Herbs are an essential part of cooking throughout history, and nowadays with year-round availability of many herbs, cooking with herbs is a creative way to make your favorite dishes stand out.

These are fun and healthy ways to spice up your meals

Boiling water can be a challenge to the beginning cook. Add some herbs to that pot of water and you have the basis for a great soup. Any dish can be enhanced with the use of herbs. Their natural fragrance and flavor just add that perfect blend to make a meal complete.

Growing herbs is fun, inexpensive and livens up bland cooking. Here are some tips on getting started with your own herb garden.

Joel Orcutt of Hood River Lavender Farms says “Lavender is so much more versatile as an Herb and an accompaniment to food and drinks than what we here in the United States know.” “It is often used in Parisian Bakeries, as a Spice Herb and even ice cream in Europe. Extremely versatile in cooking, it also adds nice color and garnish to a dish.

Cannabis, also known as marijuana, ganja (from Hindi: गांजा gānjā), or as hashish, is a psychoactive product of the plant Cannabis sativa. The herbal form of the drug consists of dried mature flowers and subtending leaves of pistillate ("female") plants. The resinous form, known as hashish, consists primarily of glandular trichomes collected from the same plant material.The major biologically active chemical compound in cannabis is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), commonly referred to as THC.Humans have been consuming cannabis since prehistory, although in the 20th century there was a rise in its use for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. It is estimated that about four percent of the world's adult population use cannabis annually and 0.6 percent daily. The possession, use, or sale of psychoactive cannabis products became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century. Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of cannabis prohibition while others have reduced the priority of enforcement.