Elephant Stew

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  But who wants to eat an elephant?  Does it taste good?  How is elephant meat preserved, because I can't eat that much?

Starting an herb garden feels like eating an elephant.  So, let's change the analogy.

How do you make stew?

1.         Choose Recipe.  Choose one herb.  Suggestions for beginners are chives, oregano, parsley, or thyme.

2.         Find Pot.  Find a place for your one herb, about 1 foot square (in the ground or pot), easy to water.  Dig the dirt or use potting soil.

3.         Fill Pot.  Find your herb from a neighbor or store and plant it.

4.         Simmer.  Depending on the size of plant you started with, you can start harvesting in a few weeks.

5.         Taste.  Every time you pass your herb, taste.  Imagine how you can use it this week.

6.         Eat!  Cut off a few stems or a handful, wash, and eat.

7.         Wash Dishes.  If one pot can make a meal, then one growing herb makes an herb garden!

8.         Enjoy leftovers.  The easiest herbs are perennials.  The harvest increases each year, but the labor remains small—tearing off dead growth in spring, regular water, and cutting back when it flowers.