Good King Henry-Friend or Foe?
When does a herb start being a pest?
Spring is upon us (allegedly) the clocks have gone forward in the UK which is a bloody silly idea and the first green shoots of a new season are begining to show. Lovely. Or is it? With any garden, particularly a kitchen garden comes the dreaded weeds. I could write a book on weeds but I’ll settle on a blog post because I don’t think it would get published. I digress. Now is the time for me to give serious consideration to growing some culinary herbs for the year ahead, I shall be thinking ‘outside the box’ again this year; Asian basil is a definate, lemon verbena and Moroccan mint for my tea consumption, lavender and savory for my herbs de provence are already in situ whilst I bid a less than fond adieu to the rosemary bush which I kept falling over.
One herb I shall avoid like the plague is Good King Henry aka Lincolnshire Asparagus, Mercury and Wild Spinach. I dropped a real clanger with this one a year or so back, having spent three months clearing a bed of a particularly annoying variety of fast growing ‘weed’ I celebrated by planting some seeds of ‘a long forgotten old English herb’, I watered and nurtured said herb like a new born baby (do you water babies?) until the first tiny shoots sprung up into, yes you guessed it, the very same weed I’d spent yonks trying to get rid of. ‘A thousand arses’ I swore as I watched the less than noble King Henry sweep across my herb garden and engulf my tender young plants.
When these take hold then it’s time for action, I was out there as fast as a rat up a drainpipe with my trowel ready to dig the blighters up but then in a moment of clarity I recalled one of its pseudonyms; wild spinach , up came the roots, off came the tender young leaves and in they went into a risotto for my lunch. Sweet! as they say in the South.
So the motto of this story is when it comes to planting new herbs stick with what you know, the less said on the packet the better. If it sounds great then it isn’t, they’re just desperate to sell it to suckers like myself.
ps Just sourced a new supplier for some wonderful produce including wild food from outside my immediate locality, I shall ‘blog’ accordingly.
Miles,
Good post, as always.
I’m really looking forward to your kitchen garden posts as I will be growing many of my own herbs this year, but I’m not very accomplished at knowing what to plant and where and when to use them. I made a yam and bacon soup last night and crunched up 2 dried bay leaves in with some onions, celery, and carrots I was sauteing in the bacon fat. Suddenly I wondered if I should be doing that. It seems I remembered you mentioned tearing bay leaves in one of your posts. I pureed the bay leaves with the rest of my ingredients, but wondered if I should have left them whole and taken them out prior to the pureeing. (I will be spending some time shifting through your past herb posts.)
I’ve experimented with some fun herbs and spices because of you, but am still a rookie at it, so I do appreciate your expertise!
Melissa
P.S. Elsie and Cid — I miss you.
March 31, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
Melissa,
The soup sounds great, try and source fresh bay leaves whenever possible, Always tear them and then take them out before blending your soups and sauces.
I could happily put fresh bay in almost everything, I love it.
Miles
March 31, 2009 @ 5:42 pm
Miles,
That kind of mistaken identity would happen on a daily basis if I ever picked up a trowel.
I think horticulture skipped a generation with me. My Dad was a big allotment nut. There was a definite hierarchy in my house; my Dad would do the growing and digging while my Mum would clean and store the 3 tonnes of vegetables he would dig up each week, whilst swearing under her breath.
Oh, Asian basil? I love that so much. I get it mail order, delivered in a jiffy bag, seriously! All the best to your seedlings!
GDave
March 31, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
Miles,
After GDave’s comment I can see a healthy profit coming my may from the Deli via jiffy bag to meet up with his Asian Basil
GDave,
I’ve often thought that to grow things properly ie all the weeding and feeding, thinning out etc., takes a lot of time and effort. It is wonderful to eat something fresh out of the garden but at the end of the day there’s a very good grocer virtually nextdoor to me so I’m not going to stress myself about last year’s butternut squash failure (she says sobbing as she shreds her pin-up of Diarmuid Gavin
)
Must dash, Melissa will want to know all about Diarmuid
Cid
March 31, 2009 @ 11:28 pm
Melissa,
I remember planting a smallish bay tree a couple of years back and it has since quadrupled in size…. I could supply all the local restaurants with the amount of leaves on it. Like Miles, I love this herb and it’s deep resiny scent.
