After getting a haul of carrots, a head of green lettuce and some honey and eggs from a local farm stand I noticed nine large plastic crates filled with herb plants standing nearby. Since my Roma tomatoes have headed for the hinterlands, I have an extra large planter left over that I planned to convert to use for herbs. I wandered over through the fog and peered at the plants, only a few of which were familiar to me. Fortunately, at this point the grower offered his help. "I don't know too much about what you have there," I confessed. "Could you help me out?"
"Would you like a tour?" he offered. Tour through nine crates? Sure, why not.
Little did I suspect I would be offered a 30-minute lecture on the provenance of the plants and their medicinal and culinary uses, complete with recipe suggestions. Herbs are clearly the life passion of this man, particularly out-of-the-ordinary types. On this day he was offering alpine lavendar and a specially-bred rosemary, both of which he said can survive the winter without being brought indoors. He had a herb used in 18th century French cooking (I've forgotten the name), several different kinds of thyme from English gardens, a type of tarragon that he claims is snapped up annually by travelers from Georgia (the country, not the state) due to its taste and hardiness, Böhnenkraut (which he stated, delicately, "aids in digesting beans"), a Melisse renowned for its fine taste (sorry, I don't know what this herb is in English), some kind of herb against migraine, a special hardy oregano, and a few others I can't remember. The maverick of the collection had to be a Swabian radish. "You keep it in a flowerpot, and when you need some you dig it out and whack a bit off the root," he explained. "You can also spice up a salad with the leaves." I tried a leaf . . . wow, puts horseradish in the shade. He recommended shredding up a bit of the root and mixing it with shredded apple, cooking it and adding a little cream to make a fantastic garnish for fish.
Well, who could resist that? With numb cold spreading up my feet, I hurriedly decided on the lavendar, rosemary, a two-colored English thyme, the Melisse, oregano and the Swabian radish. I actually tried the garnish recipe. The radish steam from the cooking pot was enough to sting my eyes but the end product was an astoundingly mild and creamy sauce with just the slightest undertone of bite . . . very tasty. I buried the radish in the tomato pot and today it looks pretty wilted, unfortunately. I hope it will perk up soon.
In any case, my newly-discovered herb advisor promised more exciting things to come as the weather finally warms up. It's going to be hard not to become a repeat customer!
The famous Swabian radish
My entire herb haul: from L, radish, lavendar, oregano, rosemary, thyme, Melisse (our strawberries and nasturtiums are in the planter boxes).
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