I connected with Tasha Greer, author of "Grow Your Own Spices," via Zoom to chat about the new book.
One thing that stood out to me that I hadn’t thought about before was the difference between herbs and spices.
Tasha described it like this, “When I’m gardening, it’s pretty distinct to me because I think of the spices as the mature parts of the plant. So, it’s like the flower buds, the rhizomes, the roots after they’ve had eight or nine months to grow. It’s the older leaves sometimes like bay laurel. You harvest the older leaves if you want to store them a long time, rather than the young fresh leaves.”
I asked which spice she would recommend starting out with as a new spice gardener. Her answer was any seed spice but especially fenugreek!
“One of my favorites,” she says, “is fenugreek. It’s actually the seed they use to create imitation maple syrup aroma. So, when you grow this stuff it smells incredible. So, if you put it on a pot on your deck or grow it in a planter box or raised bed, every time you go by it you touch the leaves it will smell amazing.
Almost all the photography in the book Tasha took herself using the plants she’s growing inside and outside her home. Check it out!