Rosemary growing and usage

When we made our trek across the country last year, I brought my beloved rosemary plant along for the ride.  I'm not sure how it made it unscathed.  We had a mini-van packed with all our belongings plus two kids, a dog, 3 cats, and a rabbit.  Talk about comfortable for a 16 hour road trip.  I had formed an attachment to my rosemary plant and wasn't willing to leave it behind and start all over with a new one.  Well, it has flourished and with the very mild winter we had is huge.  I can't wait to see if it blooms this summer.    Rosemary will winter over here but sometimes will die out or winter kill.  Since this could be the case, I am taking some cuttings to root and get some other plants started in different places around the farm in hopes that if one dies there will be more to take its place.


Rooting rosemary is very easy.  You cut sprigs from the plant and place them in water.  Put the glass in a sunny, but not hot location for a week of two.  Once the stems grow roots, either plant in pots or in the location you want to grow your rosemary.  Rosemary does like to be in a sunny location so choose a place where you get 5 hour or more sun.  Baby them a little and keep watered until they are established.  Once established they don't require much care other that occasional watering.

Rosemary is used in cooking but also is used in herbal preparations.  I have made an "Italian" seasoning for tomato sauce which has rosemary as an ingredient in it.  We also use it on fish, shrimp, and chicken when grilling.  It is really yummy in pizza dough and in the soft goat cheese we make.  I use both fresh and dried for culinary purposes.  Some people use the sprigs as skewers on the grill.  We haven't ever done that (maybe this year) because we haven't had a rosemary plant large enough to have long enough skewers.

Italian seasoning using dried herbs

2 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp oregano

2 tbsp basil

2tbsp thyme

Make sure herbs are crushed and mixed well together, store in air tight container.  There are other recipes on the Internet, this is just the mix that our family likes.

We use rosemary for many things.  When our goats are feeling off we give them either dried or fresh rosemary to eat.  They gobble it up like there is no tomorrow.  I have made an herbal hair rinse with it, use it in a cough medicine I make yearly, make salve with it as one of the ingredients, used it to clear a room of germs when colds are going around, and make an oil infusion to use for mental clarity. 

It really is an all purpose herb that is useful to have growing around your property.