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.