In her book "Growing 101 Herbs That Heal," Tammi Hartung challenges cooks to think outside the spice jar in their use of herbs. Her suggestions:

• Make a "medicinal meal" of pot roast with dandelion and the roots of hollyhock, marsh mallow and burdock. Yes, burdock (or gobo) is considered a weed. But you can buy it at garden centers and grow it in your garden. And yes, you can use the hollyhocks in your garden and dandelions from your yard — but only if you don't use any chemical fertilizers or herbicides. (Dandelions are rich in iron and potassium.)

• For an easy, vitamin-rich salad, use organically grown parsley, rather than the nutritionally empty iceberg lettuce as the main ingredient.

• Dress up salads with edible flowers that look great and add spice and nutrition. Possibilities include nasturtiums, violets, calendula, roses, raspberry and chive blossoms.

• Add gotu kola, lemon thyme and dill to cottage cheese.

• Add nettles to soups and marinades. The plants sting, so wear sturdy gloves to harvest them and to chop them for cooking. (Once cooked they lose that characteristic). They can be steamed or simmered, or used in soup.

• Toss epazote, a Mexican medicinal herb, into bean dishes.