Making Money from an Herb Garden

 Making Money from an Herb Garden 

    ALTHOUGH herb gardens are as old as history, the last generation in America seems to have neglected this type of gardening entirely. Of course, we use sage and celery salt in seasoning our cookery, but most of us have forgotten the herbs our grandmothers and great-grandmothers knew and used daily in their kitchens. Recently, however, there has been a revival of interest in the herb family and once again kitchens are giving off the delicious odors of foods seasoned with thyme, marjoram, basil, and tarragon. While these herbs may not add to the food value of a dish, they do give it a savory flavor. Certain herbs, notably lavender, are also used for scenting linen closets or chests. There are also the medicinal herbs which constitute a study in themselves. Most herbs can be grown with little care if they are planted in good, wellworked soil in a sunny spot. Midsummer is the time for collecting herbs from the garden. If cut before the flowers open, all the fragrance is retained in the dried herbs. Not only is herb gardening a pleasant way to make money, but the study of herbs is a most fascinating subject. A woman in the East has made an excellent living with her garden of the rarer medicinal herbs which she sells to the pharmaceutical houses. Not only is her garden a financial success, but she has become an authority on medicinal herbs. One does not need a large space for an herb garden. Miss Helen Lyman of Oakland, California, has an herb garden, approximately 25 feet in diameter which holds 30 varieties of herbs. Her little booklet entitled, “30 Herbs Will Make an Herb Garden,” tells others how to succeed in this interesting enterprise. Marshall Field & Company, Chicago, the largest department store in the world, now has a department devoted entirely to herbs for use in cookery, medicine and perfume. The herbs are imported from an herb farm more than a century old which is located near Kent, England. Among the products handled by Field’s herb department are the old-fashioned pomander balls just like those our grandmothers hung in their clothespresses. All the well-known herbs are available, several types of vinegars, jellies with special herb flavoring, and cosmetics prepared from certain beneficial herbs. A small shelf of 10 selected kitchen herbs is sold as a unit. Mixed salad herbs are also sold by ounce or half ounce. Many a woman who has a sunny corner in her garden could develop an herb garden specializing either in medicinal or in kitchen herbs. If she is known for her jellies and jams, she can combine two interesting occupations and, incidentally, make jellies so unusual that they will bring higher prices. The better food specialty shops offer an outlet for such products. There are several books on the subject of herb growing and most of the garden magazines have published articles about people who “herb garden.” The details of such gardening are simple enough for any man or woman to follow and success in this field is dependent only upon the energy and initiative of the individual gardener.