By Chef Andrea
Back in our early days of CSA, we used to include more herbs in the CSA shares. We wanted to give members fresh herbs to cook with, however we heard frequently that they were not using all of the herbs in a bunch before they went bad. We brought this issue up at a meeting with our members and one member suggested we send the herbs as plants that they can grow themselves. What a great idea and an even better way to accomplish the overall goal of making fresh herbs available for CSA members to incorporate in their meals! When you need a fresh herb, you simply cut it from your plant—it doesn’t get any fresher than that!
Every year in mid-late May we deliver these special culinary garden herb packs that we start for you in our greenhouse. You can plant these herbs in a garden space or in pots to keep on your patio, porch or kitchen windowsill if you have limited space. Choose good, loose garden soil mixed with lots of compost (up to 1” mixed into the soil if you’re planting into a garden space). The plants will do best in well-drained soil with full sun. If you don’t have a space with full sun exposure, partial sun will be ok too. If you have rabbits or other little herb-loving critters in your yard, you might need to fence your herbs to protect them. While we usually don’t see frost after the 15th of May, it is still possible that we could see some chilly nights over the next few weeks. While most of the contents of these herb packs can tolerate a little frost, there are a few herbs including basil, chervil and zaatar that will be damaged by the frost. If you see a cold night coming, we recommend you either bring your plants inside (if in pots) or cover them with a sheet or other protective covering to protect them from frost or low temperatures.
To help you identify the contents of your herb pack, we've provided both the labeled picture at the top of this post as well as the grid pictured above. Use these tools as a road map to identify your different plants.
There are four perennial herbs in your pack: Greek Oregano, Sage, German Winter Thyme, and Rosemary. Oregano, sage and thyme are more cold hardy and have a pretty good chance of surviving our cold winters. Consider where you would like to establish these herbs in your garden as they will likely come back year after year. Sage and oregano will get quite large, so it is best to give them about 2 square feet of space in the area you plant them in. Thyme is a bit smaller and only needs about 1 square foot of space. While rosemary is a perennial herb, it is not quite as cold hardy. To ensure it survives into the next year, it is best to bring it indoors in the fall. If you have planted it in the ground, you can dig it up and put it in a pot to keep inside over the winter.
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Greek Oregano
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German Winter Thyme
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The remaining plants in your pack are annuals and include Italian Basil, Chervil, Italian Parsley, Curly Parsley and Zaatar, a new addition to this year’s packs. Annuals will only produce for this season and will not survive the winter outdoors. Italian basil and chervil need to be cut back regularly to delay flower and seed formation, so they continue to produce usable leaves. If you see even the earliest sign of flowering in either of these plants, cut them back to keep them vegetative. Parsley will continue to produce throughout the season, so don’t be afraid to cut these plants back too. If you can’t use your herbs as fast as they are growing, cut the extra herbs anyway and preserve them. There is more information about that to follow. When harvesting your herbs, use a sharp knife or scissors so you can make a clean cut.
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Italian Basil
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| Italian Parsley |
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| Curly Parsley |
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| Zaatar |
Fresh herbs should be cut as close to using them as possible and with a sharp knife so you don’t bruise the leaves. The flavor and aroma from herbs comes from the oils in the herb and will lessen over time once they are cut. This is also why you usually add fresh herbs to a dish at the end of cooking or shortly before serving. In contrast, dried herbs need more time to develop the flavors that have been preserved in the process of drying. Dried herbs are added earlier in the cooking process to give them time to develop and come together with the other ingredients in the dish. Many times, recipes will direct you to strip the leaves from the stems of fresh herbs. If the stem is tough or more like a stick, you will want to do this. However, some herb stems are tender, flavorful, juicy, and totally usable! I often chop both the leaf and the stem when I’m using fresh thyme, parsley, chervil and sometimes young basil stems. Sage, rosemary, and oregano stems are sometimes a bit more coarse and not usable.
The herbs in our garden herb pack are intended to be used primarily as culinary herbs, adding flavor and vitality to the foods you are enjoying at your meals. I do want to mention though that herbs also have nutrients and compounds in them that impart health benefits and may be used medicinally. For instance, the Latin name for common sage means “healing plant.” Over the course of history sage has been used medicinally in many applications including as a central nervous system tonic and a circulatory stimulant. There is an ancient proverb that says, “How can a man die who has sage in his garden?”
Thyme is another example of an herb that is used for both its culinary applications, but also imparts health benefits to our bodies. The same essential oils contained in the plant that give it its signature aroma and flavor are also responsible for its medicinal benefits including being antiseptic and antispasmodic. It can help to soothe congestion and calm tense muscles and nerves.
Rosemary has an interesting history as it relates to health benefits. Back in ancient Greece, philosophers and students wore rosemary garlands on their heads to stimulate the brain and improve their memory. Rosemary contains a compound called borneol that is thought to increase blood flow and generally stimulate the circulatory system thereby increasing blood flow to the heart and brain. If this is true, it makes sense that one may have better brain function with enhanced blood flow and oxygenation to the brain!
While the contents of our Garden Herb Packs have remained consistent over the years, we have made a few changes. Several years ago we introduced Chervil as a new addition to our herb packs and this year we’re trying Zaatar. Zaatar is an interesting herb that is in the same family as mint and oregano and is officially known as Oreganum Syriacum. This herb is very similar to the Greek Oregano in your pack, but they do have several differences. First, Zaatar is not as winter hardy, so it is treated like an annual in Wisconsin. If you plant Zaatar indoors or have it in a pot that you can move inside for the winter, it will likely survive. Greek Oregano and Zaatar are also very similar in appearance. The way you can tell the difference between them is Zaatar has more pointed leaves with more distinct markings on the leaves in comparison to Greek Oregano which has more soft, rounded leaves. Zaatar is both the name of the plant as well as the name of a popular spice mix used in the Middle East. While everyone has their own version of Zaatar, the basic components of Zaatar spice mix include dried zaatar herb, toasted sesame seeds, dried sumac, and salt. It is often combined with olive oil and used as a dip for bread. It may also be used to roast a chicken or incorporated into other Middle Eastern recipes such as Baba Ghanoush, falafel, etc. If you’re interested in learning more about zaatar and/or would like to make your own zaatar spice mix with the herbs you grow, check out this easy recipe link!
If you do have more herbs than you can use fresh, cut them back and preserve them. Some herbs, such as basil and parsley, can be pureed with a little oil and frozen in ice cube trays or muffin tins. Other herbs such as parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, and savory are good as dried herbs. After you harvest them, give them a quick rinse, and then dry them in a low-heat oven or in a food dehydrator. The other option is to bundle the herbs in small bundles and hang them in a dry place with good air flow and let them air dry. If you do this, make sure the herbs are more on the dry side when you bundle them and don’t put too many stems in a bundle, or they may mold or take longer to dry. Once your herbs are dried, strip them off the stem and put them in a glass jar with a lid.
Cooking flavorful food does not have to be complicated or time-consuming, and neither does raising your own herb garden! Anyone, of any level of culinary or gardening skill, can learn to feed themselves healthy delicious food if they approach cooking and basic gardening with an open mind and a willingness to learn. You do have to invest a little time and effort, but it doesn’t have to be terribly complicated and it’s definitely nothing to be afraid of!
We hope you enjoy growing your own herbs and find interesting and delicious ways to make use of them throughout the year. They really are a simple way to brighten up your landscape as well as your meals and the benefits they offer go beyond the flavor.
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