Thanksgiving is coming up next week and soon those turkeys will be filling our homes with the savory scents of a delicious dinner to be enjoyed among friends and family (and perhaps a nap to follow). A lot of preparation goes into preparing that perfect Thanksgiving dinner and this being a gardening blog we aren't talking turkey here but rather - herbs! So for today's
Friday Five post let's visit five herbs that will help make your Thanksgiving Dinner delicious!
5 Herbs for Thanksgiving Dinner!
Rosemary for Thanksgiving
Our family uses rosemary around our house all the time. Our favorite dish for rosemary also contains another garden favorite - potatoes! We roast the potatoes with onions, garlic, and a little olive oil in the oven until the potatoes are tender. The exact makeup of the roasted potato dish varies depending on what potatoes we have around whether red potatoes, sweet potatoes, or a combination of several kinds. Rosemary mixed with oranges and other herbs also makes a great seasoning for the turkey itself! Chopped rosemary in a small dish of olive oil with a little salt and pepper is a great substitute for butter on your bread. Rosemary is an evergreen perennial but can have issues with soggy feet. Extremely wet winters and shady areas won't work well for rosemary. Well drained locations with winter sun our ideal for successfully growing rosemary. If you give it a great location it will return for many years. Deer and rabbits won't touch it! It can make a great fragrant hedge.
Rosemary is easy to propagate through cuttings.
Thyme for Thanksgiving
Thyme is another great turkey seasoning. I mostly use thyme to season meat. It's easy to strip the small evergreen leaves from the stem and mix it together with other herbs to prepare that bird. Thyme is perennial and can be propagated from seed or through layering.
Sage for Thanksgiving
Sage is an awesome perennial herb you can use year round.
Salvia officinalis is related to other salvias and is beautiful in the garden with silver gray foliage but also tastes really nice when implemented in the kitchen. While meatloaf is not the typical Thanksgiving Day meal that's one place we use it frequently around here. It'll work great on your turkey too!
Parsley for Thanksgiving
Parsley is another great herb for potatoes. A little chopped up parsley freshens up mashed potatoes or can be added to the stuffing (or dressing if you prefer!). Parsley is so versatile that you can add it to almost any dish at Thanksgiving and be pleased with the result! We grew Italian Giant in our garden this year. It's a flat leaf Italian type. Parsley is a biennial that produces foliage the first year and flowers the second. Plant parsley yearly for 2-4 years to ensure a steady supply by allowing the second year plants to go to seed and resow your garden.
Mint for Thanksgiving
We can't forget about deserts and beverages, and that's where
mint excels! Mints have been used for all kinds of mixed drinks but we use our mint mostly for making delicious sweet tea. Just add a couple chopped tea spoons of mint to a tea ball and drop in in to steep with the tea bag. Mint is a great addition to all kinds of various deserts. We've used our mint to make mint chocolate chip ice cream. Mint is a perennial with a reputation for spreading out of bounds. Plant it in a pot to avoid its propensity for proliferation. You can even bury the pot in the ground in your garden to keep its root runners in check. There are quite a few varieties of mint available but in our garden we grow spearmint, chocolate mint, apple mint, and orange mint. Chocolate mint is by far my favorite!
So what are you planning for your dinner?
