Guacamole
On Indian curries
Guacamole
Chipotle's lime cilantro rice
Pico de gallo
Did I already say guacamole?
Unlike some herbs, dried cilantro isn't a thing. (Yes, I am aware that you can buy dried cilantro, but trust me...it's not a thing.)
So having fresh cilantro on hand is always a must. Those bunches from the store go bad so fast before you can use the whole bunch. So growing it fresh would be the ideal right?!
Oh cilantro. How I hate thee, let me count the ways...
Growing outdoors in a pot in the sun
Growing indoors in a pot
Growing outdoors in a pot in the shade
Growing in the Aerogarden
All last about 2-3 weeks ... 2-3 weeks of abundant, fresh cilantro bliss....and then dried, crinkled horror and me crying out why, why, why?!! Why can't I grow you?!!
"Oh cilantro is so hard to grow"
"Yes, cilantro doesn't like the heat"
"It may do ok earlier in the year, but by mid-summer mine always dies"
Well that's encouraging.
So imagine my surprise when in round abouts August (yes, the hottest month of the year) I notice something that looks an awful lot like cilantro growing near my rose bush.
What the...?!!
Yes indeed it was cilantro.
A couple of tufts of tiny-leafed cilantro growing in my fully full sun side of the house bed. In August.
If I recall properly, the year before while we tore down the old and put up the new deck we had moved all of my pots out of the way - onto or near the sidewalk. A few of those pots contained herbs and apparently one of my [failed] attempts at cilantro.
And apparently it seeded itself.
Directly into the ground.
I laughed quite hard. Can't grow it to save my life, but apparently I can accidentally!
So again I enjoyed the bliss of fresh picked cilantro for at least a month or more; cranked out a bunch of guacamole until decent avocados became hard to come by and so my neglected cilantro went to seed. Well, it was a fun surprise while it lasted.
Enter a walk around back during a warm December day.
Um...what is that?
It's not one or two tufts, but essentially a ground cover of cilantro!!
In December.
I give up.
Through frost and even several back to back days below freezing and still my new crop - field - survived and was utilized. I kept thinking that surely after this last big freeze it was a goner, but I'd go out and pick some and smell it and still fresh and delightful!
Now after a record-setting 30" of snow, and several days back to back getting down into the teens and not above freezing, there's no way it can still be ok, right?
Meet the new my-yard-accidentally-created version of the hardiest cilantro you will ever meet. Survives the intensest heat of summer and coldest freeze of winter.
There's only one secret - DON'T TRY TO HELP IT!
Just let it go and pick as much as you need.
No comments:
Post a Comment