Outdoor Hour Challenge
Herb Study – Rosemary
Rosemary is a popular culinary herb in the mint family and is used in many common dishes. It is also used for herbal sachets, soaps, creams and lotions. In many areas, it’s a particularly popular landscape plant that is drought resistant.
Inside Preparation:
- This evergreen perennial shrub has opposite, leathery, narrow needle-like leaves. The leaves are dark green on top and downy white on the bottom. There is a prominent vein that runs down the middle of the leaf. The stem is woody. The fragrance is pungent and slightly pine-like.
- The blossoms are pale blue and about a half inch long.
- Read more about the mint family of plants here: Mint Family – Lamiaceae
Outdoor Time:
Observe your rosemary plant using all your senses.
- Touch- What do the leaves feel like? How would you describe the stem? Is the stem square?
- Fragrance- Smell the leaves. Crush some leaves and see if you can tell the difference. Do the flowers have a fragrance?
- Sight- How tall is the plant? How wide is your plant? Use your best description for the colors, shapes and sizes for your rosemary.
- Taste- Taste the fresh leaves and then bring in some leaves to dry. Does the dry rosemary taste differently than the fresh?
- Are there insects in your rosemary? Common insects are the honeybee and the spittle bug. See my entry showing spittle bugs on my rosemary: Up Close Insect Observations.
- Does the plant grow mostly upward or outward?
Follow Up:
- Create a nature journal entry for your rosemary plant. For beginners, keep it simple and include a sketch of your rosemary plant and a caption. There is a new notebook page for members here on the Handbook of Nature Study: Herb Study-Rosemary. Look for it in your Ultimate and Journey level memberships.
- Bring a sprig or two inside for your nature table. If you have a mortar and pestle, let your children grind up the rosemary and have them describe the fragrance.
- Advanced study: Create a nature journal page to record the many uses of rosemary. More advanced students can include a sketch of the stem, leaf, and flower. Here is a link for your research: Uses and Benefits of Rosemary.
Long term project: Potted Rosemary can be a long term garden project for even a young child. Look for a small rosemary plant at your local garden nursery. Rosemary likes lots of sun so find a sunny windowsill if you are not planting it outdoors.
- Rosemary can take a bit of snow but it doesn’t do well where it has long days of cold and/or freezing. Rosemary is usually grown from a cutting and not from seeds. Here is some information on growing rosemary from a cutting: How to Propagate Rosemary (with images).
Recipes to Try:
- Grilled Bread with Rosemary Dipping Oil: This is amazing! Super simple and even if you don’t grill your bread but still dip it in the flavored oil it will be a treat.
- Rosemary Focaccia Bread: I could eat this bread every single day.
How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?
- Members of the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey levels have access to the new ebook in their library. You need to click the “Members Area” button at the top of the website, sign into your account, and the ebook is there to download and save for your family to use when desired. If you don’t have a membership yet, I am offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.
- Discount Code: Wildflower5
- Mid-June Set #2 will be added to the members library and we will be working our way through Set #2 over this summer. Look for a post soon that will give all the details of this new ebook. In the meantime, you are welcome to use Set #1 as you come into contact with the wildflowers included in it.
