The lure of the 5/$1 seed stand is just too powerful for me to resist. I picked up both red and green looseleaf curly lettuce plus a packet of chervil seeds. The lettuce seeds make sense on two fronts: except for my radicchio, I have very little salad represented so far in the garden. Second, the fast pace of germination will give me the instant gratification I need right now, since my sugar snap peas – two weeks in the ground – have barely poked through. I need a green fix, and I need it fast!
The chervil was an impulse buy. But in hindsight, a real find. The licorice flavor is a delicate delight. Fresh chervil leaves are perfect to toss into a summer salad of young greens, and excellent in compound butters and vinaigrettes.
The seed packet also reminded me of a dish I make of pan-roasted quail with a fruit glaze and fresh chervil. I haven’t made that in quite a while, but will be sure to when the chervil comes in. Cornish game hens are a suitable substitute for the quail, as I remember oven roasting and giving the hens the treatment for a party of eight, definitely less costly than purchasing 16 quail, but equally delicious. While the herb is used throughout classic French cuisine, you don’t see it too much in this country. The flavor is unexpected on the palate – a subtle surprise that keeps guests guessing.
I can’t wait to plant it.
So, let’s add $0.64, tax included, to the running total:
Eco-nomics Running Tally:
Seeds, Peat Pellets, other: $39.96
3 Packets: $ 0.64
Total: $40.60
And a note: When I filed away the seeds with the rest of my cold weather packets, I came across golden beet seeds from two years ago and red ones from 2004. I had totally forgotten about those! I direct-sowed both - "free" crops - although admittedly, I have lower hopes for the red beets. I sowed many more golden.
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