The marriage of gardening and cooking

We are entering the season when gardening and cooking get married. Already the world’s best salads are at hand. Now, before the tender lettuce plants bolt and go to seed, is also the time when basil, mint and other herbs are big enough to contribute a few enlivening leaves. Chives and garlic chives join in and even contribute spicy flowers to some who like it hot.*

It’s a while yet until tomatoes, eggplant and other late-summer feast ingredients arrive on the scene, but that means there’s still time to plant and grow the herbs that go with them.

Oregano, of course, should be at the top of that list, and it’s easy and vigorous. One plant is likely all you need, as it forms a sizable clump, about two feet tall, in any reasonably sunny location, and will be happy in that spot for decades.

Basil is oregano’s co-star. It’s a bit more of a diva, and slugs will come from miles around to worship it in their own slimy way. It wants sun, plenty of water, and your admiration. It’s an annual, so if it manages to flower and make seeds, it has accomplished its life goal and will stop producing. You can prevent (or at least delay) that by pinching off the flowers the minute you see them forming.

For those who like to make and freeze pesto, a dozen or more plants are warranted. But if you only want your pesto garden-fresh, you can plant fewer. Either seeds or started plants work fine. The best culinary variety is Genovese, but if you want to go for the biggest quantity, you might prefer the big leaf variety. And if you’re a competent cook of Southeast Asian food, Thai basil is for you.

To make basil pesto, deposit a couple of cups of basil leaves, some fresh garlic cloves, and half a cup or more of olive oil into a blender or food processor and whiz it up. Others, more pure of heart, eschew the appliance and do this with a mortar and pestle. Freeze in small containers. Add parmesan when you use it, and if you can afford them, pine nuts.

(An aside: you can also make a delightful pesto with garlic scapes – the young curled tops of garlic plants appearing on your garlic plants and in the farmers markets now. I was once also served a kale pesto, but now that kale has been replaced by cauliflower as the It vegetable, cauliflower pesto may be next. Oy.)

Next on my own list of essential herbs is thyme, a hardy perennial that can be used all year round, even when you have to dig through snow to get to it. One plant is enough; I have three and bees are happy about that. Like oregano, it has zillions of tiny flowers that keep bees busy.

Here are more on the easy-to-grow list:

• Fennel is a tall airy plant that looks like a giant dill but is perennial. One plant is plenty unless you like the bulbs as well as the leaves and seeds.
• Dill is an annual that is easy from seed and reseeds itself; it does wonders for a tuna sandwich.
• Parsley is easy from seed but takes nearly a month to come up. In its second year, it will grow three feet tall and go to seed, and once it does, you may have a parsley forest. (Deep green parsley is also lovely as foliage in a bouquet.)
• Cilantro is super easy from seed, grows fast, reseeds readily, and as a two-for-one bonus, its seeds are coriander.
• A single sage is wise; mine is now a three-foot-wide mound. Looking at it makes me think of Thanksgiving.
• I don’t have room for a rosemary plant; they get huge. But I have cutting rights at my neighbor’s house in exchange for the occasional pie.

This is just Herbs 101; a trip to any nursery or seed rack will give you far more choices, and nearly all of them can make your kitchen fragrant and your dinner divine.

*A possibly obscure cultural reference to Some Like it Hot, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Like_It_Hot a classic 1959 black and white movie starring Marilyn Monroe.

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at jill@theJOLTnews.com