We have been busy at Sustainable Spoon working on landscaping our yard . . . or more accurately working on planning the landscape for our yard. Our yard is rather small, about a third of the size of a football field; still we wanted to find a place to grow plants for our kitchen. In discussion with our landscape designer, she dashed our hopes of every having a large kitchen garden, not enough sun, however she did suggest that we could grow herbs in the front yard.
The front yard is not the ideal place to have a kitchen garden, especially when the kitchen is in the back of the house. However, we could not help but get excited about the potential herbs we could grow. My favorite summer combination is fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese. This combination works on sandwiches, pizza, pasta, salad or just individually for an appetizer.
In searching for basil to grow, I found numerous combinations from the classic Sweet basil to the Thai basil to Cinnamon basil to Greek Columnar Basil. I decide to choose three (for now) and plant them in a pot while our landscape plans turn in reality. Sweet Basil, Greek Columnar Basil and Purple Leaf Basil.
Basil originally comes from India and plays an important role in Southeast Asian Cuisine. Here at Sustainable Spoon, Thai food is one of our pleasures. We have eaten numerous Thai meals enjoying the mixture of Basil and various spices. Our favorite has to be Ka Pow which is stir fried squid, basil and chili sauce.
Growing Herbs is a great way to combine gardening and cooking. For the most part, they are simple to grow, a little organic fertilizer, water and sunlight and your herbs will grow without much tending. They can be grown outside or inside on a sunny windowsill or under a grow light in the middle of the winter.
With Friday almost upon us, our recommendation is to go our purchase some herbs, plant them in a sunny spot in your yard, and enjoy them all summer long.
Enjoy!