Growing Your Own Herbs

I tried hydroponic basil twice, and a window sill herb garden once.  Both times I ended up inflicting a slow painful death on these lovely plants in spite of their valiant effort to survive.  So I gave up on growing my own herbs indoors.

Last fall a friend of mine gave me fresh sprigs of basil and oregano.  No need to worry, she explained, all you do is hang them upside down to dry.  Ok, so I gave it the old college try.  I tied them with wired ties and hung them up.  Last week I found the forgotten pair.  I was just glad that they held together after I blew the dust off of of the shriveled leaves.

As it turns out, I am now a convert.  All I had to do was squeeze the leaves and they came right off of the stems.   I collected them in a bowl and used a ladle to smash them up.   You can use a mortal and pestle, but the feeling of ceramic rubbing against ceramic gives me the heebee geebees.  Like nails on a chalkboard.  Ugh!  Then I put them right into my spice jars with a funnel.

Fortunately my husband can grow them outside in the vegetable garden this year for me.  By next year I will probably forget what I did, so I am posting it here with pics.  Now I am thinking parsley, rosemary, thyme, and turmeric.  Although it would have been cheeky to put sage in there, I just don’t use it enough.

Advertisement