Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Les Herbes du Bois Vert

The full 2010 herb crop is (and has been) in.

I consulted my notes on the "recipe" for les herbes du bois vert - the greenwood version of herbes de provence - and remembered that it was generally a quarter rosemary, a quarter thyme, a quarter savory and a quarter of whatever else there was (including lavender, tarragon, sage, etc.)

Oh, and I've also consulted with a scholar in Paris, and she advises that the correct phrase would be les herbes du bois vert. So I guess it's not what I'd come up with - herbes de le bois vert - which I'm sure is atrocious grammar, but which had a nice ring to it! I was a little too proud to suggest same to my scholarly source. . . .

This year, what I ended up with (herb-wise) was:

Rosemary ( 3/4 oz. I know there are bags more of it, but where?!)
Savory (1/4 oz. - supplemented with 1 oz. of 'boughten' savory from the local market, my savory languished in the extreme heat this summer)
Thyme (2 1/2 oz.)
Oregano (3/4 oz.)
Basil (1 1/4 oz.)
Sage (1 1/2 oz.)
Lavender (1/2 oz.)
Tarragon and Parsley (trace amounts - less than 1/4 oz. each)

I started out doing the math and ended up just throwing everything into the big wooden salad bowl. It's what there was, this year, so that's what's going in! All but the sage. I'm not crazy about a heavy sage flavor, so I only put a handful of sage in. Here's a close up, and you can still see the sage leaves at the very top. Blended and put into containers, I ended up with more than enough to share and last me through the winter and to the next herb crop! Les Herbes du Bois Vert, 2010.

Finis.
(and that's French for "done!" I think. . . .)