Best place to buy fresh herbs

[edslunch]

I love cooking with fresh herbs but i don't love supermarket prices for small quantities. Does anyone have a secret source for herbs at a decent price.

Herbs, not herb..

[bc-chris]

have you thought of growing your own?
we've got rosemary, parsley, basil and chives growing by a window (or outside once it warms up). it's awesome to have fresh herbs 'right there'.

another thing is i know you mentioned you don't like supermarket prices, but every once in a while they go on sale and i've found that rosemary and thyme freeze really well.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by edslunch

I love cooking with fresh herbs but i don't love supermarket prices for small quantities. Does anyone have a secret source for herbs at a decent price.

Herbs, not herb..

As a baseline what would you consider too expensive for the herbs you like using? If you want on-demand, you’d be better off growing your own on the window sill or something. Green onions, dill, parsley, sage, mint, all grow like crazy.

[Ashartus]

Growing your own is definitely the way to go, at least for herbs you use regularly. If you don't have a good window there are various hydroponic herb garden setups like Aerogarden but really just planting them in small pots works fine over the winter (in the summer I have a planter box full of herbs outside).

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

have you thought of growing your own?
we've got rosemary, parsley, basil and chives growing by a window (or outside once it warms up). it's awesome to have fresh herbs 'right there'.

another thing is i know you mentioned you don't like supermarket prices, but every once in a while they go on sale and i've found that rosemary and thyme freeze really well.

I’ve tried growing my own. The problem is that for many dishes I would need to use an entire parsley plant (for example) so I hold off instead of clear-cutting the pot. In the summer I have a 6’x3’ bed that is only parsley, basil, and a bit of thyme, so I don’t need to hold back.

[Blankcanvas]

Cheaper and seemingly fresher than main stream supermarkets:

- Basha Foods International, 2717 Sunridge Way NE, Calgary

- European Supermarket Deli and Produce Market, 7133 11 St SE, Calgary

[monkey brewery]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

have you thought of growing your own?
we've got rosemary, parsley, basil and chives growing by a window (or outside once it warms up). it's awesome to have fresh herbs 'right there'.

another thing is i know you mentioned you don't like supermarket prices, but every once in a while they go on sale and i've found that rosemary and thyme freeze really well.

how do you stop them from getting buggy with white aphid-things?

I can grow basil quite well as it turns out, but they get swarmed after a few months indoors.

no other plants in the house. not one.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Blankcanvas

Cheaper and seemingly fresher than main stream supermarkets:

- Basha Foods International, 2717 Sunridge Way NE, Calgary

- European Supermarket Deli and Produce Market, 7133 11 St SE, Calgary

European deli is a hidden gem!

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by monkey brewery

how do you stop them from getting buggy with white aphid-things?

I can grow basil quite well as it turns out, but they get swarmed after a few months indoors.

no other plants in the house. not one.

hmmmm... no clue? we do have fruit flies (which are annoying)... but they seem to come in waves... bad for a bit, then almost none, rinse and repeat. we put out 'fruit fly traps' (mason jars with apple cider vinegar) and they always seem to get lots of kills


can't you spray soapy water on plants to get rid of aphids? i'm not sure... they've never been a problem

[Sr. Mints]

White things could be spider mites, too. I can't remember the name of the product, and I don't have any around. I think it might be Trounce? Works well and is food safe

Anyway... It seems co-op, any of the three Italian markets (Lina's, Scarponies, the Italian Centre Shop) or Chongos has way nicer herbs than Safeway or Superstore.

I bought basil at scarponies around Christmas, and it lasted on my cupboard in the bag as the instructions said for like two weeks! When I get one of those clamshell packages from Safeway it seems to go brown in 24 hours.

[DoubleK]

Bridgeland market was my go to for specialty produce, especially herbs and hot peppers. Pricey, but vastly improved quality vs Co-op.

[Wormius]

Not herbs, but the new farmers market by COP sometimes has good deals. Before Xmas they had killer deals on big bags of fingerling potatoes. So tasty!

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by monkey brewery

how do you stop them from getting buggy with white aphid-things?

I can grow basil quite well as it turns out, but they get swarmed after a few months indoors.

no other plants in the house. not one.

I don't recall which is for which, but spray bottle with soapy water, vinegar or apple cider vinegar is used to treat a variety of bugs on plants.

Originally Posted by edslunch

I’ve tried growing my own. The problem is that for many dishes I would need to use an entire parsley plant (for example) so I hold off instead of clear-cutting the pot. In the summer I have a 6’x3’ bed that is only parsley, basil, and a bit of thyme, so I don’t need to hold back.

I wonder if a grow light might work better than window sill for you then. Or at least to speed up the grow back process after cutting down a whole bunch. I also find that leaving a portion of the leaves rather than a ton of stems allows the plant to grow back faster. So maybe harvest 80% of each plants leaves vs 95%+ for a more rapid grow back cycle?

It might not be a bad idea to take a small portion of purchased herbs and try growing more on the side?

[taxbuster]

Being in BC we grow a multitude of herbs in our garden. Then process them in the fall. Dry or freeze. And I grow massive amounts of basil and typically make 5-9 litres of pesto each year, depending on volume. Dried herbs we almost always get from Silk Road - my spice drawer probably has over a hundred items. And yes, I use them all. Even Urfa Biber (if not often)!

As others say - for smaller quantities - grow yer own. Rosemary, oregano (better dried anyway), basil, thyme all overwinter inside well. Tarragon and cilantro? Not unless you have lots of space! The joys of living in Canada.

We used to get fresh at CFM but that was years back when we lived there.