Just so you know, dear Diarmuid (pronounced Dermut in case you’re wondering) is a curly haired Irish tv presenter on garden design. Like his creations, he’s an acquired taste but since Miles is busy
gallivanting aboutworking hard, I might have to call upon Diarmuid’s expertise in the field to assist me in the herbaceous bordersI know what you’re thinking…. but Ray Mears is sadly unavailable for advice on pruning runner beans, or so his answer machine said
Cid
March 31, 2009 @ 11:46 pm
GDave,
Asian basil by post, like it!
Miles
April 1, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Cid,
You really do need to get over your butternut squash tradgedy. It’s time to move on now
Miles
April 1, 2009 @ 8:45 am
Cid,
I get the impression that the occasional disaster is par for the course when it comes to growing. As well as my Dad, my best bud is an allotment keeper. (I mentioned his turnip wine a while ago, I forgot to say they were home-grown turnips!) I must say it’s something I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at. Good time to get on a waiting list at the local allotments, then I’ll commission Diarmuid to design one of his concrete monstrosities as a centrepiece.
GDave (running away to avoid a Cid-slapping)
April 1, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
GDave,
If you manage to attract dear Diarmuid to your allotment then do let me know… quick as a flash I’ll be over with a tray of macaron and a bottle of turnip wine. One of the three of us will distract him to such a degree he’ll forget all about concrete monstrosities…. so that’ll be the wine then
Cid
April 1, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
Cid,
With all this talk of Diarmuid, I guess I better go figure out who he is.
We have a radio show called Garden Gossip. With your butternut squash drama, Diarmuid crush, and turnip wine, you could be a featured guest. I won’t mention your mortar fixing outfit, but that might add some turbulence to the scene. Of course, it’s radio, so a colorful imagination is key.
Turnip wine? Really?
Melissa
April 1, 2009 @ 10:39 pm
FIsh for it - fine. Hunt for it - no problem. Grow it ? - kiss it goodbye. My only successful plants are an aloe (barely hanging on) and a saguaro cactus (needs watering once every 6 months or so). I have the utmost respect for anyone that has a productive home garden, and I hold farmers in a state of near awe. One of the best parts of my job is prowling the farmer’s market to see what is coming up - Asparagus are poking through the ground, spring onions and ramps are nearly ready - AHHHHH I can barely wait for fresh local produce. The Shad Run has begun - Trout season opens in 10 days - venison and wild boar charcuterie are on the edge of perfection after a fall and winter of curing - Is it any wonder I love Spring?
I read with pleasure the tales of the gardens of Miles, Cid, and Elsie - and nod to GDave with commiseration -it definitely skipped a generation with me. If I ever move out of the city and plant a garden in the backyard it will be to shoot the rabbits it attracts.
Born with a brown thumb, but a patient trigger finger.
April 2, 2009 @ 4:58 am
loved this:
Last week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called on Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials to ban trout fishing, arguing that fish feel pain and that angling is violent.
So on Friday, a group calling itself PETI — People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects — condemned PETA.
“Those murdering trout devour millions of mayflies, mosquitoes and other innocent insects every day,” says PETI spokesman Harvey Foonman.
The release continues: “As PETA states, there are many who believe that fish are sentient. That makes them responsible for their actions. Insects are innocent — they don’t even have brains. That makes them our natural constituency — and, you’d think, PETA’s too.
“If PETA had a heart, they’d be finding a way to train these trout out of their horrible insectivorous ways. Or distribute tofu pellets to mountain streams.”
The group’s motto: “Insects are just like people, except for having six legs, an exoskeleton and no central nervous system.”
April 2, 2009 @ 5:37 am
Melissa,
I feel strangely drawn to the angel faced, curly haired Diarmuid. Beefy he is not, mad Irishman most definitely and despite GDave’s comment, an ambitious contemporary garden designer. We ought to ask Miles if he’ll invite Diarmuid to our party along with Mr Mears
Cid
April 2, 2009 @ 12:54 pm
Dave,
You’re back on form!!! For my sins I crushed an insect this morning, quite by accident of course. It didn’t die in vain though, it’s gone in the terrine
Miles
April 2, 2009 @ 8:46 pm