDA issued a warning over ten years ago about the dangers of ingesting products that contain aristolochic acid. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has listed herbal preparations that contain this toxin as a Group 1 carcinogen since 2006.

Birthwort and many other herbal remedies are used extensively all over the world for medicinal purposes. High incidences of upper urinary tract cancer in Taiwan, China and the Balkans have been attributed to the ingestion of birthwort.

Birthwort is a plant native to Europe, but many of its relatives shouldn’t be ingested for the same reason. Plants native to the U.S. that may contain the toxic aristolochic acid include Dutchman’s pipe, wild ginger and snakeroots of the genus Asarum.

However you call them, we protect these perennial herbs from frost and freezing weather with leaves piled several inches deep. Leaves are left around the plants until the danger of frost is gone for the season. When freezing weather is forecast after a little plant growth has appeared in the new year, the leaves are there for the raking. We just pull an armful of leaves back over the top of the emerging herbs to protect them from really cold conditions.

Russian tarragon sprouting up through a layer of oak leaves. Photo taken 16 March 2012.

Near the middle of May, and probably before then for this year, the leaves will be thinned out and a thin layer left for mulch on the herb and flower beds. Extra leaves will find their resting place in a compost pile.

We use a tarp to move the leaves to and from the compost pile. Just rake the leaves on it – and they can be piled high! – grab two corners of the tarp and drag it where you want to dump the leaves. Sure beats raking them to where ever they have to go!

Our list of returning herbs includes -

• thyme
• oregano
• parsley, curled and flat
• tarragon, russian and french
• cilantro or coriander
• chives
• peppermint
• spearmint
• lemon balm
• chamomile
• catnip

The herb I’m missing the most is rosemary. Gotta find a rosemary plant this year. It’s one that doesn’t start well from seed, so I’ll be combing through nursery aisles looking for a plant instead.

All of our herbs are easily accessed from the kitchen and that’s something to keep in mind when you’re planting herbs this year. If your herbs are way in the back of the backyard, or somehow not so accessible, then it’s likely you’ll do without them in your cooking. Our herbs are but a few steps away from the kitchen, so even in the middle of cooking dinner I can walk out there, snip a few springs of oregano or thyme and be back inside before anything gets too crispy.

So far this Spring I’ve used the tarragons, parsley, thyme, chives and lemon balm. What herbs have you used from your re-growing herb garden?

The past couple of weeks we’ve had to cover the sprouts coming up in the garden to guard against freezing weather, but only two times. We covered the lettuces, peas, radishes and onions with an old sheet, a piece of muslin cloth, or black plastic sheeting or garbage bags. The covers were weighed down with rocks or boards. The next day the covers were removed at mid-morning.

Lettuce seeds were planted on the 11th, onion sets and snow pea seeds were planted on the 14th, and radish seeds were planted the 18th of March 2012. These ‘cold crops’ seem to do well in the chilly months if they’re protected from the frost.

Snow peas sprouting in a row. Photo taken 30 Mar 2012.

Snow peas will just about be finished for the season when we want to plant tomatoes, but until then we’ll be enjoying the fresh pea pods. It will probably take another 4 weeks until the snow peas are ready to eat, so we’ll just have to wait!

The seeds of chamomile, Chamomile boldegold also known as Matricaria recutita and Matricaria chamomilla, are so small that thousands of them were held inside a 1 x 2 inch plastic zip-bag that was itself inside of a labeled seed packet. Surely, the plastic bag was necessary to keep the tiny seeds from falling out of the standard seed packet or paper envelope.

Chamomile boldegold seeds.

By the way we were totally happy with the seeds we’ve purchase from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds.

The instructions indicated that germination is aided by freezing conditions, which may explain why only two plants grew from the pinches of seeds that were sprinkled in late Spring. Flowers that were allowed to drop on the ground last year should contribute to a larger crop this year. If you’re going to try to sow chamomile seeds indoors, put the seeds in the freezer overnight for more germination success.

The bright green foliage is bipinnate, where the leaflets themselves have leaflets. The segments that make up the leaflets are very narrow. Leaf stems of chamomile are round, but hollow. Our mild weather probably had something to do with the chamomile plants surviving the winter. Most sources claim this plant to be an annual, but under the right conditions chamomile is a perennial.

Chamomile leaves re-growing from last year in front of the tulips. Photo taken 30 Mar 2012.

Chamomile is a fragrant little plant. The leaves have the smell of pineapple and the flowers smell like apples. The herbal tea we make from the flowers is gently fragrant of green apples.

Flowers are like small daisies, composites with white ray flowers and yellow disc flowers in the center. The disc forms a dome in maturing chamomile blooms.

The whole plant seems to appreciate cooler weather. The scorching heat of last summer made the plants grow very slowly. These chamomile plants were still producing flowers in the cool autumn days until frost halted their activity.

Flowering chamomile in the autumn. Photo taken 11 Oct 2011.

Chamomile is native to Europe, but it’s now naturalized nearly everywhere else. In the United States it’s said to be found growing along old fence rows and in fields. We have it growing near the house because we planted it there. I haven’t seen it in the wild, yet, but I’m curious if others have? If so, leave a comment and let us all know!

Image by Chiot's Run via Flickr

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be opening an online herb and seed store in the next couple of weeks. Things are in a testing phase right now, but when we have the ‘all clear’ signal from the developers we’ll let you know.

To start with a few dried herbs and heirloom seeds from the garden will be available.

Stay tuned!

Strawberries bloomed in full the first week of May, but the fruit didn’t set. We only got 3 tiny berries this year from our plants. Don’t know if it was too much rain or the coolness, but other folks around us didn’t have a crop either. We were lucky that an Amish fellow’s field didn’t fail and we got to eat lots of strawberries anyway. The strawberry season was very short, about a week-long this year, so we felt lucky to get a flat.

Now, if you know that a flat is 8 quarts, that’s a lot of berries. Upon getting the strawberries in the house, we promptly ate the first quart right then and there! Since we had enough sugar and a box of pectin in the cupboard, we made a batch of freezer jam. Each batch makes about 5 cups of jam per quart. In total we made three batches of freezer jam. We like to share with friends, so when somebody comes to visit they might just take home a treat. The rest of the berries were eaten fresh in the next three days, so you could say we liked them a lot.