By Claudine Arndt
For those of us who enjoy cooking, there’s a special joy that comes with growing herbs, those aromatic plants that can transform the simplest of dishes from ho-hum to memorable. For thousands of years, cooks around the world have used herbs to augment the flavor of food, whether tossing a handful into a salad, simmering a bouquet in a humble pot of beans, layering depth and complexity to a marinade or finishing a dish with a fresh sprinkle.
Herbs and spices are often confused with one another, but their qualities are unique. Herbs usually refer to the fragrant leafy or flowering parts of plants that contain highly scented oils and can be used fresh or dried, whereas spices are typically produced from dried seeds, bark, roots and fruit. When asked to define an herb, Amaya Fairbanks, customer service manager at Tonkadale Greenhouse in Minnetonka, says, “First and foremost, an herb is an edible plant that enhances your food in some way, either by taste or smell or both.” Amaya adds, “And while it’s not technically a definition – but something that I think is true – herbs are plants that really show a culture. The herbs commonly used and grown in an area can teach us a lot about various cultures around the world. That’s an interesting aspect they have that a lot of other plants don’t necessarily have.”
Picking Herbs is Personal
In addition to her role at Tonkadale, Amaya is an avid home gardener and cook who loves the crossover between her garden and kitchen. When considering which culinary herbs to grow, Amaya advises to simply look at what you and your family are most likely to eat and start with those plants. Common and popular herbs include sweet basil, chives, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary and sage. These Mediterranean herbs are often associated with Italian and Greek cuisines and also generally work well for flavoring meat, poultry, vegetables and soups.
Beyond the basics, there are plants to suit everyone’s tastes: peppery calendula and nasturtiums, floral lavender, savory marjoram and sweet fenugreek. Tarragon, chervil, sorrel, chamomile. The list goes on and the possibilities are endless for delighting one’s palate and eyes.
Amaya says, “The most used herb in my garden is Thai basil. It has a gratifying, intense flavor and is so fragrant. No shade on regular sweet basil, but Thai basil is really a cut above for me and the winner, if you’re looking for something different.” Amaya likes Thai basil’s licorice flavor in stir fries, mixed with mint in spring rolls and added to salads. She continues, “Shiso is another gorgeous herb we grow. It has big, beautiful, scalloped leaves that have both a lemony and anise flavor and are used a lot in Asian cooking. Shiso is going to be on everybody’s culinary menu in a year or two.” Amaya credits cilantro and parsley as her culinary workhorses and has recently added fennel to her herb garden, which she prizes both for its feathery beauty and anise flavor.
Chef Beth Fisher, who runs the Culinary Classroom at Farm at the Arboretum in Chaska, names parsley, chives, cilantro, dill, sweet basil and mint as the herbs she can’t live without. Beth works closely with the Master Gardeners at the arboretum, helping to influence which plants are grown in the edible Foodscape that surrounds the Culinary Classroom. Beth enthuses, “I love herbs. Herbs are flavor enhancers, they’re brightening, they’re visually appealing, too. You see something green in a dish and it just looks fresh.” She also comments on how the interesting flavors herbs bring to a dish can enable a cook to reduce the amount of salt needed for flavor.
Over the years, some slightly off-the-beaten-path herbs have earned culinary status in Beth’s kitchen, including lemon thyme, nasturtiums and chervil. Beth elaborates, “I love lemon thyme. I started growing it a while back and have an appreciation for its citrusy, lemony thyme flavor. Anytime you need to brighten something, the trick is to add some citrus and herbs. With lemon thyme, you get both flavors in one herb.” Beth likes to use lemon thyme on mild proteins like boneless, skinless chicken breasts or white beans.
Another favorite is nasturtiums, which she grows in her own garden every year. “I chop up the leaves and pull the petals off the flowers and add them to all kinds of things: salads, side vegetable dishes, main courses. They are peppery and unexpected. I love that unexpected flavor of the nasturtium leaf.”
Chervil, which Beth describes as “beautiful and delicate with a little bit of a celery flavor” is a third favorite. She often uses chervil to garnish grilled or poached salmon or other fish. She enthuses, “There’s nothing better than a fresh herb. It makes a dish.”
Green Thumb Not Needed
Most herbs are easy to grow overall, providing a convenient gateway into gardening for those who aren’t yet hooked. As a general rule of thumb, herbs need at least six hours of sunlight a day and regular water.
In terms of where to grow herbs, gardeners have options. If space is an issue or it’s more convenient to grow herbs on a nearby sunny deck or patio, gather a big terracotta pot or two and simply mix a bunch of herbs together to create a culinary herb garden. This is Amaya’s personal preference, as it makes it easy to step out her door and snip a bunch of fresh herbs just before dinnertime.
Other gardeners opt to grow herbs in garden beds rather than pots, providing the opportunity for companion planting alongside vegetables. Companion planting is the art of growing plants in proximity to one another so they can benefit from one another. The benefits of these relationships range from pest deterrence to disease prevention, as well as promoting healthy plant growth and production. For instance, highly scented herbs such as Greek oregano, mint, sage, tarragon and lavender can act as pest control in a garden, deterring rabbits and deer from getting in and helping themselves to a garden buffet. Basil, fennel and calendula are considered good growing companions for tomatoes because they protect the plants from harmful insects while attracting beneficial ones. It is also believed that growing basil near tomato plants enriches the flavor of the fruit.
Besides beauty, flavor, freshness and accessibility, another perk to growing one’s own herbs is avoiding waste. Amaya explains, “When we buy herbs in those little plastic packets in the grocery store, they are beautifully packaged and look great, but I think we all struggle with that purchase, which may have been trucked across the country, and then finding them molding in the fridge a week later. Growing your own herbs eliminates that step. You can just ‘cut and come again’. Go out, gather a little collection of what’s ready in the garden and use them that day. This way you’re just consuming what you need while replenishing the plant because it wants to grow new leaves for you tomorrow.”
Claudine Arndt is the Director of Membership and Minnesota Cooks™ local foods programming for Minnesota Farmers Union and has worked in the local foods arena since 2010. She is the co-creator of the farm-forward cookbook The Farmer and the Chef: Farm Fresh Minnesota Recipes and Stories and is the co-editor of Edible Minnesota.
