Four Seasons of Reasons to Keep an Indoor Herb Garden

Historically I haven’t been a plant person. As in I usually kill all my plants. And kill them fast. But about two years ago I magically developed a green thumb. We bought our first house. It was a fixer upper. The yard had about waist high weeds when we bought the place. But we mowed the weeds down, I started digging, and now I have several luscious flowers beds, absolutely over flowing with greenery and flowers. Somehow whatever I touch just grows, and grows, and grows… Around the same time I decided to try my hand at growing some herbs for the kitchen. Also a great success. Green, green, green! And the best part about the kitchen garden, you get to cook with it! (Year round!) Since we are moving into that fall winter season I have to recommend starting your own little indoor herb garden right away! It will really jazz up your cooking as the colder weather hits and farmers market and fresh grocery store finds become scarce. As a matter of fact it will really jazz up the last farmers market finds before it gets cold too… 

Even if you don’t have a green thumb think about giving it a try. I’d actually recommend starting with basil. It’s super hard to kill. No, seriously hard. I was in the hospital and very sick/bed ridden a while back and my husband ran the household on his own. The poor man seriously had his hands full and pretty much watered my pants once in a three month period. My basil turned brown and dry, I was pretty sure it was dead. But I started watering it regularly and in about two weeks it was lush and green like nothing ever happened. Hard to kill. 

So in the interest of encouraging you to give growing fresh herbs a try  here are a few of my favorite things to make with basil (one for each season):

For Fall: Basil Pesto of course. Pesto is of course great on pasta, but also a wonderful sandwich spread, soup base, and if you place a dollop in a dish with more extra virgin a wonderful dip for fresh baked bread! 

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For Winter: Go beyond the basil basics with this great recipe courtesy of Pinch of Yum, Thai Basil Coconut Lentils. (I loooove lentils, especially in the winter!)

For Spring: Caprese Salad – Tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, and olive oil… Layer, drizzle, done, oh yum! The Pioneer Woman does one with balsamic as well. Or for a play on Caprese Salad, substitute creamy havarti for the mozzarella… I guess it’s no longer a caprese but it still tastes amazing.