The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be holding their first meeting of 2017 on Wednesday, February 15 at 7; 00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street. We look forward to seeing our members, and remember, the garden gate is always open and new members are always welcome! Visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca
What would you say is your favorite herb? Hopefully you have several that would make the list. I’d have to say that my favorites include basil, sage, rosemary, parsley, and oregano. But the cooking shows often talk about tarragon, a plant I am not familiar with though I do see it in the produce aisle. The last time we had tea together, we talked about stopping at the bok choi in the produce aisle; maybe we should also stop at the herbs!
I did some homework about tarragon. Tarragon is a delicate-looking herb with long, slender leaves. While it is a distant cousin of sunflowers, right within its immediate family it has branches known as French tarragon, Russian tarragon, and even Spanish tarragon.
My homework tells me that the French tarragon (dragon wort) is the most flavorful in cooking (going especially well with eggs, fish, and chicken dishes), but for gardeners, Russian tarragon is the easiest to grow, because it is propagated by root division. We can start Russian tarragon indoors, but once planted outside it is easy to divide the plants. It doesn’t sound like this plant expects preferential treatment from us: it does well in poor soil, and doesn’t mind periods of drought. It does like a spot with full sun, though.
The Spanish tarragon hails from South America and goes by other aliases, including Mexican tarragon, winter tarragon, and even Mexican mint marigold.
If you and I were to grow tarragon in our gardens, we could dry it for future use, but it seems that it is best to use the fresh leaves. Tarragon has a mild anise flavor, and should be added to our recipes at the last possible moment so as not to lose the delicate flavor in the cooking process. We can also make tarragon vinegar, use it in salads, or use it in special holiday bread called potica. (Homework leads to more homework! I looked this up and found out that it is holiday bread from Slovenia, and it looks delicious. Potica is made all year but with various seasonal fillings; the favorite filling for April is tarragon. In case you were wondering, here are the other flavors: January: carob; February: bacon; March: honey; April: tarragon; May: chives; June: cottage cheese; July: poppy seeds; August: carrots; September: raisins; October: dried plums or dried fruit; November: sausage; and December: walnut).
Now back to our plants: we can even grow tarragon in pots, as long as we have a location where they will get at least six hours of sunlight.
So there we go: another plant to add to our list for this year! We have been planting herbs in pots for many years, and have had great success with them. The best part about this type of gardening is that if the plants are readily accessible, we can use and enjoy them so easily. I know that many of you have wonderful “gardens” all in containers, that’s a great example for all of us!
I found a great quote to share with you: “Life begins the day you start a garden.” Chinese Proverb, very true! Now that the days are getting longer, spring and our gardens are both starting to seem like more of a reality than they were a few weeks ago!
Have a wonderful week!
