Takeaway herbs

DIET

Grow them in your balcony for tasty food and good health.

Wild plants that were once easily accessible for rishi-munis could be an interesting addition to the green cover, potted and planted, in your home.

You'd be surprised to find how easy it is to buy, grow and derive everyday benefits from them. If not for medicinal purposes, there are always culinary herbs to sprinkle your food with, like fresh oregano, parsley, basil and varieties of mint.

Popular herbal plants like brahmi and ashwagandha can be easily be used as a health tonic. The leaves are best eaten with warm water, but a few can be very bitter, like brahmi, so having it with some honey is a good idea. Brahmi, a runner plant that grows best in a hot, humid climate, acts well as a memory tonic, antioxidant and is supposed to help bring down anxiety levels

Ashwagandha is useful for its root as well, which can be powdered and had with milk. A few leaves a day go a long way as prevention and cure.

On the other hand, culinary herbs are a good option. There's nothing like having fresh oregano on your pasta. Parsley, though, has the disadvantage of having a limited season, while rosemary is difficult to grow in a subtropical climate like India's.

In such cases, freeze-dry herbal leaves during the off season, suggests Malini Rajendran, managing director of Morco, an organisation that promotes an organic lifestyle.

With the onset of spring and sooner-than-expected summer, it's healthy weather for herbal plants to grow. Usually February to April is a good period.

Sanjay Gupta, a consultant for herbal cultivation and gardens, says there are mainly three conditions one needs to be careful about: climate, ease of use and disease-specific benefits. Sunlight is also important; your herbs should get four to six hours of it a day. Other than places that suffer extreme temperatures, these plants adapt fairly well.

Contrary to popular belief, herbal plants are not very difficult to maintain. Nurseries that keep herbal plants usually also provide plant-specific literature. Some herbal plants, for example, need to be watered only a couple of times a week while others require slightly damp soil all the time.

Gupta, who runs the Udhan Foundation of herbal power for rural development in New Delhi, says herbal plants do not require any chemical fertilisers, and survive well on organic fertilisers like vermi compost and leaf manure.

Requiring little space in your home, herbal plants are a very reasonable buy at around Rs 25 apiece. Some nurseries offer a herbal health package of four plants, priced at Rs 100-125. Stabilised in specially designed pots in carry trays, they are ready to be taken home.