Isn't that basil lovely? Herbs are not anything new to me, but fresh herbs are...and now I want to grow my own garden. I've always bought herbs dried in bottles at the supermarket.
One of the reasons I love going to my local farmer's markets is that I can get all kinds of fresh herbs anywhere from 50cents to $2 a bunch...which is plenty to last me a week.
I have become completely enamoured with the fresh herbs especially basil, thyme, rosemary, and sage because the flavoring really is just so heavenly, and the herbs really do make a big difference in food. I also like to the mixed bags of herbs where you get a surprise mixture. It's fun to play with the herbs and see what new ways you can dazzle the palate.
With some herbs, you don't even need that much to get a wallop of flavoring which I find amazing. Admittedly, I have become completely spoiled by the fresh herbs and have a hard time with the dried bottled herbs. The cool thing is that many herbs can be grown indoors and I'm thinking my next home project will be a mini herb garden.
I love the herb garden over at Dr. Andrew Weil's new True Food Kichen restaurant especially the 9' wall of fresh Rosemary. One day, coming clean with one of my secret fangirl crushes, I want to go visit Martha Stewart's culinary herb garden...if you can call it that. That garden is so ginormous, I bet you could put a Ferris Wheel in there and charge tickets.... and the garden is just herbs.
On Martha's website, they give a really good education on the herbs in the garden like the difference between Annuals and Perennials. It's really helpful that they include pictures of each herb so you can start to learn how to recognize each herb.
How about you? Do you love fresh herbs too and which ones are your favorite?
