Choice Morsels

  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 ...

Today we're going to talk about Oregano. It's that herb that makes spaghetti sauce and pizza taste so yummy! Good news---oregano has excellent health benefits! #1) Oregano is loaded with potassium and it's an anti-oxidant. (Anti-oxidants help eliminate free radicals in the human body, which are molecules that can damage healthy cells.) # 2) Oregano, in studies, has also proven itself able to kill E-coli and many of the bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Adding oregano to ground meat you're planning to cook is the equivilent of dropping a SEAL team into a terriorist camp. The enemy will be eliminated. So, for this benefit, add 1 teaspoon of dried Oregano per pound of ground meat. For example: for 1 pound of hamburger, add 1 teaspoon. #3) *Oregano is also known for it's anti-cancer properties. Noteable Italian research indicates a high intake of oregano, such as in the Mediterranean diet, is particularly good at reducing the occurance of colon ca...