Over the weekend I re-potted the herbs I started from seed and set them out on the deck thinking the warmth and sunshine would accelerate their growth. As it turns out, not so much.
Last night Jim suggested that we head to the garden center this weekend and get some potted herbs — the started basil plant we bought is thriving nicely out on the observatory deck, and I think it’ll be yielding pesto before too long. What I’d really like is to have some cilantro on hand for entirely home-grown salsa later this summer — you know, when the tomato crop is in and the jalapeno plants are producing, she says optimistically — and perhaps some parsley, since I buy it at the grocery store every week anyway. Maybe some fresh rosemary would be good too. And I guess while we’re there a pot or two of cat grass would be good to have on hand.
Anyway, a trip to buy potted herbs sounds good. And it doesn’t sound like we’ve been defeated. It sounds more like we’re being practical.
It certainly sounds that way to me. A good friend of ours has had a lot of success with planting her own herb garden. She tried getting me to go down that road and while I’d love to it’s not easy to do in an apartment. I’d also feel obligated to start cooking, and that’s just crazy talk.
Comment by Josh Hathaway — July 1, 2009 @ 11:01 am
Oh, Josh, you should start cooking. It’s good for the soul. I think this garden thing is good for the soul, too, but I’m going to withhold judgment until we actually pluck something edible from the ground.
Comment by Lisa — July 1, 2009 @ 11:07 am
It’s about time management for me. I enjoy cooking the few times I’ve honestly attempted it, but I feel too compressed to really learn.
Gardening is mostly about space at the apartment and partly about time. I could see myself enjoying something very, very small and finding something uplifting about it. I know Ashlie would.
Comment by Josh Hathaway — July 1, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
Keep visiting, and I’ll post some recipes that have almost no learning curve. As far as space goes, do you guys have a deck? Even a small one? Or a patio? Bryan and Caitlin have one of these on their fairly small deck, and are growing two enormous tomato plants in them. Two people can eat for a season off that.
And you can grow a pot of basil on a windowsill indoors. See, I have an answer for every protest! Except for the time management issue, to which I can only reply that we somehow manage to find the time for the things we really want to do.
Comment by Lisa — July 1, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
basil is crazy easy to grow. you can mostly ignore it and it will still grow.
plus, you can make something sooo tasty…like a salad of tomato slices, fresh mozarella, basil leaves, roasted garlic, and balsamic vinegar.
it hardly qualifies as ‘cooking’ and tastes so good you’ll want to smack yourself upside the head.
or something.
Comment by Mark Saleski — July 1, 2009 @ 8:50 pm
That same “salad,” only with the tomatoes diced instead of sliced and a bit of olive oil added, is one of my favorite summertime pasta sauces. No cooking except to boil the pasta for ten minutes. Even Josh could do it.
Comment by Lisa — July 1, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
i have offered to cook dinner for josh but dang, alabama is a loooong drive!
Comment by Mark Saleski — July 1, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
I just wish I liked tomatoes! This all sounds really, really tasty. I love cooking with fresh herbs. My few attempts have generally been made with the store bought variety but a couple times I have gotten to use the fresh and it’s a lot of fun. I get so stressed out about what I’m making being edible and I feel so out of my element, but I still like something about it.
We have a very small patio (we’re a downstairs). Our apartment management is funny about things, but we might be able to get away with something like that. Hmm. We really might have to investigate this further.
Comment by Josh Hathaway — July 1, 2009 @ 11:37 pm