Anyone have experience using the new "Micro-Herbs"?

[Peggy]

The micro-greens are all the rage here in California. I planted a micro-basil in my garden and it is doing very well. The fragrance and flavor is wonderful!! However, I'm alittle nervous about substituting it in a recipe for regular fresh basil. Has anyone done this successfully or read guidelines on how much "micro" to use for regular. It is my understanding that the flavor is much more intense in the smaller versions. I have read articles on the CA chefs that are using the micro-greens but haven't seen any information about cooking with them. Thanks in advance for any help!!

Peggy

[Wendy w]

Hi Peggy,

I must be under a rock. I usually pride myself with being current with food trends. I did buy one of those basil plants at Target a couple of weeks ago because it was cute. I now need to put it into a larger pot. I should have done that yesterday but I got lazy.

[Peggy]

Well Wendy, it appears you aren't under a rock, but are in the majority!! Perhaps it's a "Northern" California thing... Lots of Chefs in the Wine Country and San Francisco are experiementing with them, or so the articles say...

Bumping this up... Anyone out there cooked with the new micro-herbs???? Would love to hear from you!

Peggy

[lsdesign]

Hmmmm....never heard of micro herbs however, last year I did plant Globe Basil because I had limited garden space and I couldn't accomodate the long and leggy regular varieties. It made a convenient compact mound of small basil leaves which I used just like plain old basil. Maybe this is considered "micro" just to reinvent it and cause a trend. Yes?
No?

[JJ40]

Ok, would some in-the-know person please explain what microherbs are???

Pretty please?

Julie

[lorilei]

Microherbs are really just tiny little herbs -- a big trend now, along with microgreens (tiny, full-grown salad greens).

Here's an article I read online a while back... you might be interested.

Micro machine
Farmer's small greens are a big seller
By Tanya Mannes/Reporter Staff
http://www.thereporter.com/Current/N...ily040502.html


In agriculture, bigger may be better, though one farmer says his success comes from thinking small.

Microgreens - tiny, barely mature leaf vegetables - are the star crop on Kurt Rasmussen's Yah-Whooo farm in Vacaville.

"People like Kurt buck the trend by growing with passion, being entrepreneurial and experimental," said Andy Powning of GreenLeaf, Yah-Whooo's San Francisco-based distributor. "He's a Bay Area treasure."

Restaurants can't get enough of Rasmussen's greens, which he packages in a rainbow mix that includes miniature versions of arugula, chervil, beet tops, curly cress and celery. The tart, colorful snippets are a trendy addition to menus.

"I think it gives the customer something they haven't seen before, something unique," said Chris Conlon of Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg. He said Dry Creek uses microgreens and microherbs as an accompaniment to foie gras and as a garnish on soups.

Having microgreens on the menu is a statement of support for local farmers and for sustainable agriculture, said Powning, adding that the market is doing "incredibly well."

But it takes green to put these greens on the menu. Buying in bulk, restaurants pay an average of $2.50 per ounce - the equivalent of 10 garnish portions.

The price reflects the delicate handling these plants demand. Spread in 11 rows of deep troughs in Rasmussen's vaulted-ceiling greenhouse, the seeds mature quickly. Every 10 to 12 days, Rasmussen's 10 assistants harvest them by hand, using a can opener-sized shaving tool, and then plant more.

Rasmussen, a California Certified Organic Farmer, started Yah-Whooo, located on Elizabeth Road, in 1986. His passion for trying new methods is evident in a walk through the greenhouse.

"That's an experiment," says Rasmussen, 63, waving at a trough of endive and radicchio that he may add to his line. In several other rows, he tinkers with space utilization, trying tall and short species in the same trough.

"It's little with big," he explains, and that might be an appropriate motto for Yah-Whooo, an organic farm that encourages a symbiotic relationship between beneficial microbes and larger forms of life.

To satisfy the chi chi restaurants who are GreenLeaf's main customers, Yah-Whooo must produce perfect, unblemished greens. Using a relatively new method, Rasmussen raises high-quality produce without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

For more than five years, Rasmussen has been nourishing his soil with Effective Microorganisms (EM), a culture isolated in the 1970s by a Japanese professor, Dr. Teruo Higa.

"Taste this," Rasmussen insists of the fermented brown mixture that sits in a bin in back of the greenhouse. The EM liquid smells a bit like sour wine, and according to Rasmussen, it's the secret behind the rich soil that his plants thrive in.

By encouraging the growth of beneficial organisms such as yeast and lactic acid bacteria, EM suppresses harmful bacteria in the ecosystem, according to an academic paper written by Dr. Higa. The technology was first used in agricultural applications, and now is being tested and used for solving problems associated with pollution and waste disposal in sites around the world.

And Rasmussen is slowly but surely convincing each of his acquaintances to use the method. Powning is himself an organic farmer who has seen "a marked difference" since using EM on Rasmussen's advice.

"I've got healthy soil and happy plants," Powning said.

Rasmussen's office is papered with letters thanking him for his help in solving farming and waste conundrums. He tells everyone he meets that EM will change farming and waste-disposal practices - if people will only try it.

"Little by little we will crack the eggshell," Rasmussen says.