Vegetable Gardening (83 page)

The best time to harvest basil is just before the formed flower buds open. In the morning, snip the leaves and branches and pinch off the flower buds to keep the plant productive. You also can cut the entire plant about 6 to 8 inches above the ground, leaving at least one node (where a leaf was) with two young shoots attached. The plant should produce a second, smaller harvest a few weeks later. As the plants mature, early cold weather can ruin your crop, so be sure to harvest if temperatures dip into the 30s.

After you harvest your basil, you can

Store it fresh:
The best way to store fresh basil is to place the stem ends in water like a small bouquet. You can put the leaves in the refrigerator, but they won't last long.

Freeze it:
Because the leaves lose some of their flavor when dried, freezing is the best method for winter storage. To quick-freeze basil, clean and dry whole sprigs (stem pieces with 3 to 4 leaves) and pack them in plastic bags with the air pressed out.

Dry it:
To dry basil, pinch off the leaves at the stem, and dry them in a shady, well-ventilated area. Check the leaves in 3 or 4 days, and if they aren't totally dry, finish drying them in an oven; otherwise, the leaves may turn brown and black. Use the lowest heat setting possible with the oven door slightly open; turn the leaves for even drying and check them frequently until they're dry and crumbly. They should dry in 10 minutes.

Chives

Chives are one of the easiest plants to grow. After you plant chives in your garden, you always have them because they're a hardy perennial — one of the first harvests each year. You can easily dig the plants up, divide them, and move them as your garden evolves. And you need only a few plants to harvest all the chives you'll ever need.

Common chives (
Allium schoenoprasum
) grow to 1 foot tall and have narrow, hollow green leaves and spherical pink or purple flowers; the plants are quite pretty. You can use the leaves in all kinds of sauces and salads to lend a delicate onion flavor. And, of course, what would baked potatoes be without chives? The flowers, when added to white vinegar, impart a lovely pink or purple color. You also can add the flower buds to salads.

Garlic chives (
Allium tuberosum
) are close relatives of common chives, but they differ slightly in appearance and flavor. Garlic chives have flat leaves, and their white flowers, which are highly attractive to bees, appear in the summer. The seed heads are excellent for decorating wreaths, but be careful not to let the seeds fall; garlic chives can become a weedy nuisance. Sometimes called Oriental chives, you can use garlic chives in soups, salads, sauces, and meat dishes to impart their garlicky flavor.

You can start chive plants from seed, purchase a plant or two, or dig up part of a clump from a neighbor's garden (with her permission, of course). If you're seeding, plant in mid to late spring in a sunny or slightly shady area. Chives prefer rich soil, and after they're established, they'll tolerate either moist or dry conditions. Sow the seeds in clusters that are 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart. Remove the flower stalks after they bloom in early summer. Divide the plants (dig up and separate the small plants) every 3 to 4 years.

Small clumps of chives planted in pots will grow in a sunny spot outdoors. These pots can be brought indoors in fall, and the chives will continue to grow as a windowsill plant into the winter.

You can begin harvesting chives 6 weeks after planting or as soon as the established plants resume growth in the spring. As you need leaves, cut the outer ones near the base. New leaves will keep forming all summer. Use the leaves fresh or frozen in soups, on baked potatoes, or in salads. Chives also retain their flavor well when dried using the technique for drying basil.

Cilantro

Now considered one of the top culinary herbs in the United States, cilantro (
Coriandrum sativum
) has gained in popularity due to the influx of Mexican and Asian cooking. This annual herb is actually two herbs in one. When the green, ferny foliage is eaten fresh it's called
cilantro.
If allowed to go to seed, the seeds are called
coriander.
Both are essential for ethnic cooking.

Cilantro is a cool-season herb that can quickly
bolt
(go to flower and seed) when the weather becomes hot. After the plant has bolted, the foliage becomes tough and the flavor less pronounced. Select varieties that are slow to bolt, such as ‘Slo Bolt,' and grow cilantro in spring and fall while the weather is cool.

Direct sow seeds after the last frost and thin plants to 2 to 4 inches apart. Most varieties grow 12 to 18 inches tall. Sow successive crops every 3 weeks to have a continuous supply of cilantro throughout the season. To harvest, pinch the leaves about 2 months after seeding or as needed. Snip off the flower stalk as it forms to prolong the leaf growth. If interested in harvesting coriander seeds, allow the plant to bolt and form seeds (after you let the plants go to seed, you'll have cilantro seedlings for years to come). Cilantro is best used fresh; the leaves aren't as tasty dried or frozen. You can harvest fresh cilantro and keep stems in water for a few days using it as needed.

Dill

Common dill (
Anethum graveolens
) grows to a height of about 3 to 5 feet. It grows best toward the back of your garden where it has plenty of room. It also looks beautiful mixed with annual flowers such as salvia. ‘Dukat' is an improved new variety with high oil content and, therefore, more flavor.

Dill does poorly when transplanted, so start from seed sown directly into your garden. The annual plants thrive in rich, loose soil in a sunny location. Plant the seeds 1 to 2 weeks before the last spring frost date if you want the crop to mature when you do your first cucumber pickling. Sow seeds 1/4-inch-deep in rows that are 18 to 24 inches part; or broadcast seeds over a 2-square-foot bed and gently rake the seeds into the soil. Plants should emerge in 10 to 14 days; let them grow for another 10 to 14 days and then thin them to 12 to 18 inches apart. Make small sowings a few weeks apart in different 2-square-foot areas in your garden until midsummer to get a supply of fresh leaves throughout the season.

Let a few plants mature their seed (let the seed form and drop from the flower naturally); if left undisturbed, they'll provide many new plants next season.

‘Fernleaf' is a dwarf variety of dill that reaches only 18 inches tall, is slow to go to seed, and is great in containers. Taller varieties tend to flop over in a pot, so low-growing varieties like ‘Fernleaf' are better choices for a container.