CONFESSIONS OF A FRESH HERB CONVERT
By Terry

As a woman who grew up in seeming indentured servitude to a fanatic organic gardener and the queen of vegetable preservation, I always swore that I would never, ever plant, weed, can, pickle or freeze a single vegetable for the rest of my goddess-given life! So, it is a supreme irony that I find myself writing an article for the ag section of Rural Womyn. Mind you, I have nothing but genuine admiration for women who choose farming as a profession or gardening as a hobby. But it was never my cup of tea. Or so I thought.

As a teenager, I had quickly put an end to my gardening chores by deliberately pulling out carrots and beets, pretending that they were weeds. Thus, I enjoyed years of peace within the coolness of our home, snapping beans and podding peas, while my siblings bent over in the hot sun engaged in seemingly endless weeding. They have yet to forgive me, 30 some odd years later, for what I thought was a brilliant strategy.

You can imagine my surprise when I found myself, last spring, digging a 10 x 3 foot plot and commencing to plant an herb garden. It all started innocently enough. The year before I had bought some tomato plants that I grew in large pots. I thought it would be nice to have fresh tomatoes handy whenever I wanted one. Well, of course, if I was going to go to the trouble of watering these tomatoes, it seemed only right and fitting to have fresh basil to eat with them. And while I was picking out the basil, pots of thyme, rosemary, chives and sage caught my eye. Growing herbs in pots, however, was limiting, as the plants were relatively small and it only took a few snips to reduce a plant to next to nothing. By this time, though, I had become quite accustomed to using fresh herbs in my meals.

So, when the spring of 2001 rolled around, I decided I would take the plunge and actually grow herbs in the ground. I wanted to allow their roots to spread out and grow deep into the earth so I would have bigger plants. If you visited this page because you are involved in agriculture, you are, no doubt, amazed at anyone who could consider planting a tiny little herb garden to be such a big deal. But I am a no-muss, no fuss kind of woman-just point me to the farmer's market, thank you very much.

Well, my trip to the greenhouse to find a few select herbs turned into a veritable shopping spree. The next thing I knew, I was planting all kinds of things - oregano, dill, fennel, basil, thyme, lemon thyme, parsley, cilantro, sage, pineapple sage, rosemary, tarragon and several varieties of mint. I had done my homework, spent a lot of time online learning what each herb needed in terms of nutrients, soil composition, sun vs. shade, water, etc. In the end, I just put all this information aside, popped each plant in the ground, spread bark around and had done with it. 

I think I weeded once and then just let the plants fend for themselves. I found that herbs are really hardy and pretty much take over the space, leaving very little room for other plants. In June I went away for a week and came back to find huge, robust plants. The basil was so big, I had to pull it back just to find where the plant actually started. The dill and fennel had grown three feet tall. And the tarragon had spread all over the place. I found myself doing exactly the same thing I had heard my father do so many times - telling my friends, "You should see the size of my plants!"

I soon became accustomed (spoiled really) to using fresh herbs in just about everything. As someone who is not much of a cook, I amazed myself. I threw them on the grill to season whatever I was cooking (no more marinades for me!). I tossed them in salads and on vegetables, added them to omelets, put them in just about everything.

Round about August, though, it occurred to me that my herb garden had produced far more than I could ever possibly use. I was harvesting cuttings, wrapping them in wet paper towels, placing them in zip-lock bags and giving them to everyone I could think of. Although I hadn't done any work on this garden, aside from planting, it seemed wasteful to let them just die off in the frost. 

Back to the internet I went to find out ways to preserve my herbs for future use. The wonderful thing about herbs is that most are perennials and the edible part is usually the leaves. So all you need to do is cut off the stems, wash the leaves and determine the most suitable form of preservation.

By far, the easiest was to just dry them. I placed hooks in the wall, threaded them with dowels and created easy drying racks. Then, I pulled bunches of herbs tightly together with string and hung them up. They took a couple of weeks to dry (if they are not completely dry, they will mold). I untied the string, dropped the herbs into zip-lock bags and was done with it. The directions said to save only the leaves, but I have been taking them off as I use them. That way the flavorful oils within the herbs are preserved and are not released until you crush them at the time of use. Really, the only thing to consider when drying herbs is that they need to be stored out of direct sunlight.

The other preservation method I used was much more time-consuming, but well worth it. I made pesto. If you have never tasted pesto before, it is an incredible sauce made from fresh herbs, nuts, olive oil and hard Italian cheese. The most common type of pesto is made from basil, pinenuts, garlic, olive oil and a combination of Parmesan and Romano cheeses. I found all kinds of recipes on the internet that included variations. For instance, you can use sunflower seeds, almonds or walnuts instead of pinenuts. You can add such ingredients as sun-dried tomatoes, Greek olives, roasted red peppers, spinach or other herbs. Or, you can make pesto without any basil, but with one or more herbs of your choice. To make pesto, you combine the ingredients in a food processor, creating a paste that is about the consistency of oatmeal. Pesto freezes well - all you do is thaw it out and mix it into pasta for a quick sauce. Or you can use it to season vegetables, accompany meat, create a dip or spread on bread (with other ingredients, since pesto is very concentrated and strong-tasting). I divided the pesto into ice cube trays and, after it was frozen, transferred it to zip-lock bags. 

I'm sure there are many other ways to preserve herbs. You certainly can make sauces and freeze them. Whatever you do, fresh herbs, even when dried or frozen, are far more flavorful than anything you can find on a grocery store shelf. And, compared to the work involved in growing and preserving vegetables, herbs are as easy as it gets!