Garden Pic Wednesday: Harvest of Basil & Greek Oregano

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 Today's Garden Pic is a harvest of Sweet Basil & Greek Oregano laid out in dryer trays for drying!
Temperatures outside are getting cool, so since the Basil will freeze and I only have the one plant, I decided yesterday to hop-to and get it picked for drying!
The Greek Oregano I can get anytime as it's winter hardy here in Florida.
So, I tray Basil & 3 Trays of Greek Oregano. Once dry, I separate leaves from stems, crush up the leaves with my fingers on wax paper, then slide the herbs into a recycled glass herb bottle.
Since I had so little Basil, I combined them in one bottle labeled "Italian Seasoning."


Consumer Reports tested a number of common commercial herbs & spice brands for arsenic, cadmium & lead. Popular brands including Walmart Great Value, McCormick, Spice Islands, 365 Whole Foods, Badia and many others for particular spices & herbs: basil, oregano, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, etc.
The report is not encouraging. A lot of them all fell into red scores from anywhere from "some concern" to "high concern" for arsenic, cadmium & lead content to be a heath concern.
Spices that rated "safe" across the board were Black Pepper, Curry Powder, Garlic Powder, Saffron, Sesame Seed & White Pepper.
For Basil, only safe rated brand of those tested was Simply Organic (out of 8 brands)
For Oregano, out of the 8 brands tested, NOT a single one rated safe. All rated from one red dot for "some concern" except for a brand called, La Flor, that got 3 red dots for "high concern."
Out of 5 Brands, Thyme rated badly, too.
So, I must say I'm glad I've been growing, drying & bottling my own Basil & Oregano. And I do have my own Thyme outside in a container.

Read the report here:
 https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/your-herbs-and-spices-might-contain-arsenic-cadmium-and-lead-a6246621494/

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