Fresh Herbs, Cooking and Gardening

Before I started baking, cooking was on top of my hobbies.  I started at an early age where I would watch my paternal grandmother cooks for us.  I get fascinated at how she does the delicious dishes she serves us.  When I grew older and took up Hotel Restaurant Administration, I got more interested with it.  I was even the Chief Cook on both my Quantity Food Production and Catering classes where we served guests of about 100 to 150 from soup to dessert.

In connection to cooking are the ingredients that make the dish unique.   I remember we had this "marketing" class, not the theoretical one but literally the "market place".  In this class my classmates and I would bravely visit Divisoria and Cloverleaf/Balintawak  wet markets during wee hours.  We would check  and get ourselves familiar with the different ingredients necessary in cooking.  We need to master them as well for questions on our practical exams would be coming from information available on those markets.

Aside from the ingredients we see in the wet market, I remember myself checking the supermarkets of SM North Edsa and Super Sale where I would look at the names and the appearance of every fresh herb that is displayed on their shelves and I would tell myself, " I wish we have these supermarkets in Pampanga so it would be easy for me to try recipes that require fresh herbs."  My dream happened a few years after.

Today, we not only rely on the big supermarkets for fresh herbs.  But, we can grow them at home in our backyards and if land is a problem, we can put them in pots so they are readily available when we need them.

This is the reason I am adding another hobby on my lists. LOL.  Since I ordered the herbs from Selle (aphrodayti@aol.com), I am looking at gardening as another hobby that can relieve me of boredom. I guess it's in the genes.  My maternal grandfather is a farmer and was able to collect 76 hectares of land (including the land where the Millenium tree - one of the largest if not the largest Balete tree in Asia sits) before he died. He used to plant coconut, coffee and citruses like calamansi, pomelo, and mandarin. My parents are entrepreneurs and farmers as well.  Currently, we have Guapples and Papaya on our land that are on harvesting stage.

So that gives me reasons to start planting too.  Heheh! For now, I have these 6 beauties to take care of.  I feel like they are my pets because the moment I wake up, I think about them and go immediately to them to water and check if they're still alive. Haha!   I hope I would be able to grow them beautifully for  I need them for my baking, cooking and tea.

L-R - Tarragon, Basil, Thyme, Mint, Chocolate Mint and Rosemary


Since I am interested in gardening now, I am planning to attend this seminar on Saturday.  It's cheap considering you get a lot of freebies from the Seminar.  I know my friends will laugh at this and would say, "you always study or attend to a lot of seminar of different things"  Well, I know there are just people who are thirsty to know a lot.  Oh! I have other reason too why I need to attend to this.  I'll disclose that on a different post. ;-)



Anyone, who cares to join me in this seminar?  :D