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Extending
the Season for Fresh Herbs
by
Barbara Pilcher
With
shortening days and herbaceous plants beginning
to die down, we realise with a jolt that the
sheer abundance of food and flavour from the
garden is diminishing. This needn't be a cause
for despondency, as there are many ways to keep
things going right through the winter. The golden
rule is to think seasonally. For instance, although
it is possible to keep basil growing on indoors,
unless you have ideal conditions and very green
fingers, this can be frustrating. I like to
harvest lots of basil while the flavour is intense,
make it into pesto and store that for use with
pasta, in soups and casseroles and roasted vegetables.
For fresh herbs I turn to some of the hardier
ones. Herbs that manage to provide for us right
through the year without any particular attention
include rosemary, all the thymes, fennel, lovage
and some of the marjorams. Then there are those
that repay a little forethought and attention,
for example chervil, parsley, chives.
Chervil
Chervil is one of the fines herbes along with
French tarragon and chives, that elegant subtle
trio lavishly included in many classic French
dishes. I use it with salads, sauces, fish ,
when I want lots of green and a fine but delicate
flavour to enhance the dish.
Maintaining a supply of fresh chervil is child's
play, from young plants available in autumn
or from seed. I recommend sowing in small drills
in the open ground in late summer - it will
then germinate quickly and make lovely clumps
of bright green ferny foliage that you can pick
from all winter. Hardier than parsley and easier
to germinate, I don't know why it is not more
widely grown here. Once you have chervil established
it will self-seed and you will have it every
year, at its best in winter just when you need
it for salads, potato soups, chervil sauce.
A small warning - if you have a back-to-nature
garden you may have several chervil relatives
such as cow-parsley seeding around, some of
which are poisonous. This is one reason that
we sow in drills, so we can distinguish the
plants from the weeds. Once you get to know
that foliage and that aroma, there is no problem
of mis-identification.
Parsley
Never boring, everlastingly and ubiquitously
popular, parsley is the mainstay of the winter
kitchen garden. It looks good in clumps as a
foil for other plants, makes a luxuriant edging
and is a great plant in containers, try it with
winter pansies! While parsley is reasonably
hardy, it shows its appreciation of a little
protection by doing even better in cold frames
or the greenhouse or a specially sheltered spot
during the bleakest winter spells. Plants can
be lifted and planted under protection for the
winter - it's a good idea to have some in an
easily accessible spot so that you don't have
to trek down to the bottom of the garden in
a blizzard! Even a pot by the kitchen door,
covered with a solar dome, well pegged down,will
supply you with parsley in the harshest weather.
Plants and trays of seedlings are usually readily
available for autumn planting. I like to sow
a few seeds per cell of a module tray in sterile
John Innis compost. When germinated, the groups
of seedlings can be potted on into 5 cm pots
until they are big enough to plant out or put
onto containers. It's good to get in the habit
of sowing parsley twice each year: in spring
to keep you provided all summer and in early
autumn to carry on through the winter until
the next season's crop is established.
There are two main types of parsley, curled
and flat-leaf. Several cultivars of each are
available; my regular favourites are 'Moss Curled'
and Italian (flat-leaf) such as 'Gigante di
Napoli'. Both are excellent; the curled is great
for snipping quickly and for garnishing, while
the flat-leaf maybe has the edge for flavour
and looks elegant on the plate. I wouldn't be
without either.
Chives
Chives are one of that delectable trio fines
herbes, along with tarragon and chervil. There
is so much you can do with a bunch of chives
and so many ways you can cut them, short and
neat or the very fine stick chives cut over
a centimetre long. However you use them, they
add an invaluable mild savoury onion-ness in
the most refined manner. Perhaps the easiest
of herbs to grow, plants are available all year
round and they are surprisingly easy from seed.
You just need to harvest them frequently to
keep the fine new growth coming. Always have
a clump in flower as the individual florets
are delightful scattered over salads and soups
as a garnish - really tasty too! There are several
sorts of chives to choose from apart from the
common or garden variety. Fine-leaved and giant
are at opposite ends of the diameter spectrum.
There are forms with pink flowers rather than
the usual and white forms, some with a smudge
of pale pink in the centre. Garlic or Chinese
chives, Allium tuberosum, are a treat not to
be missed with their handsome tall stemmed white
flowerheads, deep green flat leaves and hint
of garlic. These are great in garlic butter,
or used anywhere you want that subtle onion/garlic
twist.
Planting
a herb trough|
Compost
heaps, seakale and rhubarb | Harvesting,
drying and storage | Extending the season
for fresh herbs
| Autumn
Kitchen Garden
| Winter herbs |
February sowing
|
Soil
Preparation | April
Kitchen Garden
|
