Shopping for groceries yesterday (stockpiling like a maniac, really, because we are once again expecting the kind of winter weather that keeps people home for a week) I passed by a stand of “fresh” herbs in the produce section. I use the word fresh so loosely here. Did you hear my air quotes? Because I was laying it on pretty thick. They were suffocating in little plastic coffins, wilted, sad, barely retaining any shade of natural green. Like puppies at the shelter who know they are unlikely to get adopted. Depressing. It got me thinking about how much I want you to join us in growing your own herbs this season.
Last year I designated a paisley-shaped curve of earth near my kitchen door as the Lazy W herb garden, and I have never been happier about a gardening decision in my life. For months it yielded color, fragrance, flavor, all kinds of beauty and repose, efficiency, imagination, just everything you want from a small garden. And having it nearby was so fun! I could be in the middle of cooking a meal, decide I needed an herb, and just walk outside barefoot to snip a generous handful of something for free. Never even had to untie my apron.
How do I convince you it’s worth the effort? When dried herbs are so abundant and soon enough “FRESH” herbs (cue dramatic eye roll) will look ever so slightly better at the stores, what will nudge you to decide that you too need a small corner of paradise to grow your own flavors? Well I’m gonna try.
If you grow your own savory herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, you’ll always have piles of the gorgeous stuff just begging to be thinned and used up in the kitchen; no more doling out those precious leaves one at a time. Your recipes will take on a whole new level of deliciousness. And your family will never grow tired of you singing Simon and Garfunkel songs while you cook. Pinky promise.
If you grow you own basil (and my gosh you really truly SHOULD. Why aren’t you?), you will be able to whip up a blender full of bright green pesto at a moment’s notice. Your pasta will never be the same. Your visits to Italian restaurants will take a sudden and sharp nose dive because no sauce there will ever taste as good as what you simmer in your own pots. You’ll stop wearing expensive perfume because you are so enchanted with the way your fingers smell after harvesting a flirty bouquet.
If you grow frivolous herbs like chocolate mint, it really increases your fairy tale powers. You become much better at telling stories to small children. You crave less diet coke and more hot tea. You do more yoga. Everything is better when you grow these odd little herbs.
Have I persuaded you a little? Because it’s early February, friends. Time to plan your garden. Time to sit with a cup of perfect coffee or hot tea and dream up what you’d really like to be harvesting soon. What do you use lots of in your recipes? What would you like to use, if it were less expensive at the store? What superpowers in your arsenal need amplifying? Fresh herbs are the answer. Real fresh herbs, not air-quotes fresh herbs.
Stay tuned here for detailed posts about building your own herb garden and drumming up your own cloud of culinary magic. It’s gonna be so fun.
All Hail Basil!
XOXOXOXO