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Herbs by Common or Folk name 'C'
page 6
Cos Lettuce
Lactuca sativa
 A must for the vegy garden, this older form of lettuce is valuable nutritionally but more importantly, it has not had all of the traditional bitterness bred out of it and therefore, is of use medicinally.
An absolute must for Caesar Salad, it also helps coughs and colds and helps to reduce blood sugar.
It strikes quite quickly and grows very fast in the garden or a pot. The older it gets the more bitter the leaves become, and it can reach 180 cm in height when it prepares to flower.
30 fresh seeds $3.50
Coffee
Coffea arabica
 A slender but bushy shrub, we find it a joy to have in the garden from purely 'gardening' point of view.
By planting as an avenue along the driveway we are constantly greeted by their dark glossy leaves, fragrant flowers and green to orange to red berries.
Then comes the harvest!
From a domestic point of view, harvesting the berries, separating the two beans per berry, drying them and eventually roasting the beans is no more effort than growing your own olives.
As long as you don't let the beans sit for too long in one place while roasting you should end up with a roast that pleases you.
Seed purchase is accompanied buy an outline for preparing your beans from the bush to the coffee pot.
12 seeds $3.50
Coffee -
Robusta
Coffea canephora
 Without getting involved in the ongoing and personal debate over the preferred coffee's of addicts and connoisseurs, I can only say that of the two coffees, the
Robusta has a higher caffeine content, grows better at lower altitudes, attracts less bugs and diseases, and doesn't drop it's fruit when it is ripe.
Unlike the 'Arabica' the Robusta is not self fertile so at least two trees will be necessary for cross pollination.
Our favourite 'Roastmaster' at Chipironi Mountain Coffee, feels that adding a percentage of Robusta to some of his blends, gives his espressos a special edge that you just can't beat!
12 seeds $3.50
Cotton
(Perennial)
Gossypium hirsutum
 These are very unexpected flowers.
Cream to pink, showing like a bashful hibiscus, slowly disappearing into a large pod or capsule that seems to sit on the shrub for ages until it finally opens in the heat to reveal four large cotton balls.
The seed hairs in the capsule can be woven into cotton, the seeds pressed for oil which is anti-viral, anti-bacterial and eases menstrual pain.
There have been suggestions that the oil is a possible source of hormones and may act as a male contraceptive but we have found no conclusive results to discuss this further.
Make sure that the bolls are very dry before harvesting.
40 seeds $3.50
Cnidium
Cnidium monnieri
 The leaves and seeds are both high in 'osthole' which give them their peculiar taste.
We have found that a decoction or tincture of the seeds is very useful when blended with a carrier cream for eczema, skin rashes and ringworm.
It has a high reputation in TCM as a preferred remedy for male infertility and impotence but we have not used it for this purpose, yet, so can only treat this anecdotally.
30 + Seeds $3.50
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