Even on a windowsill, a small farm is possible. A few pots of aromatic herbs and a tray of cut-and-come-again salad leaves will deliver a tiny but positive difference to everything we eat. There is pure pleasure in snipping off the very leaves that I have seen grow, a faith that theirs is a more intense and satisfying taste because they are my own achievement. I look for the unusual when choosing which edible plants to grow. I know I can never achieve self-sufficiency in quantity and will always have to shop for the bulk of the vegetables we eat, but I can at least be independent of shops in terms of variety.
Presently I am nurturing an African blue basil plant, Vietnamese coriander, Japanese parsley (tasting nicely of celery) and three types of sorrel. One of the latter, buckler sorrel, has grey-green, spade-shaped leaves tasting strongly of lemon juice. You only need three or four leaves with bought lettuce to taste a remarkable difference. Also on my windowsill and outside the back door are pots containing bronze and green fennel; garlic chives, purslane and winter savoury.
04 April 2019, The Tablet
Colour and flavour on your windowsill
The Ethical Kitchen
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