Grow your own Spices

Growing your own herbs is easy, and they are beautiful in the garden and much more delicious than the store-bought counterparts. You can also dry or freeze your own herbs easily to use during the winter months. 

Grow some of our favorite herbs from seed!

Basil
Our Organic Basil Seeds are super easy to grow and basil is delicious in tomato sauces, caprese salads, soups, pastas, and so much more.  It is a favorite herb for containers or gardens, we plant basil plants everywhere so we can harvest often all summer long. We also love to make pesto, so the more the merrier!

Cilantro is one of our favorite-all time herbs for pairing with chiles and tomatoes. We love all salsa, but salsa with fresh cilantro is hard to beat! The fresh, crisp flavor that cilantro adds to tomato-based salsas helps tame the tomatoey-taste and really takes it to the next level! We also love to just grind up some hot green peppers like Jalapenos or Serranos or Thai Chile with a big bunch of cilantro and garlic for a spicy and delicious Cilantro chutney/sauce. Our Organic Cilantro seeds are easy to grow, and the entire plant is edible – yes, we put stems into our salsas (we usually run them through the food processor with the tomatoes to break them down, or you can dice them very finely). Plant cilantro seeds often to keep a continual harvest going, as they are not long lived plants. Once they start blooming, leave the blooms for the pollinators and then wait until the seeds dry on the stalks before harvesting for future plantings (or you can use it as a spice, as Cilantro Seeds are Coriander!). We like to grow Cilantro in pots. 

Oregano is another one of our favorite spices to grow. This perennial herb comes back every year, growing bigger each year! It's one of the first herbs we can harvest in the spring, and it is delicious in tomato sauces, soups, salsas, potato dishes, and so much more. This is also very easy to grow, and once you plant it you'll have all the oregano you need for years! These are great to start from seed to gift to gardening or foodie friends! Easy to grow, oregano is a must for any herb garden. Pollinators also love the pink summer blooms! 

So grow your own spices in your garden, you'll be very happy you did!

Don't forget to harvest them regularly, harvesting herbs like Basil and Oregano help keep them sprouting new growth which keeps them bushier and producing more spices for your spice cabinet. Basil likes to bloom as well, so by harvesting the tips you'll keep it from blooming longer. Of course, the blooms are quite charming, smell great, and attract pollinators, so we like to let some of our basil plants bloom, too. 

Drying herbs is also quite easy, and is the easiest method of preserving herbs. Simply expose the leaves, flowers or seeds to warm, dry air, with good ventilation. Don't put them in the sun, however, as they can lose flavor and color. Note: Cilantro doesn't hold it's flavor as well by drying, so we like to grind it up and freeze it in an ice cube tray for future use.