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Animal manures can also be added to the composting material, but unless the urine as well as the faeces is present, the nitrogen content is much lower. Droppings from battery-kept, pellet-fed hens are not worth as much as deep litter from free-range birds, where straw or some similar material absorbs their urine as well. Animal manures are only as rich as the diet and general health of the animal concerned.

I like blood and bone as a companion for compost. Dug through the loosened soil when originally preparing it for perennial planting, it provides what would have been found in untampered with Nature, a slowly releasable reservoir of bone, hair and decomposed “innards” and tissue, deep in the soil. It is rich in phosphorus, too, as well as having concentrated nitrogen and other trace elements.

Composting eliminates the so-called “waste” accumulated in the kitchen from vegetable and fruit peelings, eggshells, and remnants from herbal tea brews; it uses all soft garden waste, leaves from deciduous trees, spent annuals, and herb tops of all kinds. If you dry your own herbs, don’t keep them on the shelf longer than a twelvemonth. Tip them through your compost, and put up another batch.

When you see the good results obtained by using organic compost, you will wonder why man has spent so much time and effort trying to improve on Nature’s existing completeness. At one English garden showplace, Arkley Manor, an area of 7 1\2 acres has for the past ten years been neither forked, spaded or dug, but organic compost has been spread over the surface of the soil at regular intervals. The results should convince even the most hardened champion of “Super” and constant back-breaking work with surface cultivation.

Natural dolomite, organic vegetable material, animal bone and hair, and the added powers of herbs, will give your garden or vegetable patch the life and vitality Nature intended.

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When anyone mentions herbs, what is the first thing you think of? I would guess many of you would say, “French cooking!” No child ever enjoys eating or drinking anything that tastes unpleasant, and as adults we naturally continue to prefer appetizing, flavourful food (sometimes at the expense of what is good for us). So the herbs most generally used were those which added some special taste or flavour to food. Medicinal herbs and many of those which were undeniably “good for us” were often bitter or very strong, and gradually they became less frequently grown and used. One of the most valuable of these, the common dandelion, is dug up and thrown out of our gardens, because, although it contains in large quantities so many of the vitamins and minerals essential for good health, it has a slightly bitter taste, and has now become only a weed .

After the excesses of the French Court and the nobility, and the literal starvation of the ordinary people, the French Revolution brought a great change in the eating habits of all the Continental countries. Food gradually became more plentiful; but, m revulsion against the luxury or ostentation that recalled the hated aristocrats, food was simply cooked, fresh fruits and salads were picked from the fields and put straight on the table, and simple croissants replaced the cakes and elaborate confections of the Bourbon Court. But you can’t keep a good French cook a conformist for very long, and soon fresh herbs were being picked from the fields and gardens to give that individual touch to many a simple dish.

The Napoleonic age produced perhaps the greatest number of skilled cooks, amongst whom was Grimod de la Reyniere, who in 1803 formed a society of gourmets, the Jury Degusta-teur, and the proceedings of this group were published in a journal, the Almanack des gourmands. Later, Reyniere published his own cookbooks, amongst the first ever written containing recipes as such. Careme, cook to Talleyrand, started writing cookbooks in 1815, as distinct from the “household hint” type of book written previously. Women of some position (not necessarily cooks) began to write recipe books, evolving their own individual recipes (presumably with the help of a large kitchen staff).

French food today still has the character formed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—simple ingredients simply cooked, with the addition of those magic touches that make French cooking the best in the world. Many of these individual additions are herbs, added to a dish at just the right moment to release the full flavour and aroma.

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Parboil 12 large onions (mild ones are best) for 8 minutes in salted water. Drain, scoop out the centres, leaving walls about J-inch thick, and fill with the following mixture: \ cup chopped centres of the onions, \ cup cooked and diced cold meat, 1 cup diced, cooked potatoes, chopped sage leaves, salt and pepper. Brush the onions with melted butter, arrange in a buttered baking-dish, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over, dot with butter, and bake in a moderate oven for about 35 minutes. If you want crisp outsides, brown the onions under the griller for the last 5 minutes. Brush them with more butter before you do.

