Are you using fresh herbs in your kitchen? If not, you should! And today I will show you how simple and economical it is to grow your own herbs and add them in mere seconds to any dish you're preparing. I'll even include a couple of fresh herb recipes that my wife Cheryl and I have collected over the years.
In the previous Plant Man column, I suggested that you think about using containers, allowing you to create mobile mini-gardens for your herbs. Containers are easily moveable to take advantage of (or shelter from) sun, rain and shade. Containers also allow you to control the soil and moisture environment for your herbs.
If you missed that column or would like to read it again, you can find it archived at my web site. Go to www.landsteward.org then click on "The Plant Man" in the menu and scroll down to the column titled "Herb gardening can be simple and rewarding."
But for now, let's head for the kitchen...
Somewhere in even the most modest kitchen, you can usually find some small, dusty canisters of colored sand marked "parsley" or maybe "oregano." Take off the top and sniff. What do you notice? Probably... nothing! Most commercially packaged dried herbs quickly lose both their aroma and their taste once exposed to air. Keep dried herbs around for months - or even years - and they really are about as useful as sand.
Go to your local supermarket and in the produce department you might find small poly bags of "fresh" herbs, often weighing less than an ounce. Now look at the price. Pound for pound, these herbs will probably cost many times more than the meat or fish that's the main ingredient of even the most lavish recipe! And although these herbs are certainly much fresher than the dried variety, you know they have to have been picked at least 24 hours before you buy them... and probably much longer.
So if you still need convincing that it's worthwhile to grow your own herbs, think of it from an economical point. One of your own herb plants will probably yield 10, 20 or 30 times as much as just one supermarket poly bag. And you only snip off the amount you need, so there's no waste.
But of course the real reason for growing "kitchen" herbs is the delicious difference they make to just about everything you cook. Here are just a couple of ideas that will hopefully make your mouth water enough to plant your own herbs!
'Herby' Asparagus Dressing
In a small bowl, mix together about 1/2 cup olive oil or salad oil, 4 tbsp. vinegar, 1/4 tsp. salt, dash cayenne and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Then open the kitchen door and snip off the equivalent of about 1 tbsp. of each of the following fresh herbs, growing happily in your container garden: parsley, oregano, basil and chervil. (If you don't have all of them, don't worry; just increase the amount of the ones you do have.) Mince the herbs then mix them into the oil and vinegar. We love to pour some of this dressing over steamed asparagus that has just cooled to room temperature. Store left over dressing in a screw-top jar and use within a few days for freshest taste.
Tipsy Minted Melon
Slice a honeydew melon into six wedges and remove the rind. Put the wedges into a large zip-top plastic bag with the juice of one fresh squeezed lime and a couple of tablespoons of gin. Add a sprig of mint and marinate in the fridge for 2 hours, turning occasionally. Remove the melon wedges and discard the happily buzzed mint. Cut each wedge into thin slices, fan out on serving plates and drizzle some of the marinade over each serving. Snip some fresh mint leaves from your herb garden, roughly chop them to release the flavor and sprinkle over the slices. You can always add a fancy cookie or a scoop of fruit sorbet, too.
In the third of our three-part look at herbs and your landscape, I'll discuss some therapeutic uses for your herbs and why we find the presence of herbs among our more decorative plants so satisfying.
Do you have a recipe using home grown herbs? If so, send it to me via e-mail, and I might be able to include it in a "cooking with herbs" page at the landsteward web site!
The Plant Man is here to help. Send you questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived Plant Man columns, visit www.landsteward.org where you can also subscribe to Steve's free e-mailed newsletter.
