Kitchen Herb Gardens 

A program on how to start a kitchen herb garden. The lesson focused on which herbs grow well indoors, how to grow, harvest, and store herbs, and how to use fresh herbs in cooking. There was also an activity where participants started their own herbs from seeds so they had a start on their own herb garden.

According to the FDA, Americans eat on average about 3,400 mg of sodium per day. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults limit sodium to less than 2,300 mg per day (approx. 1 tsp of table salt). According to research and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, sodium plays a role in hypertension, which can be increase the risk for a variety of other health issues- such as heart failure, stroke, and kidney disease/failure. Research has shown that replacing salt with herbs and spices in recipes can reduce a person’s total intake of salt. McCreary County Extension FCS agent provided the program to help address some of the barriers to using herbs when cooking. Many of the participants stated they did not use herbs in cooking due to unfamiliarity and lack of knowledge of how to use the herbs in familiar recipes. This program was offered as a “Kitchen Herb Garden” class to the Homemaker leaders in the Lake Cumberland area as well as community groups within McCreary County to help address those barriers. The class was developed in collaboration with the McCreary County Extension ANR agent. Publications used include the “Savor the Flavor: Building Flavor with Herbs”, KSU’s publication “Growing Herbs in Containers”, UK’s publication “Harvesting, Preserving, and Storing Herbs”, and the NEP powerpoint “Drying Herbs at Home”.

The class was offered a total of 6 times to a total of 81 participants. 100% of participants who completed the evaluations stated an increase in knowledge of the different types of herbs that grow indoors. 98.2% of participants stated an increase in knowledge of how to start an indoor herb garden, 1.8% stated no change in knowledge of starting an indoor herb garden. 91.2% stated an increase in knowledge of ways to incorporate herbs into food preparation and cooking, 8.8% stated no change in knowledge. 100% stated an intention to try a new herb when preparing food or to add flavor when cooking, 98.3% stated an intention to grow an indoor herb garden to use fresh herbs when cooking or preparing foods. 93% of participants stated that the subject matter was timely to them, 95% stated the information was practical, and 95% stated that overall the program was very educational.

Participants stated they enjoyed their experience at the class and 100% stated they all intended to try to use more herbs when preparing food and cooking. One participants stated she would “try to experiment with herbs to use less salt” and that she was “going to grow cilantro instead of buying for salsa”. Another participant made the comment that she “plan to try growing herbs indoor and outdoors for the 1st time. I plan to use fresh herbs if mine live lol.” The participants also learned how to preserve and store herbs, one stated that she was going to “try to preserve the herbs I grow. I'm going to try the oil and the microwave drying”. One participant has reported at 3 months after the program, that all of her herbs came up and that she is looking forward to trying to cook with the herbs she grew in her own kitchen.