This past winter I was making one of my favorite recipes — asparagus baked with olive oil and tarragon — when I discovered that I was out of tarragon.
No problem, I’d just pop out into the garden to pick a few leaves from my tarragon plant. Although it had been a long, mild autumn, a recent freeze had killed the tarragon down to the ground. Not one green leaf remained.
A trip to the supermarket revealed that one of those tiny bottles of tarragon cost a couple of dollars. For less than an ounce. I toss several pounds of the stuff into the compost every year and simply could not bring myself to pay more for the seasoning than for the main ingredients. So we ate the asparagus with sesame seeds and soy sauce.
My tarragon plant cost the equivalent of one bottle of chopped leaves and has in the past 20 years likely produced enough seasoning for the entire city of Centennial. It asks little in return. Tarragon, like many of our culinary herbs, is long- lived and drought-tolerant, and thrives in poorly amended soil. In fact, harsh conditions result in better, stronger flavor.
So why aren’t more of us growing our own herbs? Perennial chives, fennel, garlic chives, lemon balm, lovage, oregano, hardy varieties of rosemary like Arp and Madeline Hill, sage, thyme and winter savory are all good choices for hot, sunny and dryish spots.
French sorrel (Rumex suctates), salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor), horseradish and mints are also perennial but perform best in soil that is well- amended with compost and manure, and regularly irrigated throughout the growing season.
Vegetable-garden conditions are ideal. For sanity’s sake, however, confine rapidly reproducing horseradish and mints to a large container buried in the ground to prevent them from overrunning your entire garden. My first choice for corralling mints is a recycled black nursery pot with drainage holes. Plan to dig up whatever container you use once or twice a year to intercept escaped roots or rhizomes.
Parsley also prefers the vegetable-garden good life. Both curled- and flat-leafed varieties are biennials, usually started from seedlings planted in May. Where happy, parsley reseeds.
Annual herbs such as basil, cilantro, dill and perilla are easily sown in place, and one packet of seeds usually provides more than a household can consume. All enjoy the same cultural conditions that grow tomatoes well.
Herbs are the most flavorful when harvested fresh, but you can cut enough for winter meals at the end of the season before frost strikes. The easiest method is to cut bouquets. Rinse them, tie the ends together with a rubber band and hang in a dark, well-ventilated place to dry. (I use a coat rack in a hallway.) When the leaves are thoroughly dry, I pack them loosely into a resealable plastic bag and toss it into the freezer.
Had I remembered to do just that, I would not have to wait until May to once again enjoy tarragon in my asparagus.
Garden writer and lecturer Marcia Tatroe’s most recent book is “Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West,” ($29.95, Johnson Books). E-mail her at rltaurora@aol.com.
