This week, Carole asked for our Ten Favorite Herbs. The timing couldn’t be better for this list. Next year, what was my little veggie garden:
is going to become an herb garden. It is not sunny enough for growing most veggies, and we’re taking over a big piece of what used to be the front yard for the veggies. This little garden will become my kitchen herb garden (by the way, this picture is circa 2008. It looks a bit different in there now!) Here are the herbs I am growing or plan to grow in the kitchen garden:
1. Lavender. I have six well-established plants now, and I want to add a few more. It has a beautiful fragrance, and I use the flowers in a few recipes, including my favorite cookies to make for picnics. It is great in the wool closet, too!
2. Sage. My sage plant surprises me with its gusto each year. I can’t give enough away, and I’ll probably start drying my own. I like to make raviolis with a browned butter and chopped sage sauce. Simple and tasty!
3. Chives. I like to snip these into salad or eggs.
4. Mint. I use the mint that has overgrown the area by our stoop all summer long. It’s a tricky plant in its love for reseeding and desire to take over the world, but I can’t get enough of it!
5. Rosemary. The herb that says “Albuquerque” to me! In the northeast, I’ve never successfully wintered over my rosemary, but I just replant it. I loved the way it was used as a decorative plant in New Mexico; at UNM, there were some HUGE bushes. When Neal and I created my back yard oasis at my condo in the North Valley, the only plant I knew I wanted was rosemary.
6. Basil. With fresh tomatoes and a bit of mozzarella, basil becomes the taste of summer for me. I love stepping out on the deck to pick a bunch to add to whatever I’m fixing for dinner.
7. Oregano. I most often use this dried, but I had a plant that did come back for a few years, and it tasted great fresh.
8. Horseradish. My dad grew this, and I’d like to plant some next year. I sure like its zing!
9. Lemon Balm. This tastes so good added to salad.
10. Bergamot. Neal grows this as a decorative plant (oh, how it draws the hummingbirds), and I just learned that Bee Balm is, in fact, the same as Bergamot. I’ll be using it in the kitchen from now on!
One of the many advantages of growing my own herbs is that most of them make fantastic cut bouquets, too. I keep a big bundle of herbs in a mason jar on the kitchen counter and snip away when I am cooking.
What are your favorite herbs?
ETA: I got so excited to learn that bee balm = bergamot that I left off cilantro. Only after reading Carole’s list did I remember that I wanted to link to this NY Times article about why some people detest it! I, for the record, am in the can’t-get-enough-cilantro camp!
WEll HErb, my favorite herb is : basil. So fresh each time I taste it. I know boring basil answer…..
I have tasted lavendar cookies and mmmmmm so good.
Parsely sage rosemary and thyme……simon and garfunkel
your plot for growing herbs looks so pretty – love the rocks! I’m going to try lavender in cookies – sounds delicious!!
Beware the horseradish. It takes over the world from underground. Each little rootlet snippet creates a new plant. I had to move to get away from it.
Next year I’ll try lemon balm. It never entered my mind.
Smith is quite good at horseradish preparation, but I am not a fan. I’m in the cilantro camp with you and Smith doesn’t care for it. So neither herb is on the menu in our house.
Great list and I love the idea of keeping some herbs in a mason jar in the kitchen. I’m going to do that!
You lost me at lemon balm. I planted some years and years ago and still can’t get rid of it all. I’m convinced it will take over the neighborhood at some point.
Looking forward to seeing your herb garden!
xo