Nigel Slater, TV cook, bestselling cookery author and food columnist for The Observer, has joined the RHS grow your own campaign.
In this new series for 2009, Nigel focuses on the best produce for growing and cooking
Next month: Tomatoes
Nigel's herb recipes
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Herbs
Nigel Slater finds that some herbs – both annual and perennial – thrive when paid a little less attention. He suggests some of the most useful to grow to give a range of fresh tastes throughout the summer months.
When I planned my garden 10 years ago, I ear-marked the two box-edged beds nearest the kitchen for herbs. This made sense, as I could dash out, rain or shine, to pick tarragon, rosemary or thyme as I cooked. The beds were really expanded versions of the various windowbox herb gardens I had relied on for most of my cooking life.
In practice, only rosemary, sage and lovage appreciated my rich clay London soil; and comfrey, of course, the growth and spread of which became unstoppable but was not something I could use in a stew! Tarragon, thymes and pretty much everything else struggled through the first summer, then, as the ground remained waterlogged during winter, failed. Most culinary herbs, I have now found out, prefer their feet on dry land.
The following spring I lightened the soil with organic matter – a mix of well-rotted manure and bracken, blended with some horticultural grit – and the following summer got a much more successful show with a batch of mostly new plants. Since then, as the garden has evolved and the use of beds has changed, I have found that the best place for my herbs is, actually, in large terracotta pots.
High and low notes
The joy of growing herbs in pots is that I can move them around the garden, bring them onto the kitchen steps, and even transfer the more fragile ones such as basil to the windowsill towards autumn. I can give each his own favoured soil and keep each as wet or dry as the species requires; I find an arrangement of herbs in pots is a delightful sight in any garden too.
I divide culinary herbs into two types: those that provide the ‘base notes’ of a dish, and those that I would describe as ‘top notes’. The base notes are generally those of the woody herbs: rosemary, thyme and bay. The top-note herbs are the most fragile: coriander, basil, chervil and tarragon.
The base-note herbs are those with which I start a dish, usually adding them once the onions have softened, to slowly draw out their flavour into the simmering liquid. These woody-stemmed herbs stay happily in the garden over winter, and although their flavour is somewhat muted by the cold weather, they are still perfectly usable.
The more fragile herbs provide the top notes – I add these at the end of cooking. These are generally grown as annuals, and cannot be grown outside in winter. I value these herbs for their freshness and vitality. I include mint in this group, even though many are hardy perennials. These are the flavours that are diminished by heat and slow cooking. Whereas thyme and bay lend their warmth throughout the cooking process, soft-fleshed herbs lose their point when overheated. Basil and coriander, for instance, should just be warmed, when their essential oils will be at their strongest. There is little point adding them at the start of cooking.
Not so easy going
I find the more tender herbs occasionally difficult to grow from seed. Basil and coriander will sprout on a warm window ledge, but others rarely get past go. This may be my lack of a glasshouse, as most herbs originate from warmer climes, and need an extra bit of heat for germination. My most successful herbs have come as young plants from specialist herb growers, though I have ‘rescued’ the occasional pot of supermarket ‘growing herbs’ by transferring them to garden soil and giving them fresh air. It is a case of kill or cure; most of them, particularly coriander, chives and basil, rise to the challenge of a less-pampered lifestyle outdoors.
It is true that many herbs like it tough. The less attention I give mine the happier they seem to be. True, underwatered herbs can go to seed more quickly, but they seem to respond to rough conditions. Thyme in particular hates getting its feet wet. I let my plants – lemon thyme (Thymus citriodorus), T. vulgaris and another low, creeping cultivar – become almost dry during winter, and only water them when they seem to really need it in summer. Oregano, a herb I tend to use more dried than fresh, is another that I leave to dry out. It is often known as ‘pizza herb’, as that is generally where it ends up.
Although woody herbs are best used for slow cooking, in summer the small, tender leaves from the top of the plant are ideal to use in a salad dressing or a cream cheese. Needles of rosemary, thyme leaves and young marjoram are all suitable, as long as you pick only the youngest leaves and chop them finely. The lower leaves and thicker stems can wait till the winter casseroles come out again.