• the217
• Food + Drink
• Advice from seed to skillet

With today’s advent of entire networks, stores and product lines devoted to foodies, it’s easy to get caught up in the middle of trying to copy a recipe right off of television. But we risk passing by the entire experience of food when we do just that. Here’s a tip: Experiment with your food. What’s one of the best ways to get close to your food? Grow it! What’s one of the easiest things to grow? Herbs!

Fresh herbs are wonderfully efficient conveyor belts of taste; they are compact doses of flavor that can accentuate or harmonize with the flavor of anything, including something benign such as chicken or tofu, or they can mask or develop wild game, strong fish and less desirous cuts of meat.

Many people may not bother to use herbs out of fear of ruining a dish or because of the price (it’s three bucks for a sprig of rosemary at the supermarket), but when we try growing our own herbs, we can find ourselves with an overabundance of samples. It’s quite easy to saturate a huge flowerpot with more mint than you’ll ever want — even after making 100 mint juleps for your friends while watching the Kentucky Derby.

The key to experimenting is this: Take only very small samples of your food, and pair the individual bites with different combinations and strengths of herbs. It’s easy to shake off a distasteful bite instead of an entire meal.

It doesn’t matter if you have a tiny high-rise apartment over Green Street or a full-blown ranch in Rantoul — herbs take up very little space, and some of them are very hardy. In fact, more than a few of them could become summertime pests if not contained.

As I begin this year’s herb garden, the following plants are some of my keepers. I must also note that my dill managed to seed the surrounding soil last year and has already started growing!

I started by growing some very pungent delights: rosemary, four types of basil, two types of mint, sage and epazote. I tried to pick very regionally distinct plants. I had success with them overall and probably saved more than 100 dollars in hypothetical supermarket herbs. I make no allusions to lack of gardening expertise, but it’s all about the learning experience, right?

Rosemary

This evergreen grows slowly and is so aromatic that you can smell it a good distance away. I bought mine as a seedling, and that really seemed to help the time pass. There is a magnificent difference between fresh rosemary and dried. I actually killed my plant over the winter by bringing it inside, but during the entire growing season of last year, I managed to get a few good stalks for cooking while keeping the plant healthy. In bare basics, I gave the needles a few good chops and seasoned my chicken and red potatoes. Nothing original, but the food took on a new dimension from a previous, bland version. It’s also a wonderful herb to have handy in the cold weather and will make your kitchen smell delightfully seasonal.

Basil

I planted lemon, purple ruffle, globe and Siam strains, and all of them grew really well in this climate. I put them in a huge plastic barrel, and they all grew equally well. The purple ruffle basil in particular is a real treat — it has a bit of spice to it, and not only is it a dark velvety purple but the leaves are rippled, and they look wonderfully unique. I would take a roll of the leaves, cut them in a “chiffonade” style and put them on top of a nice saffron risotto. The yellow and purple were wonderful contrasts and kept the taste of Italy on the tongue.

Mint

This is a plant that can get out of control really fast. It grows roots on the ends of the stalks and can “walk” from container to container, or rapidly consume the undergrowth. I sampled regular mint and chocolate mint, and again, I found that one mint plant made more mint than I would ever use. Honestly, how much mint do you eat?

Sage

This is another herb that you probably won’t use that much unless you like to burn it in rituals or aromatize your domicile. I used my sage on wrapped meats, rubs and sausages. It grew steadily here, but I lost all four of my plants when I moved them indoors for the winter. They’re silvery light green and beautiful and dry well into bundles for burning or smoking.

Epazote

Have you ever tried to cook Tex-Mex or Mexican-style dishes and noticed that they were missing something? It’s possible it was epazote — a hardy herb that originated from Central America but seems to grow amazingly well (too well, I would venture) during the summer here. It’s hard to describe the taste; there’s nothing in the world like it. It also was used as a powerful folk remedy to rid humans and animals of digestive worms if that tells you anything. I used it with chorizo, bean soups and spicy sauces and found a taste that I had been missing for years in my own cooking.