garden, and gathering

[redbird]

I just gathered, washed, and ate a little bit of wild sorrel from around a maple tree behind the house. One small advantage of the current conditions is that cattitude and I are spending enough time in that otherwise uninteresting bit of parking area to have noticed the sorrel, and be reasonably sure there are no dogs around. I washed it anyway, of course--there are rabbits and squirrels and maybe a feral cat and lots of birds--but in the same way I would any leafy/salad vegetable.

I went outside to check on and watering the cucumber plants, particularly the one whose container I moved to a spot near the maple tree a few hours ago.

Also, I looked up when to harvest thyme and everything says "just before it flowers," which is less than helpful. One site told me that thyme usually flowers in the spring, and sure enough, ours is about to flower. This means it's time to think about uses for fresh thyme, other than harvesting and drying it.

Comments

[anne]

The best crème brûlée I've ever eaten had thyme in the cream while it was scalding. I don't think it took much...it was very subtle! I couldn't tell what it was, I had to ask.

[anne]

(...I don't remember if you're vegan! Apologies, if you are.)

[redbird]

Not even vegetarian, but both my local partners have problems with dairy. adrian_turtle can't eat dairy at all, and cattitude has to be careful. Thanks for the thought, though.

[anne]

Ah well.

[ambyr]

I just harvest my thyme continuously throughout the year, but it's also never flowered, so maybe I'm doing it wrong!

[ranunculus]

I harvest thyme any old time. It may be most potent just before flowering but it is very nice any thyme. ;)
In the San Francisco garden it is so cool that thyme struggles to attain a lot of potency, something that isn't a problem in Ukiah!! In fact here in Ukiah I want to transplant some of the rooted branches to a site in the garden. Right now it is forming a tiny hedge along the fence of an over-watered bit of lawn. Quiet a lot more water than the thyme needs. I will note that the slightly less potent thyme in SF is still lovely.

[choirwoman]

I just pick a sprig or more of thyme whenever I need it, and can usually find a sprig without flowers so I can leave the flowers for the bees' enjoyment. (Mostly bumblebees at the moment, I think the local beekeepers took their hives away that used to be on the roof of the nearby town hall.) I had a very bushy bush of thyme and ditto of rosemary sharing a planter, but they both died; I don't know whether that was the drought, a mystery illness, incompatibility (but then I'd have noticed some time in the past 2 years) or a spectacular murder-suicide, but I bought a new thyme plant and put it in a separate pot in case there *is* something wrong with the potting earth. Cut both down to the ground to see if they revive, like the vervain and the jasmine did.

[adrian_turtle]

Thyme goes beautifully with any kind of cooked carrots. Are you making carrot soup today, before it gets hot? Then you could reheat the leftovers tomorrow or Wednesday. (Though it only requires one burner, which would not heat the kitchen that much, even though it needs long cooking.)

I also like thyme with chicken. The recipe I took it from said to coat chicken pieces in mustard and garlic oil, then bread them with panko + dried thyme + a little black pepper. (You've seen my pantry.) If you have fresh thyme, mince it and mix it with the mustard. Then the matzo meal and pepper are just for crispness and protecting the chicken from heat while it bakes.

Or you could just add thyme to that baked chicken in oil and lemon. 1 tablespoon fresh is roughly equivalent to 1 teaspoon dried.

[redbird]

cattitude has all sorts of uses for thyme; what I'm wondering is where fresh thyme, in particular, is an advantage. I may suggest carrot soup, though.

[adrian_turtle]

Oh, sorry! When you add the herb early in cooking, fresh is only a little better than very good dried. When you add it at the end, fresh is significantly better. With either the carrot soup or the baked chicken, you can layer them...some at the beginning of cooking and some right before serving.