If you are starting off a new garden and your soil is rocky and sandy, sage is one herb you can grow immediately, without preparation. It thrives on rather poor soil, and I suspect some of its bad reputation for suddenly giving up the ghost is caused by over- not under-feeding. It must have an alkaline soil, and perhaps this is also why it grows so well in a new garden where there is often a residue left in the topsoil of the builder’s mortar and lime. Sage will grow well on a balcony for flat dwellers if it is given a concrete container. This provides the alkaline soil so necessary to help it flourish.

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Hyssopus officinalis LABIATAE

Herbal writer? don’t agree on whether the biblical ezob is in fact Hyssopus officinalis. Some believe that it is a variety of savory (Satureia thymus), which was a native of the area and whose properties are very similar to those mentioned in the scriptures, but by far the greater number agree that although Hyssopus officinalis was not a native of Palestine it grew freely in Southern Europe and Asia, naturalizing as it went; and it could conceivably have been well established in Palestine by this time. Its properties are the same today as those mentioned in many parts of both the Old and New Testament. After reading one modern report in Nature’s Medicines, by Richard Lucas, I incline towards the second view. Medical doctors have always regarded the “cleansing” properties of hyssop as so much superstitution; but recent analysis has found that the mould that produces penicillin grows on the leaves of Hyssopus officinalis. So when lepers were forced to cleanse themselves ritualistically with hyssop before beingallowed contactwith their healthier kin, compassionate Nature provided a very suitable protection for parents and relatives, a powerful antibiotic.

The herb is a hardy perennial, a compact plant very like a large nemesia in its foliage, and with attractive blue flowers growing along one side of the flowering stems. It grows easily from seed, which should be sown in spring, and the new seedlings come through very quickly. Three or four days should see their two seedleaves through the soil. The clump as it grows can be divided with the spade if new plants are required. Hyssop needs sunshine. Its other demands are few, but it must have the sun to produce its flowers, which will then bring the bees and the butterflies. Cabbage butterflies can be lured away from the cabbage patch if a few hyssop plants are at the other end of the garden in flower. So here is another common-sense bit of natural pest control.

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Chicory can be eaten fresh, unblanched in small doses; but for cooking, the blanched hearts have a better flavour.

Cut off the heart or head just above the root, then remove a cone-shaped wedge from the centre of the base, allowing cooking heat to penetrate better and reducing the cooking time to preserve all the goodness.

After cutting, chicory should be stored in the dark. If stored in a covered container in the fridge it will keep about a week; but of course it is better if used fresh.

To eat it as a salad, cut the blanched head across thinly in slices, and add your favourite dressing or a few drops of lemon juice.

Here are a few simple recipes to start you experimenting.

Boiled or Steamed Chicory

Prepare the hearts as above. Cook in a stainless-steel saucepan if possible, and add just a little water and a few drops of lemon juice. Steam gently for about 10 minutes. Do not overcook.

Wash and trim the chicory. Melt 2 oz. butter in a heavy saucepan (stainless steel if possible), add 1 1\2 lb. prepared chicory, juice of 1\2 a lemon, and salt and pepper. Now add 3 tablespoons of water, cover, and cook gently for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tender. Serve with cooking liquor.

Chicory with Cheese and Bacon

1 lb. chicory

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1\2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1\2 pint cooking liquor plus milk

Salt and pepper

2 oz. grated cheese

4 tablespoons breadcrumbs

4 rashers of bacon, lightly cooked

Wash and trim the chicory, and boil in a little water with the lemon juice. Drain and keep the liquor. Melt butter and stir in the flour; remove from heat and stir in the 1\2 pint of liquid (made up of cooking liquor and milk). Bring to boil and stir for several minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the grated cheese and stir in till it melts. Then put chicory and bacon rashers in layers in an oven-proof dish, covering each layer with the sauce. Top with the breadcrumbs, dot with butter, and bake in a moderate oven until heated well through and brown on top (about 20 minutes).

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