CULINARY HERBS VHT242

COURSE STRUCTURE

There are eight lessons including a special project in this course, each requiring about 10 or more hours work by the student.

1. Introduction
   • Scope and Nature of Culinary Herbs
   • Herbs and Horticulture
   • Accurately Identifying Herbs
   • Plant Classification, binomial system
   • Finding the group a herb fits into -Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons, Plant Families
   • Pronouncing Plant Name
   • Resources - information contacts (ie. nurseries, seed, clubs etc.
2. Culture
   • Overview
   • Soils
   • pH Requirements
   • Improving soild
   • Potting mixes
   • Plant Nutrition and Fertilizers
   • Water Management for Herbs
   • Diagnosing Plant Health Problems
   • Pests, Disease and Environmental Problems
   • Planting, staking, and establishing herb plants, etc.
3. Growing Herbs
   • Propagation of herbs
   • Seed Propagation
   • Cutting Propagation
   • Potting Media
   • Division, Separation, Layering
   • Rejuvenation of Perennials
   • Designing a Culinary Herb Garden
   • Creating a Kitchen Garden
   • Planning a Fragrant Herb Garden
   • Companion Planting in Your Design
4. Cooking With Herbs
   • General Guidelines for Using Herbs in Cooking
   • Harvesting Herbs; roots, leaves, seed, fruits
   • Handling after Harvest
   • Drying Herbs
   • Hints for Using a Range of Selected Herbs in Cooking
   • Herbs For Garnish
   • Herbal Teas: What & how to use different herbs
   • Herb Vinegars, oils, butters, cheeses, salts, sugars, honey,, etc
   • Herb Confectionary, Cakes, etc.
   • Selected Herb Recipes
   • Using Herbs with Fruit
5. Most Commonly Grown Varieties.
   • Review of many Common Culinary herbs, including their culture and culinary use
   • Over 20 herbs reviewed in detail, incl. Alliums
   • Many additional herbs summarized
6. Other Important Groups.
   • Lamiaceae (mint family) herbs
   • Lemon Scented Herbs and their uses
   • Hyssop
   • Mints
   • Bergamot
   • The Basils
   • Origanum species
   • Rosemary
   • Salvias
   • Thymes
   • Lavenders
7. The Lesser Grown Varieties
   • Agastache
   • Agrimony
   • Visnaga
   • Apium
   • Arctium lappa
   • Bundium
   • Capparis; and many more
   • Using Australian Native Plants as Flavourings
8. Special Assignment
   • A PBL Project on a selected genus of culinary herbs

AIMS

• Describe the plant naming system, the major family groups that herbs fall into and the resources available to the culinary herb grower.
• Describe how to manage the cultural requirements of culinary herbs.
• Describe the various methods of propagation, both sexual and asexual, the treatments generally used for seed storage and the handling of cutting material
• Select equipment and materials required for propagation.
• Explain the way in which herbs are used in cooking and which herbs best suit various dishes.
• Discuss the most common herb varieties used in cooking
• Compare a range of culinary herbs in a single plant family
• Discuss a range of lesser grown culinary herb varieties
• Explain the uses of a range of culinary herbs within a specific group of herb plants.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU MAY DO IN THIS COURSE

• Obtain soil from two different areas (two different types of soils). Using the tests in the accompanying notes....
• name each of these soils.
• test the drainage of each soil....take notes).
• Obtain (or make up) a potting mix which you consider appropriate for growing culinary herbs in.
• Obtain one or two pots and plant a small herb garden for growing indoors. You may use more than one type of herb per pot if you wish.
• Place the plant(s) inside & grow them there for a month or two, taking notice of how they perform. (Place a small sample of your potting mix in a plastic bag, to refer to in future if need be).