Wednesday, November 07, 2012

sprout, grow, bloom

There is an undeniable pleasure that comes from watching plants grow; especially the edible variety. 

At the moment my balcony garden is green and lush, a range of my most-loved herbs and salad greens sprouting from pots - some gifted, others found and collected. Perhaps my all-time favourite herb is society garlic; a hardy plant that withstands all conditions (even lack of attention). Sometimes it produces delicate lilac flowers but even when it doesn't this is one of the richest plants I have ever eaten. It has a strong scent and taste and it works wonders in Italian dishes and garden salads. Blend it with butter and garlic and spread over toasted sourdough and you have the best garlic bread in the world. 

Tonight I'll be cooking spaghetti bolognaise and a rocket salad - infused with society garlic, of course. We'll be celebrating Daniel's return after five days away. We have missed him terribly, especially at night when the house feels a little too quiet and there's a definite lack of dramatic voices at storytime (he does the earth worm from James and the Giant Peach oh so well!).

Tell me, what's your favourite herb and how do you use it in the kitchen? 


30 COMMENTS

  1. i love my veggie garden. over the past 5 days my tomatoes have produced a 1kg so made tomato soup last night! delish! but my favourite herb is basil. so yummy!

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  2. Tarragon. I smother it over my roast chicken, scatter it over vegetables and we make béarnaise. A lot.

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  3. society garlic- sounds so posh, adorned in hat and gloves? i can't stop eating the coriander from our little garden. love to hear other people's happy garden stories :)sarah

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  4. I love basil...hmmm summer. I did not know that you can eat society garlic, I have a border of it in my garden and I've just picked the flowers this morning and they look stunning with my white roses. Guess what I'm adding to the dinner tonight?!

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  5. Love the name society garlic. I love fresh mint in salads. And I love rocket with my spaghetti bolagnaise too- I lkie to have mine in a deep bowl and load the rocket on top!

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  6. Thyme is my fave, i like lots of it in shepherds pie and in slow cooker beef stews. And its hardy like a week so no special care required x

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  7. We love coriander. So great in stir fries and salsa's. I must try the society onion

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  8. i like thyme too, it's definitely hardy, and along with bay leaves from our bush, is an easy way to jazz up a tomato sauce. Fresh mint for the best peppermint tea, and I do enjoy coriander although it's a bit of a diva to grow. I remember a friend telling me one day having just planted her coriander seedlings a frost was forecast, so she took all her good glasses from the kitchen and upended them over each seedling, like an individual glass house. It looked so sweet.

    I am off to google society garlic - which reminds me, I love regular garlic from the garden too. We had a big plait in our kitchen this year and as I think of winter passing into spring I see that garlic plait dwindle ..

    x

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    1. I have never had any luck with coriander either but I love using it in summer meals (especially bean burritos with lime juice and natural yogurt!) x

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  9. rosemary ... for the smell, taste and aesthetics . i love placing a sprig or two in glass bottles around our home. beautiful images of your thriving garden x

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  10. Coriander is my present favourite as well - for thai curries and pumpkin and coconut soup - oh so delicious! But basil is wonderful with tomato and we go through so much parsley! Green growing things that you can just pick and eat and that add so much piquancy to food are so lovely!

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  11. So I'll be over for dinner ; )

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  12. Veggie gardening is so darn satisfying! My favourite is basil... we put it fresh on home made pizza, in salads and if I'm feeling lazy and don't want to cook an elaborate meal I just whip up some fresh pesto and mix it through pasta. :)

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  13. Right now I have a thick mess of dill growing so well on our balcony. My basil always grows very well. I can't get my cilantro to produce for anything, which is so sad as cilantro is one of those things I could probably toss into every meal, whether appropriate or not. I have a handful of garlic bulbs and cloves to plant, a gift from my father, but I haven't gotten them in the dirt yet. It's autumn here, so I should do that now. I think my favorite herb to grow might be rosemary. My father and mother have a giant bush of it, four feet wide and seven feet tall! It's the grandest thing. I've taken clippings and started my own bush for our balcony. I love to clip the sprigs in the wintertime and bring them inside. The scent is heavenly, heavenly. My lavender has pretty purple blooms on it right now. So nice.

