One of the easiest ways to dramatically improve the quality of your cooking is to start adding fresh herbs to the dishes you cook. While parsley and mint are great additions to most vegetable dishes and many meats, there are many more herbs you can choose as well, like marjoram and thyme.
But here’s the problem: these herbs cost a fortune if you buy them freshly grown at the grocery store. A small package large enough for only a couple of meals can cost $3, $4 or more. Parsley and mint may be available in a bunches for only a dollar or two, but you won’t find the specialty herbs for that price. And fragile basil is often prohibitively expensive.
Have you ever thought about growing your own indoor herb garden right on your kitchen counter — or even in your bedroom window? You can get great indoor herb garden kits online, and when you consider all you get in these packages, they usually work out to be a really good deal.
But there’s another way. Most herbs are perennials — meaning they don’t die out from year to year — so you can plant them once and perhaps have fresh herbs for years. Just get a small packet of seeds for around a dollar and plant in any kind of plastic, metal, terra cotta or other container with drainage. Most herbs like full sun, so arrange to put the pot in the window.
Basil, by the way, is an annual that dies off every year, so you’ll have to replant it. And some of your other herbs are likely to die, too, but you should get enough seeds to replant several times.
Why not save money and improve your cooking too? When you add herbs to your meals and your life, it really is possible. And you’ll soon discover the joys of fresh pesto, herbed bean salads, minted pan juices for your meats and more.
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