Tara's gone to the kitchen

I've been asked what to do with tarragon. Since I love to find answers for people's questions, I searched Google, that fount of all information. (What did we ever do without search engines?)

Tarragon is most commonly used in bearnaise sauce and in the herb mixes herbes de provence and fines herbes.

About.com's Home Cooking site gives tarragon history, storage information and, most importantly, recipes.

In My Kitchen Garden talks about tarragon, too. Make sure to read the comments.

TheBigOven.com has a recipe for chateaubriand with bearnaise sauce. Reading their recipe brought back good memories. Last year, we won a trip to Vail, Colo. On our trip's first night, we ate at The Ore House. We chose to split chateaubriand. Was it ever delicious. We were stuffed at the end and our stomachs were very happy!

Hubby at The Ore House the morning after we gorged ourselves there.

De-mint-ed

I should have listened to my mother.

Hubby and I planted mint in our vegetable garden. After we'd done the work, she warned us that mint was very invasive. We didn't want to undo what we'd done and we left that plant in our garden. How foolish was that!

Mint sends out wicked runners. All those runners must be removed from the garden or the plants will grow back. If we had listened and ripped it out, we would have saved ourselves much grief and work. Instead, every spring I "de-mint" the garden. When it's done, I say I am "de-mint-ed." I was demented to plant it in the first place!

The first year we de-mint-ed, we had to get fill dirt from a construction site because our garden had a crater in it. That evil plant had even sent runners under our sidewalk to infiltrate another garden. The crater's contents went into our driveway. The Frugal Gardener hates waste. We're still dumping our precious garden soil into the drive because of mint contamination, although the loads get smaller each year.

Unfortunately for us, we planted the mint right on our property line. It spread into the neighbor's lawn. The neighbor thinks the stuff is great and tends it. Therefore, it spreads right back into our garden. See the mint poking through the fence? I can't dig up the mint that's right on the line because my shovel hits concrete. So I'm stuck with it.

Yes, I definitely should have listened to my mother. Don't plant mint!

Tara's gone

The word "tarragon" reminds The Frugal Gardener of "Gone with the Wind", except that Scarlett saved Tara the plantation.

Eating tarragon is one of spring's delights. Chef Hubby uses it to season steak and fish. The herb is most famous as a bearnaise sauce ingredient. We've also made tarragon vinegar. Tarragon's flavor is best early in its growing season. Its taste becomes stronger in the heat.

The Frugal Gardener was surprised to see tarragon seeds in the local garden center this spring. I had thought tarragon only grew through cuttings. I learned that tarragon comes in two varieties: French and Russian. French tarragon is the better-tasting variety and is only propagated through cuttings. The less-desirable Russian tarragon can be grown from seeds.

Tarragon wants to be divided every few years, so I share ours with friends.

Tarragon has medicinal uses as well. Chewing tarragon leaves apparently eases oral pain. Tarragon leaves also possess infection-fighting properties. Perhaps the Frugal Gardener will use a leaf as a temporary bandage the next time she cuts herself while gardening!

Ironically, tarragon is a member of the same botanical family as dandelion. The herb has some nasty relatives! Oh, well, don't we all!