LOL. Hard to beat salt and pepper!!!!!!!! That’s the main spices we had. My parents had a restaurant and so did my maternal grandmother.
My paternal grandmother was the one with the garden who did all the at home canning, and she didn’t have a whole bunch of spices, but did have some.
Dad was the pastry chef-he made the pies daily and pumkin was a favortie. So we always had the nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.
Other regular spices and flavorings: Onion, garlic, chili powder, cayenne and or hot sauce,ham beef or chicken soup base, parsley, molasses,lard, veggie oil, mustard and celery seed/flakes ,dill seed/weed, pickling spices, alum, chives, bay leaves, apple cider vinegar, sage, Mapleine, old bay seasoning for fish and seafood, are the things I remember sitting around in the spice cabinet.
My maternal grandmother gave me a two teired spice (lazy susan style) rack for a wedding present and it had some new stuff I had to research what to use it for.
Other stuff came later. With pizza came basil and oregano. Basil can be used whole, chopped or dried and crushed. It’s good in soups, pizza, and Italian, and tomato based foods to name a few.
Tarragon I love in a vegetable soup. Ginger I like in almost anything.
Speaking of spice: I was at walmart and noticed that saffron is $17.00 for what looked like about an oz of spice.
So I’m wondering if I can grow saffron!LOL
These are the new, fresh “medicines” I just got for various physical problems if the SHTF - they are all organic. I’ll know what to use to fix a medical problem but not really know about using them in food (except for garlic powder and cinnamon). These are strictly for medicinal use. I’d buy others for food but I have a good deal of French blend, Italian blend, Pinto Bean Seasoning and Mexican blend for food. Here are the medicines:
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Turmeric
Oregano
Cayenne Pepper
Basil Leaves
Ginger
Parsley
Ceylon Cinnamon
Don’t forget the savory, both summer and winter. Also coriander, the seeds of cilantro. Not sure if you can do cumin where you are.
If you can grow crocus, you can grow saffron; it’s the stigmas of the saffron crocus: 3 strands per flower; 3 or 4 flowers per plant.