Nobody told me the herb was a tree.
Today, the potted bay plants I bought about a decade ago for about $8 at a farmers market are better termed “saplings.” If I stripped every leaf from them, the retail value would be several thousand dollars. I give gallon bags of dried bay leaves to the in-laws, just because I have to do something with the trimmings. That’s a lot of soup.
Dollar for dollar, seed for seed, the best harvest from your garden is probably herbs. Grow a garden bed of tomatoes and can them. Each quart is worth a dollar or two, and a half-dozen plants might yield perhaps $40 worth of food. Carrots or beans? A 4- by 8-foot bed might yield 10 pounds of each, or maybe $20 of edibles. (Still totally worth it when once considers a packet of seeds is about $2 or $3 and you get so many really cool varieties to try.)
But herbs? Check out the prices in the grocery store. They cost $5, $10, $30 — an ounce. Multiply by 16, and you’ll spend $80 to $250 a pound for oregano, thyme, basil — or bay.
So if you’re looking to a save a few bucks by growing your own food, one of the best investments you can make is an herb garden. That’s doubly useful to know, because many herbs take very well to pots, or even grown as shrubbery, so you can use your other garden space for bigger vegetables.
I don’t pretend to be a master gardener. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I have a brown thumb. But my motto remains “eat well and water the survivors.”
PRESERVING IT
I got a dehydrator as a gift so long ago that I don’t recall exactly who or when. Today, a simple dehydrator costs $40 or $60 and is just fine for basic gardens like mine.
I found that keeping the temperature low wasn’t just some environmental way of saving money. The lower temperatures also result in less evaporation of the essential oils that give herbs their kick. Dehydrating herbs might take a little longer, but it’s worth it for the quality.
When possible, dry the herb as a whole leaf. Slicing or crushing herbs means their oils evaporate, so whole leaves remain tastier longer.
For a long time, I would store herbs in zip-top bags, but I found over time that the quart Mason jars work better. Every time you handle a bag, you crush a little bit of herb, and that eventually affects the flavor.
Freezing some herbs is also possible — at least I freeze basil. Blanch them with a bit of boiling water and freeze them in ice cube trays for about a tablespoon of herbs. Once frozen, store them in a zip-top freezer bag.
So here’s what you’ll find in and around my house.
CHIVE
I don’t know if the single plant I put in a three-gallon bucket 30 years ago is one long-lived plant, or whether it self-sows into its own pot every year. I’ve done just about everything I can to kill this thing, yet it persists like a weed — perhaps because across much of America, it is.
Its mild, oniony flavor works well with fish, sauteed vegetables, any number of sauces and stir-fries.
Don’t ask me how to grow it, because I haven’t done anything more than water it since I got the first seedling. The only thing that’s stayed with me longer than my chive plant is my wife, and she takes a lot more care.
SAGE
My wife planted a sage bush by the house’s south side foundation 25 years ago. We figured it would be a pretty annual, because while it’s a perennial, it can be tender in this climate.
We did something right, maybe it was the south facing, where it gets the heat from the sun, and the residual protection of the foundation inches away.
Once or twice a year, I snip a few handfuls of leaves and dehydrate them whole. When the time comes, I crumble them in my hand or maybe a mortar and pestle.
Perfect for stuffings at Thanksgiving, of course, but sage also pairs well with beef and, surprisingly, tomatoes. I love stewed tomatoes with a teaspoonful or two of sage.
THYME
Thyme, my wife said, doesn’t need great soil, and can grow practically in gravel, so she planted it on the east side of our shed. Where it died. And died again.
Thyme, it turns out, is a perennial in the Northeast, but it likes full sun, which the east side of our property does not get. Once we planted on the south side (right by the sage, in fact), it thrives.
I like to trim it several times in the spring, before it flowers. Its tiny leaves will be their largest and most flavorful, I’ve found and very well suited for drying. But I’ll snip some all year round if I want it fresh.
I’m still trying to find foods thyme doesn’t go well with. It’s good with any number of European cuisines, particularly Mediterranean.
OREGANO
Every year for a couple of decades, I would buy one or two oregano plants in pots. While it winters over, I could rarely get more than two or three seasons before whitefly just did in the plant.
A couple of seasons ago, I threw caution to the wind and bought a packet of seeds, instead. I figured that if I planted three pots worth, I might lose one but would still have two from which to harvest.
This stuff grows like grass in a pot. Every couple of weeks starting in late June or early July, I’d trim the plants back and dehydrate what I had. By the time September rolled around, I had several quart jars of dehydrated oregano.
Keep that in mind; when you buy oregano in the store, you get, a half-cup or a cup at a time for maybe $4 or $5. For $3 (less, actually, because I didn’t use the entire packet of seeds), I got eight or 10 cups of oregano for each of two years. That’ll make enough marinara to feed a teenager and still save me about $100.
BASIL
I’ve always treated it as an annual in the garden. Remember to snip the leaves before the plant flowers. Once it flowers, all its energy goes to reproduction, so keeping it trimmed means more leaves for the preserving.
You can preserve it two ways: Roll the leaves and slice it into a thin chiffonade and dehydrate it. (I got a couple of quarts of basil this season doing that.) Or mince it, stuff it into an ice cube tray, pour boiling water over it and freeze it.
The first is convenient and great for quick additions of flavor — sprinkled over a pizza, for example. The second, basil cubes, works better with sauces.
Or, of course, you could make pesto. Very simple and it freezes well.
ROSEMARY
I found it works well with pork and lamb. It shares a certain astringent characteristic with oregano or mint, so you can play with it in dishes that call for those herbs. It’s a different flavor profile, though, and it’s very potent, so a little bit goes a long way.
My rosemary plants are among the most attractive of my potted herbs — or even the decorative plants, for that matter. I find that repotting them every spring gives them fresh soil and a longer lifespan. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when they get too unwieldy. I think I’ll explore dividing them.
BAY
Yeah, I thought this was a potted plant. It’s a tree.
I got them in 4-inch pots and potted them up every year or so. Today, those plants are in 5- or 7-gallon (or maybe larger) ceramic pots that require two people to move around. They winter in bright corners of the house and summer on the front step, the upstairs porch or the back deck, as we can find space. We have four now, a forest’s worth.
As much as I love these plants and their effect on soup, I have to concede that at 6 feet tall, and about that wide, they’re space eaters, even as we trim them every year to keep them in check.
But a couple of leaves go into every batch of chicken stock, and every stew, and every pot of soup. The plants have long since paid for themselves.
MINT
Don’t put this in your garden; it’s practically invasive. Grow it in pots. Great with lamb, and I have a spiedie recipe that uses mint. It’s good instead of dill in chicken salad, and pairs well with any number of Greek or Mediterranean recipes.
