My Herb Garden

When I was a college student and even after I had my first few jobs after school was done, I moved around a lot. I lived in apartments. I knew it would be a sign that I had finally arrived when I could have my own culinary herb garden. The house I live in is the first house I've owned, and I have the most exquisite herb garden I could wish for. It is small but contains all that I need. Many of the plants are perennials here but I add annuals to it every year, too. I never take it for granted; every time I use it, I feel so lucky. The giddiness has not worn off after all this time.

In the late spring, all summer and early fall, I use herbs from it any day that I cook. I have flat-leaf parsely, two kinds of sage, several kinds of basil, oregano, marjoram, winter and summer savory, a few kinds of thyme, two kinds of mint, French tarragon, two kinds of rosemary, bay leaf, lemongrass, chives, nasturtiums, lavender, verbena, patchouli and moujean tea. My older son hangs out with me while I clean up the garden in the spring, and often when I go out to harvest from it. He always asks nicely, "Mom, can I have some sage?" And then he eats many sage leaves. I am altogether too proud of him that he does this. I'm just so glad he likes to hang out there with me, and that he will try any herb, and he snacks on sage leaves (!).

The flavor the fresh herbs bring to foods is so special. Just-dried ones also have a really fantastic quality, and it's more pronounced than the just-picked kind. Edna Lewis, doyenne of American cookery, wrote that she preferred dried herbs in all cases. If they are quite freshly dried, they do have an intensity that is unmatched by the fresh form. Each year, I leave plates of herbs out on my dining room table for weeks after the snow has started to fly, and I let them dessicate in the ever-less humid, and warm, air of the house. Then I remove the leaves from the dried stems and keep the leaves in air-tight jars (and I put the stems into stocks). These herbs are true treasures all winter long.

There are so many good cookbooks out there that feature herbs, and many more that are about herbs (and spices) themselves. When these are done well, they are so much fun to leaf through. They often have gorgeous pictures and sometimes have good recipes. One I have had for a long time is the Moosewood Restuarant Kitchen Garden by David Hirsch. I have the old edition, but I know that a revised edition came out in 2005. This is a book full of practical gardening information for many food plants, and he covers herbs well. Another really useful book is Jill Norman's Herbs & Spices. This one is so great because she really covers the gamut of herbs and spices; it is not West-centric. If you are wondering about grains of paradise, wattle seeds, akudjura, nigella, mugwort, rau ram, micromeria, hyssop, amchoor, sansho, et al., you may well find information on what you're looking for here.

An outright cookbook that is herb-oriented is The Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld. From the acclaimed Herbfarm Restaurant in Washington State, so many very good herby recipes can be found in here, like: Seafood in scented dashi, Green gazpacho, Roasted asparagus salad with fried sage, Balsamic potato salad, Green goddess grilled chicken salad, Grilled peach salad, Bite-size Cheddar and thyme gougères, Potatoes in herbed cream, Bay laurel roasted chicken, Marjoram corn bread, Herbal chocolate truffles, Chocolate-mint sorbet, Dill and apricot mustard and Plum and lavender chutney. I have made things from this book and they have been fantastic.

I also have an old book, The Spice Cookbook by Avanelle Day and Lillie Stuckey, whose cover description is, "A complete book of spice and herb cookery--containing 1,400 suberb recipes for traditional American and classic international cuisine" (David White Company, 1964). I have not made anything out of this book, but it looks like it has some good recipes. However, it too often calls for things like dried onion flakes, instant minced garlic, margarine and shortening, that I am not compelled to explore it deeply. I also own Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz's The Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spices and Flavorings: A Cook's Compendium, a beautiful and useful book in the classic Dorling Kindersley style.

The currently very popular Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg covers herbs and spices, of course. For savory, for instance, they say that its weight is "medium, tough-leaved," and that it goes especially well with beans. They also suggest pairing it with cheeses, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic, mushrooms, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, among other things. Vitaly Paley, of Paley's Place in Portland, Oregon, is quoted in the entry as loving savory above all other herbs, and Marcel Desaulniers suggests that savory could be used any way that thyme is used.

Herb season is well underway now. I have been using a few leaves from the tiny, just-planted herbs already. I'm sure a little bit of fresh herb will make its way into almost everything I make for many months to come.