Profitable

Culinary Herbs

Herbs have been used in cooking, medicines and cosmetics for thousands of years. Now, herbs are being rediscovered, as people around the world seek a healthier and more natural lifestyle. They also provide a link to our past - a time when the pace was slower, things were simpler and almost everyone had a backyard herb garden.

Herbal use has grown dramatically in three areas in recent years. Today, you'll find cooks using more fresh herbs. New medical research has shown many herbs can be useful as healthy alternatives to expensive drugs. In Germany, for example, doctors write seven times as many prescriptions for St. Joh's wort  as for Prozac when treating patients for depression! Walk into almost any retail store, and you'll find herbs used in an amazing variety of products - soaps, candles, teas, potpourris, medicines, bath oils, even "dream pillows" for kids.

Although Europeans use almost four times more cooking herbs than we Americans, this is changing fast, as cooks discover the benefits of cooking with fresh herbs. Thanks to the influence of cooking magazines, television cooking shows, and a growing level of culinary awareness, customers are asking for fresh herbs at grocery stores, and buying potted culinary herbs to grow at home. According to Kent Taylor, one of the largest and most successful herb growers, "The market for fresh-cut herbs for restaurants and grocery stores is still wide-open."

Marilyn Mueller started her herb business as a sideline, growing for friends, and it rapidly grew into a full-time business. She and her husband built a small commercial greenhouse to grow herb starts for transplanting to the field and to grow and sell herb bedding plants. The cost of the greenhouse and production equipment came to $7,000.

According to Marilyn, "To my complete astonishment, within the first four months of retail sales we had recovered our entire investment and still had plants left for our fields. We also found out that growing herbs in the greenhouse is easier than growing potted plants, flowers and vegetables."

Marilyn and her husband also grow five acres of field-grown herbs, using just an old Troy-Bilt tiller. The herbs are sold in bulk to the natural foods markets and to manufacturers of teas and natural medicinals. "There is nothing to stop you from creating your own niche in the herb world. The market is there, all that is needed is the product," says Marilyn.

Restaurants and grocery stores have proven to be the "bread & butter" for small backyard herb growers, because they buy sizeable quantities of fresh cut herbs on a regular basis, and are willing to pay premium prices for quality. A quick survey of local grocers revealed an average price of $1.79 per half-ounce packet of fresh-cut herbs - or over $50 a pound!

One Pennsylvania herb grower found herself with extra basil and parsley during the growing season. Her solution? She makes up 12 ounce packets of pesto sauce, freezes them, and sells the sauce to restaurants in the winter when basil prices are much higher. She claims the restaurant chefs can't tell the difference between her frozen pesto and fresh made.

Another creative grower creates herb mini-gardens for windowsills and apartment balconies. The two best sellers are a "Pasta Mini-Garden", with basil, oregano and rosemary, and a "Salad Mini-Garden", using parsley, chives and salad herbs.

Because of their wide appeal, culinary herbs make sense for the first-time grower. You can get started with the most popular culinary herbs, then expand your herb business to include medicinal and fragrant herbs and value-added products as your herb knowledge grows.

Profitable Culinary Herbs, the fourth chapter of Profitable Plants,provides in-depth information on mini-gardens, value-added culinary herb products such as pesto sauces, and detailed information on growing and marketing the ten best-selling culinary herbs.