Yesterday, I came home and found this in the kitchen.
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(it’s basil)
For most of you, that is probably not a particularly odd thing to find in a kitchen. However, in my kitchen, its probably about as peculiar as buying a beefburger and finding it's actually made of horse...oh wait...scratch that. I asked my mother if she knew what she’d bought and she proudly told me it was basil. I then asked if she intended to cook with it and if so, what was she planning on rustling up(at this point our fridge contained cheese, some out of date ham, milk and several jars of pickle, so what she thought basil would add to that concoction I have no idea). “No…,” she said sadly. “I just thought it would make the kitchen smell nice.” Well. You can’t fault her practicality I suppose.
Herbs seem to play a huge part in cooking. Well, in most cooking, not so much the cooking that happens in my house. I have vivid memories of watching Jamie Oliver in his early days of The Naked Chef pulling herbs from his window ledge herb garden. Although I couldn't find that clip, he has since created a nice little film on herbs:
Jamie Oliver is enthusiastic about pretty much everything, but he seems to really love those herbs. He describes basil as "the most incredible herb." My mum described basil as "smelly." Not quite the same enthusiasm there. In fact, Jamie seems to neglect the "smelly" properties of basil and focuses on the more practical aspects such as the fact that "It makes you salivate more and it helps digestion" and that it's "delicate to eat." He informs us that rosemary is an anti-depressant and herbs have been used for thousands of years to kill bacteria showing us the versatility of herbs, and he enthuses about how easy it is to grow a herb garden. Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" shows the healing properties Jamie talks about. After her sister dies, Miss Jessie is given "a basin of delicately-made arrowroot" to calm her down.
Although Jamie is probably addressing adults, there are lots of websites and videos promoting making a herb garden as something fun to do with children. A quick search on youtube threw up a video from a user called 2kidscooking. Once you get over the fact that they insist on calling them "urbs" instead of herbs, the kids and their mum actually give some very detailed instructions on making a herb garden.
The kids seem really excited to plant their herb garden and although this family clearly do this kind of thing a lot, it does make it seem like an easy and fun way for a family to bond over food.
Another website ( Ready for Ten ) states that "Children and herbs go together like strawberries and cream." All these enthusiastic phrases and comparisons and videos of happy children really promote the idea of using herbs to bond with your kids.
There's even an old television show from Michael Bond called The Herbs.
My favourite character is Constable Knapweed.
According to the reliable source that is Wikipedia, "Each character was the personification of an herb. It is said that Bond used quotes from Nicholas Culpeper's 17th Century book, Culpeper's Complete Herbal, to find the herbs whose botanical traits he could best reflect in the individual characters." Although the show doesn't really educate you about herbs, it probably got children interested in herbs and was something they could watch with their parents. Even if they didn't learn anything, the stories are nice and there are some good songs, so at the very least households across the nation would be full of children singing about herbs.
Clearly, herbs are a good food for parents to use to entertain children, from cooking with them to making your own herb garden to singing songs about them.
In the words of Jamie Oliver, "herbs are where it's at." Unfortunately not in my house. For now, that sad little basil plant that sits on the window ledge is the closest we will come to having a herb garden.
Herbs seem to play a huge part in cooking. Well, in most cooking, not so much the cooking that happens in my house. I have vivid memories of watching Jamie Oliver in his early days of The Naked Chef pulling herbs from his window ledge herb garden. Although I couldn't find that clip, he has since created a nice little film on herbs:
Jamie Oliver is enthusiastic about pretty much everything, but he seems to really love those herbs. He describes basil as "the most incredible herb." My mum described basil as "smelly." Not quite the same enthusiasm there. In fact, Jamie seems to neglect the "smelly" properties of basil and focuses on the more practical aspects such as the fact that "It makes you salivate more and it helps digestion" and that it's "delicate to eat." He informs us that rosemary is an anti-depressant and herbs have been used for thousands of years to kill bacteria showing us the versatility of herbs, and he enthuses about how easy it is to grow a herb garden. Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" shows the healing properties Jamie talks about. After her sister dies, Miss Jessie is given "a basin of delicately-made arrowroot" to calm her down.
Although Jamie is probably addressing adults, there are lots of websites and videos promoting making a herb garden as something fun to do with children. A quick search on youtube threw up a video from a user called 2kidscooking. Once you get over the fact that they insist on calling them "urbs" instead of herbs, the kids and their mum actually give some very detailed instructions on making a herb garden.
The kids seem really excited to plant their herb garden and although this family clearly do this kind of thing a lot, it does make it seem like an easy and fun way for a family to bond over food.
Another website ( Ready for Ten ) states that "Children and herbs go together like strawberries and cream." All these enthusiastic phrases and comparisons and videos of happy children really promote the idea of using herbs to bond with your kids.
There's even an old television show from Michael Bond called The Herbs.
My favourite character is Constable Knapweed.
According to the reliable source that is Wikipedia, "Each character was the personification of an herb. It is said that Bond used quotes from Nicholas Culpeper's 17th Century book, Culpeper's Complete Herbal, to find the herbs whose botanical traits he could best reflect in the individual characters." Although the show doesn't really educate you about herbs, it probably got children interested in herbs and was something they could watch with their parents. Even if they didn't learn anything, the stories are nice and there are some good songs, so at the very least households across the nation would be full of children singing about herbs.
Clearly, herbs are a good food for parents to use to entertain children, from cooking with them to making your own herb garden to singing songs about them.
In the words of Jamie Oliver, "herbs are where it's at." Unfortunately not in my house. For now, that sad little basil plant that sits on the window ledge is the closest we will come to having a herb garden.
Ah - The Herbs - my favourite programme when I was about 5! My mum knitted me a toy Parsley - I still have him somewhere. It has never really occurred to me that the characters looked like their herbs - I just thought it was surreal in the way most children's telly was in the 60s.
ReplyDeleteRachael,
ReplyDeleteIt is true that prepackaged meals, canned soups, or any other "easy to make" meal makes the job of a housewife so much easier. It is much quicker and allows a housewife to spend some time out of the kitchen. In class, we discussed this new trend and how females sought new ways to avoid spending time in the kitchen. Interestingly, when I cook for others I don't mind spending time in the kitchen, but when I am cooking for myself I do not mind pulling out the canned soup.