The summer garden season has mostly flown by, but our herbs are still going strong (even if the tomatoes are mostly gone). The exception to the plentiful herbs is our cilantro, which went to seed last month. I’ve got a second planting sprouting, and hopefully those plants will have time to produce before it gets too cold. I need to work on better timing with my succession plantings.

I usually make my vegetarian chili in the winter, using veggies from the grocery store, and dried herbs. After today’s garden inspection and harvest, I decided to give it a try with fresh herbs. It may be a little warm still for maximum appreciation of chili, but part of the traditionally huge batch gets frozen anyway, and I wanted to see how the fresh vs dried herb versions compare.

After sautéing lots of chopped assorted vegetables with plenty of garlic, I added canned kidney and black beans, stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. I had picked a sizable basketful of basil (it’s been a great basil year), oregano and parsley, which nicely complemented the commercial chili powder and cumin. After simmering long enough for the flavors to meld, and adjusting the salt and cayenne pepper to taste, the consensus is, the fresh herbs make a different. Not that I won’t make full use of their dried counterparts this winter, but with plenty of fresh flavor available, it’s fun to flaunt it.

Being in the mood to play with my food, I decided on trying to put together a spinach lasagna for dinner. After looking over a few recipes, I had the basic idea, and acquired appropriate ingredients. I already had most of an overlarge container of baby spinach from the store (mine isn’t big enough to pick yet) which I used in place of the frozen spinach most recipes call for. I let the lasagna noodles cook in the sauce rather than boiling them first, since I’ve never tried that technique and had the extra oven time needed.

A dish like this, gives you plenty of leeway for herb-play. Our basil plants survived the move from inside to out, and that, with early offerings from the perennial oregano went into the sauce. The ricotta, parm. and mozzarella cheese mix got lots and lots of curley leaf parsley. Alternating layers, with sauce on both sides of the uncooked noodles, tightly covered, and into the oven at 375 for over an hour.

We were quite pleased with both the technique and the result. The herbs complimented the dish and helped define it. I’ve still got a half box of lasagna noodles left, and will experiment with different herbs and variations on the theme in the near future.

Another winter under the belt, and suddenly it’s springtime! Of course we did get a hard frost and a bit of snow a day ago, but that won’t hurt the early spring garden I’ve started, or the perennial herbs. So far it looks like we’ve got tarragon, oregano, sage, chives and parsley coming up. Those last two are already producing plentifully, so I used chives and parsley to perk up an old beef stew I got out of the freezer for dinner. Dried herbs (supplemented with ones grown inside under lights) were fine for the winter, but you just can’t beat walking outside and plucking fresh green flavors from the soil. Hooray for spring!

The garden is certainly winding down for the season, but a good few herbs are still going strong. We’re had a good bit of rain recently, and a return of warmer temps, which has perked up a number of plants. I had thought the stevia was dead and gone, but some new growth is coming up at the base of each dried plant. The basil badly wants to go to seed, but is still hanging in, and now I’ve got some going indoors under my lights to supplement.

I needed to use up some green and red peppers before it’s too late, so stuffed them with a Mexican themed ground turkey mix. Chopped onions, celery and some jalapenos, bits of bread ends saved in the freezer, egg and some chili powder got kneaded into the meat with an excess of herbs. I used parsley, basil and oregano. I may have gotten carried away with the jalapenos, but again, wanted to use them before a sneak frost turns them to mush.

There was quite a nip in the air this morning, although most of the herb garden is still producing nicely. Still, some heartier fare may be the order of the day. I see lots of parsley and thyme in need of harvesting, and still some decent tarragon, so I’m thinking those would flavor a chicken pot pie nicely.

I’m much more of a cook than a baker, so I use bought pie crusts. While my stock is coming to a boil, I’ll cut some carrots into bite sized pieces, toss them in the stock to cook, and then add some chopped celery to the pot. The carrots are mostly cooked by the time I’ve cut a bunch of boneless chicken breasts into the same size as the carrots, so that gets stirred in. As soon as the stock returns to a boil, we’ll toss on some sliced mushrooms, and the pot gets covered and taken off the burner since the residual heat will cook the chicken and mushrooms.

Before I go to pick the herbs, I’ll add some frozen peas to the mix and re-cover the pot. With my herbs chopped and ready (I added some chives too) I’ll drain off the well-flavored stock into another large pot, add the herbs, bring it back to a boil and thicken with a corn starch slurry. Now to adjust the salt and pepper in the herb flavored gravy and dump the chicken and vegetables (and a couple jars of pearl onions) back in.

Even though I had planned on extras for freezing and sharing with local family, I have more pie filling than shells, so the extra goes into a casserole dish and gets covered with purchased crescent roll dough instead of pie crust. Once the pies and casserole come out of the oven, it all gets divvied up into dinner (with some late garden beans and sliced cukes on the side), freezer and sharing portions. Pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

Now that autumn is here (shorter days, cooler nights) it’s time to think about moving some herbs indoors. Even just a little bit of fresh flavor added to a dish in the dead of winter can make a gardeners heart soar. My herbs are mostly on our desk in planters, but I noticed a couple volunteer plants in the flower beds below, a solitary parsley plant and one of oregano. I transplanted both of those into my little clay pots, and did a couple pots of chives as well, putting them all under my grow lights. Chives, as I have eluted to before, are both my favorite herb as well as my biggest invasive pest in the garden. My transplants came from the edge of my fall snap pea bed, beautiful little chive plants that shouldn’t have been there. I don’t really understand a given plant’s internal clock, but I’m assuming that a seedling in a rich growing medium with plenty of light and water will thrive, even if it ‘s snowing outside. We shall see. The basil and cilantro started from seed under the lights have been doing great, but they have never known anything but bagged potting soil. The transplants from outdoors could potentially bring insects with them, and infect all the herbs. How does one purify outside dirt without killing the plant growing in it?

What could be better than a lazy Sunday, devoted mostly to the garden harvest and food prep. We have a vegetarian visiting with us at the moment, so that adds a fun challenge to menu planning. I cheated and took everybody out for lunch, so that takes any pressure off dinner, and with most of the crew out shopping, I get to relax, pick my herbs and veggies and play.

For the carnivores dining this evening, I’ve got some boneless chicken thighs defrosting, which I’m going to sauté with white wine and herbs (tarragon, parsley, oregano, sage and rosemary – what can I say, I’m having fun). We’re having a great basil year, so I’ve been able to keep a regular batch of pesto going most of the season. Pine nuts have been really expensive this year, so I’ve been substituting pecans (maybe a tad more bitter, but at a quarter the cost, quite acceptable) but otherwise stay with the classic basil, garlic, parm cheese and EV olive oil blend. I’m going to casserole some cooked pasta shells with pesto, and top it with fresh tomato sauce (chopped tomatoes, onions, garic and whole basil leaves) and shredded mozzarella cheese melted under the broiler. I had a hit last week with a Swiss chard frittata, so for my second vegetarian entrée, I’ll tweak that, leaving out the browned sausage meat and adding some jack cheese. The herb garden will provide a bunch of parsley for that. And since okra is our crop de jour, I’m going to try frying that again, although I’ve never come close to matching my dearly departed grandmother’s (Momma, give me guidance) version. In theory, after dredging the sliced okra in beaten eggs and coating with cornmeal, they should fry up into a delicious dish, but mine always clumps into a mess, with the cornmeal going one way and the okra another. Ah well, hope springs eternal, maybe the spirit of Momma will guide me tonight.

Until they are gone (and my tomatoes are on the way out) our meals will include a side of cherry and sliced toms and cukes. Gotta love the summer, although it’s going fast.