Thanksgiving Herbal Bundles for Cooking~

From the Autumn Garden:

Marjoram
Tricoloured Sage
Fresh Calendula Flowers
Borage Flowers
Flowering Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Kale
Heirloom Cinderella Pumpkins

Beautiful small bouquets can be made up for friends, family for this holiday week for chefs aspiring to scent & flavour the meal with organic herbs.

The offerings from the garden are often in renewal this time of year because of recent rains. We make up small beautiful bouquet garni that can be brought to a dinner party and used in the cooking.

Here is a recipe for flavoured butter:

Kerry Gold Butter Slab
Herbs from the Garden

Allow your slab of butter to sit out overnight in kitchen to become room temperature.

Prepare herbs by using a special herbal cutting tool or your favorite sharp knife.
You will need a large clean cutting board.
Pull the leaves and flowers off stems, carefully cutting them into tiny pieces. With the flowers you can use petals for the calendula and borage.

Place herbs into butter as you like and stir them into the butter.
You can also add honey into this butter for a treat before you stire/whip.
Once all the herbs are embedded into the butter you can form butter into shapes if you have old fashioned butter molds, or just in small single serving ramakins and then refrigerate. Decorate the top of each ramakin with a colourful flower petal.

Serve with your meal on Thanksgiving for a special treat.

Another fun thing to try with your herbal garni bundle is to make a pumpkin stew and insert the bundle of herbs to cook with the stew imparting an amazing healing aspect to your meal of the healthy herbs.

There is also stuffing. Cut up cubes of bread and add cut herbs into the mix, add olive oil, butter, and some honey to taste. Vegetables can also be added such as celery and crunchy water chestnuts.  Raisins, currants or cranberries can also be added into the stuffing mix for a lovely added taste.

I love working with fresh herbs and croutons also. To make croutons with fresh herbs use butter pats in a cast iron skillet, add the bread cut into cubes, and roll the herbs through this mixture once you have rolled bread through butter. Pull off heat, and save for your salades. You can heat up these croutons later in the oven on a cookie sheet before you use them so they are warm in the salade.

Fresh Herbs can also be added to a bouillion or bone broth to create a solid base for soups and stews for self care during damp season.