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.

It’s amazing how quickly the garden landscape and the contents of the days harvest change as the summer rolls on. For a gardening cook, that provides half the fun, and most of the challenge. July has been tomato month for us, a veritable flood of toms to share and cook with. We’ve dug out every tried and true tomato recipe and solicited new ones from all sources. But the vines are looking sorta sad right now (possibly the tomato blight that’s been running through our area) and I suspect by mid-August we’ll be down to a trickle. So it goes.

Thankfully, I over-planted basil this year, and it has a particular affinity for tomato dishes. Bruchetta in it’s many variations, fresh tomato pie (a new one for us I pulled off the internet, with salted tomato slices layered in a crust with chives, topped with a mayo, basil and shredded cheese coating and baked – really good!) and basil pesto slathered on tomato slices justified all the watering and pampering of those basil plants.

I also over-planted parsley, and that’s been a nice herb to have an excess off too. Parsley is such a mild and pleasant herb, it’s almost impossible to add too much, so handfuls of chopped parsley have gone into quiche, crumb coatings for meat, and my famed stewed okra, corn and tomatoes dish (which is still good even if you omit the bacon fat). I just took some excess grilled chicken from last week, that may have been a tad too dry to reheat for dinner, but chopped fine and mixed with mayo will be a very nice chicken salad tomorrow at lunch. Some chopped onion, pepper and water chestnut will add texture, but the parsley and tarragon will provide the driving flavor.

The high heat of summer has brought us ripe tomatoes, but also turned the spring lettuce bitter and some of the herbs scraggly. The cilantro in particular is on it’s way out, and new seedlings need to be started. While the getting is still good, I’ve made use of the cilantro to flavor a very simple fresh salsa, a summertime favorite of ours. Chop and mix tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, onion and the cilantro and salt to taste. It’s better after chilling in the fridge a while.

We don’t make much use of dill, which is also trying to go to seed, but recently ran across a recipe to provide some variety with all the cherry tomatoes we’re currently harvesting. Sugar and salt are dissolved in watered down vinegar, flavored with ginger, lemon and the dill, and the cherry toms are pierced before soaking in the liquid for a while. It made a nice change, although, as my wife said, it’s hard to beat a bowl of just plain fresh picked cherry tomatoes.

As if often the case, you come back from vacation and find the garden has gone wild in your absence. Dill, basil and cilantro in need of pinching back, and weeds everywhere. In just two weeks, all the radishes have gone to seed and the snap peas are almost gone. We had to do a huge emergency stir fry to make use of the overly mature sugar snaps, which were a little too full for eating raw, but were quite acceptable tossed in an oiled hot pan with a bit of thin sliced chicken breast, chives, basil and soy sauce.

The good new is, the summer garden is here. This is the time of year gardener cooks live for, with a full range of herbs and vegetables just waiting to be picked and consumed. The first tender little bush beans, cukes and zukes, peppers and lettuce and greens, oh my. Raw in a salad or creatively joined with herbs and heat, it’s all a delight to the pallet.

This weekend, with relatives arriving for a “whenever they get here” dinner, we turned to that old standby, pot roast in the crock pot. A layer of root vegetables, the roast and lots of herbs went in the pot with some stock, salt and pepper. I stripped the leaves from a dozen stems each of oregano, tarragon and lemon thyme, and after a day of low heat, the end result (a bit of corn starch to thicken the gravy) was well received by our weary travelers. Some just picked green beans (in a pan with olive oil, basil and seasoned salt, toss over high heat and then cover and let sit a bit) and a salad with a little of everything from the garden made for a memorable family gathering.

One of the responsibilities of an economical cook is to keep watch on the leftovers in the fridge, and recycle them to your family while the food is still wholesome. This is where the herbs come in. You can give a leftover ragout or stew new life with the addition of whatever harvest of fresh herbs are available and appropriate. Or take your quantity of cooked meat or veg. as a starting point, and make a brand new dish.

Tonight, in addition to a couple thick breasts left over from a chicken tandori, we had a defrosted package of chopped spinach and some cream that had been purchased for an appetizer than never got made. I’ve made tuna Florentine, so why not chicken Florentine. After adding the cream (and after it thickened, the drained chopped spinach) to some onions sautéed in butter and sprinkled with flour, the only question is what herbs are calling out to be added. We went with lemon balm, tarragon, parsley and the earliest harvest of the new thyme coming up in the perennial herb bed. Since the chicken was already pretty spicy from its first rendition, it was just thin sliced, layered in a casserole dish and covered with the Florentine/herb sauce before going in the oven.

We’ve managed to pick thyme all year, with the section potted and brought under lights last fall, staying productive through the winter. With the spring growth now coming in, we’re ready to start over, and keep the fresh flavor going.

I need to pick up a few more seedlings before my kitchen herb garden will be complete, but I’m having fun with what flavors I have on hand so far. Springtime is made for entertaining, and a cook with fresh herbs to call on, can always count on some extra compliments.

A barbeque sauce with lots of oregano and lemon balm swimming in a mix of prepared mustard, some ketchup, vinegar and brown sugar made a nice marinade for chicken thighs on the grill. Herb rice is a great accompaniment when grilling for company, and leaves the door open for any combination of the days’ herbal harvest. I used thyme and chives and baked the rice this time, since that provides more timing flexibility and can be put in the oven just as the guests are arriving. Two parts hot stock to one part rice in a 350 oven will be ready in half an hour, but still moist and good after an hour in a covered casserole. Some steamed asparagus and sliced red peppers with a liberal sprinkling of basil and tarragon makes a nice spring vegetable. Good times.

