Sow There! June 6
Many of us who are gardeners have browsed through those frou-frou garden books and magazines and viewed photos of herb harvesting.
Usually in the glossy photos are giant clumps of herbs hanging in a shed or barn. These are artistic photos, shot in sepia tone, with shafts of light streaming in through the cracks of wood of the structure.
The gardener is dressed as if she just washed with Ivory soap and is imminently approaching a Cafe Mocha moment.
(Oregano can grow big and bushy after a few years. Too bad friends aren't more eager to take giant clumps home with them).
In my reality, harvesting herbs happened on a hot afternoon. I needed to make some room in the garden bed and hacked off giant clumps of lavender, sage and oregano and unceremoniously dumped them into plastic crates.
Some of the clumps I brought into the house for a few days for a sweet smell inside. This works really well with spearmint and lemon verbena as well.
The lavender is nice to tie into a clump and add to the top of a spring birthday present.
I’ve tried tying them up with string and offering them to friends, but invariably they act as if I am offering them a controlled substance.
Also, people don’t need a gallon of oregano unless they have been enlisted to help out with a charity spaghetti feed.
Usually, I refresh my spice jars with new herbs, and keep the herbs around until they are crumbling and making a mess all over the floor.
Sometimes they miraculously disappear from the kitchen when my partner is cleaning up.
Herbs dry well in those metal three-tier baskets that people use to store fruit and non-refrigerated vegetables in the kitchen.
I’ll also save some of the sage for some of my friends who like to burn it.
Native Americans use sage in “smudging,” a ritual where a home is blessed with sage and negative energy is dispersed.
Some people grow herbs such as lemon balm and chamomile to use to make tea. Herbs also make a nice garnish on dishes during a summer barbecue.
Some people will put fresh herbs in oil and freeze them. These are used to add flavor when cooking.
However, doing that would just mean one more thing I can’t find in the back of my over-stuffed freezer.
Spearmint is another herb of which I always have too much. It spreads rapidly, sending out babies from the mother plant. We keep a nice clump near the strawberry patch and when it gets too large, Tommy runs over it a few times with the lawn mower. Invariably it springs back.
Memories, like the corners of my mind
For years, Mom has known that a guy from her past was writing a book and used her as the basis for one of his characters.
She and the writer were friends and co-workers nearly 30 years ago.
Mom was married and raising two kids. Apparently there was some awkwardness way back when and the guy fell in love with her.
Their friendship endured this unrequited love, but they lost touch when my mom moved out of state.
With the magic of the Internet, he tracked her down in the 1990s.
They never hooked up, but over the course of conversations, he told her he was writing the book and basing his lead female character on her.
Recently, she received word that the book had been printed.
Mom shared that it was a somewhat spooky feeling to imagine what the character would be like and how the writer would represent her circa 1985.
Of course, she understood that this would just be a loose interpretation based upon his perhaps romanticized memories.
If the male lead character was based upon himself, would the old friend have his character and her character fall in love the way he had hoped back then?
Would he go further and have them in some sort of ’70s-style Erica Jong tryst?
Of course, Mom went to the Internet and bought a copy of the book.
Last time I spoke to her about it, she’d read the first few pages.
She said she paused when she read that her character was not classically beautiful. However, he also describes her in a way that lets the reader know she is noteworthy.