Plant your own herbs, and if it was only for visual pleasures.

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by these pots of herbs…well, I know that this is impossible and I apologize for paraphrasing Shakespeare in such a

Herbs, potting soil: it doesn’t need a lot to enhance your life all year long.

mundane way. Yet today was the first warm and sunny day in Paris (and the whole of France) in a very long time and I got my hands dirty while planting the aromatic herbs I will need as a cook in the months to come. So please forgive my poetic enthusiasm.

What I want to share with you today is this: Why would you buy expensive bunches of rosemary, thyme, mint or basil at your “gourmet” store or greengrocer’s over and over again – when you can invest once (we’re talking about penny stocks!) and have a stable herb supply throughout the year?

That’s what I’ve done today: I bought the above mentioned herbs, a bag of potting soil – and off I went planting right away. It really isn’t rocket science and you can see the quite beautiful result: a kitchen garden on the window sill. It’s a rite, kind of a salutation of springtime: it’ll add flavor, depth, edge and the very welcome mediterranean twist to the many meals to come (Did you know that the aroma of sage, which I will plant soon, is a miraculous play of 700 different components? No kidding!)

Anyway. What I’ll have in my kitchen from now on, while cooking, of course, is the illusion of a tiny garden in the heart of Paris. And that is priceless.