Growing Herbs: A Little Goes a Long Way

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Herbs complement all sorts of meals and are a great addition to any cook's garden.
Herbs complement all sorts of meals and are a great addition to any cook's garden.
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An old wagon wheel makes a great divider for herbs.
An old wagon wheel makes a great divider for herbs.
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Herbs vary both in shape and flavor. Grow a large selection and experiment.
Herbs vary both in shape and flavor. Grow a large selection and experiment.

My husband, Ed, used to be a little sarcastic about my herbs, referring to my herb garden as “the weed patch.” He claimed he couldn’t tell seedlings from weeds.

But since he’s seen to what good use I put my few herbs and how little trouble they are, he has a new appreciation of them. Herbs really fall into the woman’s department. For although herbs offer a fascinating and learned hobby and can be grown as flowers for beauty, for fragrance, for dyes, vinegars, tea and incense-making, the main use on a homestead is in cooking.

Although I’ve heard a number of women say their husbands didn’t like herbs in cooking, I’m inclined to think that this is one of those preconceived notions that men have about food and ought not to be taken too seriously, especially, when they say it after a dinner they’ve relished where herbs have perhaps been used without their knowledge in poultry stuffing, soup, tomato cocktail, iced tea and fruit cup!

I think the reason more of us don’t use herbs regularly is because there is so much mumbo-jumbo mixed up in most herb literature just as there used to be about serving wines. Once people discover, as they have about wine, that you can use any herb you like in cooking, then a lot more of us will use herbs. Of course, certain herbs seem to be “just right” with certain foods.

Any cookbook worth owning, even conservative Fannie Farmer, has something on herb cooking. Usually for the beginner it’s too much to take in all at once. So, unless you’re an accomplished herb-cook, I suggest you start your herb cooking from the angle of what’s easy to grow in a small herb garden.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1970
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