At this point in the season, oregano and chives are still my only outside herbs, although I’ve still got some pretty lush basil growing inside under lights. The garden is providing some collards and kale that overwintered, and we’ll have our first harvest of that tonight. I’m thinking a quick stir in some hot olive oil with the chives should do it for greens that young and tender.

The basil and oregano cry out pasta sauce, and I remember seeing a recipe for penne pasta with chicken and broccoli that I should have the ingredients for. I think I’ll cube some boneless chicken breasts, dredge that in cornstarch, and fry those with some garlic and onions. Add the broccoli florets, oregano and a couple cans of chopped tomatoes, and cover and simmer until the broccoli is right and the chicken finishes cooking, while boiling the pasta. Ribbons of basil will get added at the last minute when the penne and sauce are combined.

I’ve got some refrigerated crescent rolls, and I think we’ll have the chives do double duty, sprinkling a fine chop of them onto the dough before rolling them up and baking. That may be excessive, but it’s been a long winter, and I’m raring to play with my herbs.

Spring at last! One doesn’t need the calendar to know that spring, glorious spring, is in the air. You can almost feel Mother Nature waking up, shaking off the vestiges of winter, and getting ready to rock and roll. In the perennial herb garden, my chives are always the first to answer the call. Only a few inches high, but what a burst of flavor rewards the early morning stroller, chewing on a stalk while inspecting the great outdoors. Even seeing that the neighborhood deer have cropped the new tulips trying to poke up can’t sour the mood, with new growth everywhere you look, and buds ready to burst in every tree.

So what shall we use that oh so fresh chive flavor for? I’d already planned to crock some Flemish Carbonades for dinner, since a traveling spouse requires a flexible dinnertime tonight, and crockpot cooking is all about flexible timing. Not much point in adding chives to a dish that is already mostly onions. Although I did see the oregano running a close second to the chives as the perennial herbs kick in, and oregano is always a welcome addition to any form of beef stew. So that will work. And I think I’ll showcase the chives in some muffins. Being so young and tender, a few handfuls of chive tossed into the batter won’t even need to be chopped. Let the season begin!

While winter is not this gardener’s favorite season, the hearty soups and stews that make up most of my February cooking are great vehicles for herbs. More than many dishes, a soup allows for easy tasting and flavor correction right up until the moment you fill a bowl with it. I keep bulk quantities of a dried fines herbes mix handy and often toss a handful in to add some character to a soup, or a sprinkle of this or that from the spice rack to move the taste a step closer to the end result desired.

While many of the herbs I’ve been attempting to grow under lights didn’t do too well, the thyme has continued to stay fresh and green, and is a great addition to both chicken and seafood soups. Because my thyme has been growing with numerous little sub-stems that are difficult to strip the leaves from, I’ve found an easy way to make use of it. Tracing a big bunch of stems back to a parent branch and clipping it free yields an easily handled bundle that I toss into whatever simmering stock provides the base for the soup. After ten minutes, just fish out the network of stems and holding it by the end, swish the thyme through the stock so the leaves are left floating behind and the bare stems can be discarded.

My first attempt at growing herbs under lights over the winter, has only had limited success. But it’s all a learning experience, and I expect to get better at it over subsequent years. Of the herbs grown from seed, only the basil looks good, with so so cilantro and parsley that sprouted and then failed to thrive. The plants repotted from mostly perennials that were growing outside at least extended the season, but only the thyme and marjoram are still going strong. I gave up on the oregano today, and the clumps of chives and parley are still living but not producing new growth. I also seem to have brought inside some little bitty annoying flying insects, which I think must be “fungus gnats”. Unfortunately, they seem to be thriving just fine. Live and learn.

I did get enough cilantro for tonight’s citrus chicken thighs, and included in the marinade, some lemon balm that had been frozen over the summer. Basil went into a corn dish and chives from the freezer flavored a mix of black and pink beans. I have no problem with reaching for the purchased dried herbs and spices from the good ‘ol spice rack, but it’s nice to add a fresh (or fresh frozen) taste of something home grown.

A new year already. The Herb Guy missed December entirely, not that all that holiday cooking didn’t require plenty of herbs, but for the holiday season, family trumps blogging. Now that life has slowed down again, it’s just a matter of getting though the next few months until the dirt can be worked for the spring garden. In the mean time, a cook can call upon dried herbs, and I’ve been making liberal use of the frozen chives and other garden produce that made it to the freezer.

Unfortunately, I may have been too liberal in the frozen jalapeno peppers I added to a ham and bean cassoulet I’m making at the moment. The frozen chives and the fresh (from the grow lights) parsley and thyme hit the right note, but those jalapenos carried more of a punch than I had anticipated. I’m making a huge batch, with leftover holiday ham and it’s stock, a ton of white beans I cooked up the other day, carrots and onions and garlic aplenty, tomatoes and sauce, and a buttered bread crumb topping. I had figured on one to eat, one to take to Dad and one for the freezer, but I need to cut the heat to make it suitable for sharing with family. More bread crumbs, that the ticket. Ah well, I like a spicy dish, so even if no one else enjoys it, I will.