Herbs and Aloe

The main things that I contribute to our Farmers Market offerings are herb plants and fresh cut herbs.  I mentioned in my blog on "Spring Weather" that I was working on getting a new herb garden started here at Windy Acres.  But, that is going to take a while, so Tom suggested that I take some aloe  to the Farmers Market. 

Usually, we think about herbs only in terms of cooking with them.  But there are many herbs that have non-culinary uses as well.  In fact, aloe is listed in Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs as having medicinal, ornamental and cosmetic uses.  It is famous as a burn remedy.  But, Rodale says that Cleopatra massaged fresh aloe gel into her skin every day and that Josephine, wife of Napoleon, used a lotion prepared of milk and aloe gel.

Our aloe came from Tom's mother.  She died a couple of years ago at the age of 92.  I knew her for 40 years and over that period of time I grew to admire, respect and love her.  She had an enclosed back "porch" that had several sunny windows.  It was the perfect spot for house plants and she always had a large pot of aloe back there.  Before she died, she passed on many of her plants to me, including her aloe.

Last fall, Tom divided the aloe into smaller pots and has been growing it under lights this winter.  I will be passing some of these on to my daughter and daughters-in-law as a tribute to my mother-in-law and will be taking some to the market this spring.  Whoever buys this aloe will be getting a special plant indeed.