    Oh, Internet friend, it is a good day here in America. I am not sure how much you follow the election of our country, but after an extremely close race, Barack Obama has won re-election. This is wonderful news for those of us fighting for equality and environmental safety. I was very worried that this election might swing the other way and that the ramifications of that would have been devastating for us and for the rest of the world. It's currently nearing 1 a.m. here and I am a sleepy girl but we have cracked open the champagne and are waiting for the president's re-election speech. Just a little story I wanted to share. I'm not sure if many of your readers come from America and I wanted to offer up what's happening from over here. It's a day of hope here in the States. :)

    My best,
    Jo Farmer

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    1. yes, we've been following along and I share your utter delight. Have a glass for me! x

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  14. I'm having a love affair with rosemary and thyme! Use it in many many dishes. But parsley will forever be my first love. Every time I smell it I am immediately transported back to my Granny's kitchen when I was tiny and she would snip it finely over my poached egg. Oregano is totally out of control, trying to choke the ever hardy mint and basil is making her seasonal debut. We are in a for a treat! xxx

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  15. Good old hardy mint is a favourite tossed in salads and lately I've even put a little in a zucchini frittata. Lovely and fresh. And definetly in drinks- watermelon, strawberry and mint is divine! x

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  16. Can I ask a silly question? which bit of the society garlic do you use? the stalk? Sounds very interesting. I personally love continental parsley, unfortunately so does the possum that lives in our carport! mel x

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    1. not a silly question. the society garlic is in the 3rd pot from the right in that last photo - see it looks a bit like chives? - a flatter, wider version. You pick and eat the stalks....x

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  17. Sage! I love it quick fried in olive oil and served on poached eggs or over white risotto. Basil is a near tie with it for pesto, pizza, most things. And of course mint- tea, fruit and ice cream. Hmm, maybe I don't have just one favourite! X Ashley

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  18. Mint - in everything fresh it lifts the whole dish just that bit more. I chop it up in salads (another fave is dill for that), it goes with big handfuls into our Vietnamese bowls (also known as lazy person's rice paper rolls, just in a bowl rather than rolled up), in juices, straight from the garden - YUM!

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  19. My favourite herb would have to be rosemary. I love picking it and brushing my hands over it, the smell is divine. In dinner tonight we had rosemary in our gravy I made. We often use in when we have roast lamb and sometimes I will use it when I roast potatoes too and a little lemon zest. x

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  20. It's a tie between rosemary and tarragon. Rosemary I use in every way possible...for tea, to infuse custards, for roasts, and I make these delicious spicy roasted rosemary cashews. Tarragon I like to fold into scrambled eggs, or chicken salad, or make tarragon oil to drizzle on things. Here's a great recipe: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/tarragon-oil-recipe.html

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  21. I do love basil.... Homemade pesto yummy. The great thing all my kids also love pesto. My hubby cooks the best "green eggs" - pesto scrambled eggs:)

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  22. I have just been writing about our garden too. We planted plenty of herbs yesterday, but i have never heard of society garlic! will have to keep my eyes out for some, sounds fabulous. xo

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  23. Basil,would have to be my favourite. I am just about to take the step from a potted garden to a backyard garden. I am so excited of all of the choices I will have.

    http://iliska-dreams.blogspot.com.au/

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  24. I love mint! Mint in hot water with lemon and honey, in rice paper rolls with pork mince, rice noodles, cucumber and grated carrot (Bijou's favourite meal hands down!), in yoghurt with curry....Gorgeous. But then again there's basil....and rosemary....mmmmm I think I love them all! Hope all is lovely in your world
    Steph :) x
    thisbrownwren.blogspot.com

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  25. hi jodi, loved this simple post...we have a very productive veggie garden growing on our apartment verandah...and have for about 5 years now...learning as we go on what grows well, is hardy and suits our meal loves...i was given this great book recently that im sure you would love...Indira Naidoo - the Edible Balcony. Good one for the Christmas list :) Lisa

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  26. I love our herb garden - being able to pick a fresh handful of this or that to add to a dish can make all the difference flavour wise. One herb I love but which I've never had any success with is coriander - love it in summery salads but time and time again, it seems to shrivel up and go brown on me, despite being lovingly watered...

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