Oregano Tea, Anyone?

(Rather pathetic photo by author)

I got an AeroGarden herb kit as a Christmas gift. My husband bought it for me. At least he was with me when I bought it. We decided about twenty years ago that we are hopeless at picking out gifts for each other, and a gift from someone you share a bank account with isn’t really a gift anyway, so we decide how much we can spend on our gifts and we each buy something that we want. I know – it’s not romantic, but we are both very practical people.

So, back to my herb garden. I hate gardening. I have a black thumb. Even my houseplants keep dying. But I do like cooking with fresh herbs. I bought a basil plant about two years ago, and made one batch of pesto sauce and a few roasted chicken meals that even my family asked what I did differently. And then the plant died.

But AeroGarden is supposed to be the fool proof way to grow herbs so that you can just go pluck off a sprig of basil, or oregano, and presto! Lots of compliments to the chef, thank you!

The chives never did come up. I called customer service and they said the guarantee was expired. It’s 30 days from the time you buy the garden, not 30 days after you finally set it up.

The first thing we got to harvest was the dill. I was looking forward to mashed potatoes with dill. It wasn’t bad, but it was quite bland. I remember dill growing like a weed in my mom’s garden, and it had a wonderful dilly fragrance.

The basil came up very well. We had several meals of yummy roasted chicken. I decided that I don’t like pesto sauce. I don’t know if I made it right. It was very, very green. Then I overharvested the basil and it died. I guess that’s what comes from greed and impatience.

The thyme got tangled up with the mint and the oregano, and when I tried to harvest it the thyme all came up from the roots. That’s OK. I don’t really like thyme. I was intending to make a pun here, but I’ve got nothing. Sorry, maybe next thyme.

But the mint and the oregano both came up nicely. My daughter really likes mint tea, so I harvested some leaves and poured boiling water on them. I let it steep for about 20 minutes and it was hardly green at all. Not much flavour either. My daughter said it just tasted funny. Oh well. Another gardening disappointment.

The next time I was watering the garden, I noticed the labels on the plant pods. The leaves that I harvested for tea were oregano. I don’t know very much about herbs or tea, but I don’t recommend oregano tea. It tastes funny.

(Irrelevant photo of author’s dog)

(And another irrelevant photo of author’s dog – Look, she’s dancing!)