Herb ‘n’ Sprawl
Crackpot Social Postulate No. 88: The smaller the home, the better the cook who lives there.
This is a theory I developed myself, after having been invited to several whopper dinners at homes with kitchens that look like the plot room on the carrier Nimitz. The food was great. It was always catered. The owners of the place likely could not find their way to the kitchen even if they did have an idea of what went on there.
I have also eaten meals at homes in which a second person could safely walk into the kitchen only if all the knives were holstered in their block, and where the cooking was done on a stove that looked like it began its life in a hobo jungle. The food was, again, great. This time, the homeowner did the cooking.
But the masters of the phone booth-sized kitchen always had a beef: no fresh herbs to work with. The place was simply too small to accommodate a decent herb garden. How, they would grouse, could you expect to bring in a bumper crop of decent Italian parsley when you’ve got a patio so small that birds can only land there if they maneuver down to stall speed and drop straight in? If only they had a little patch of basil, they would wail, or a wisp or two of French thyme or a fresh chive or two, why they could whip up meals that would make the Frugal Gourmet look like just another public TV hack with a fancy pepper mill.
If you’re sick of listening to all this whining but don’t want to give up eating good chow on your friends’ nickel, tell your cooking-talented, yet under-spaced pals to show up this morning at 10 at the Fullerton Arboretum. There, Lois Davis, a charter member and ex-president of the Orange County Herb Society, will tell them all about “The Herb Garden, Sights and Scents for Small Spaces.”
The news, for the herb-deprived, is all good. Not only can you grow nearly any herb you want in a space that could barely accommodate a magnetic chess game, says Davis, you can do it cheaply and easily.
“One of the nice things about herbs,” said Davis, “is that they are useful in cooking and take up very little space. People can pick and choose what they want to grow depending on the space they have. You ought to have at least an eight-inch pot.”
And that’s it. In a single eight-inch pot, said Davis, you can keep yourself with a single edible herb indefinitely. Fortunately, the weather cooperates in this.
“A lot of cooking herbs we use are Mediterranean in origin,” said Davis, “and here in Orange County we have a Mediterranean climate. It’s very adaptable, and the herbs require very little water once they’re established.”
You’ll need to know, however, which herbs are annuals and which are perennials when you begin planning your small-space garden. If you plan to grow nothing but basil, for instance, your garden will look wonderful in the summer but will cease to exist in the winter.
Rosemary, thyme and oregano are all perennials, however, and sometimes grow so vigorously that they have to be frequently pruned back. Which, of course, almost forces you to become a competent cook: prune the plants, eat the cuttings.
How to begin? If you’re growing annuals, start with seeds and follow the planting directions as to time of year, soil, sun and such. Basil, parsley, dill and fennel, among other annuals, are best grown this way, said Davis.
Perennials such as marjoram, on the other hand, do best when begun with young potted plants. This isn’t expensive. Davis said that many perennial herbs can be bought for about $2 at most garden shops. Consider this expense in light of what one of those hopelessly sparse bags of fresh herbs cost at the supermarket--about $2--and you’ve got a wash after the first yield. And remember, these are perennials.
Herbs also don’t mind a bit of crowding. Davis said that you could plant a half-dozen perennials in a good-sized window box and prune happily away the year around.
Good taste in the cooking pot is only one advantage of growing your own herbs, said Davis.
“There has been great interest in cooking herbs in recent years,” she said, “in the interests of cutting down on fats and cholesterol and salt. They add so much flavor. That’s why you’re seeing so many fresh herbs in the supermarkets.”
And, she said, if you have a particularly green thumb and come up with a truly immense yield--more than you can use in the kitchen in a long time--you can dry them for use later or make them into fragrant potpourris or seasonal wreaths.
Or you can give them to friends who have gigantic kitchens and let them use the herbs for decorative hangings around the room--tufts of thyme here, sprigs of mint there, just like on the cover of Gourmet.
That sort of thing always impresses the caterers.
