Serious Cooks, please can I ask your advice re herbs?

[LemonDifficult]

How do you cope with recipes that require fresh herbs?

I've got rosemary and sage in the garden but from my local supermarket I can only get thyme, coriander, basil, parsley and mint - and they're not in stock half the time. I'd love to try recipes with tarragon, chervil, sorrel, lemon balm and so on, but they're really hard to find round here. I can't even guarantee them from Waitrose as they come and go there too. I end up giving up or skipping past so many recipes because of it.

Also, fresh herbs seem expensive. I only need to do a couple of recipes with 'small bunch of parsley' and 'sprinkling of coriander', and the weekly food bill goes right up. I've bought the pots thinking they'll grow but they only amount to a bunch in themselves so not much to grow on after the first recipe.

Do you have any suggestions or tips? Many thanks

you can buy pots with herbs in from a garden centre, that way you can grow your own.

We have sage, thyme, rosemary, basil and mint in the front garden and some chives and more mint in the back.

I often buy big bunches of herbs, chop them and freeze them. That was you can just grab handfuls of them when you need them. Much nicer than dried herbs.

Waitrose do a frozen range of fresh herbs.

Thanks everyone for replies.

I had wondered about frozen herbs. I'll give that a try.

Who are these lucky people who just have acres of herbs to hand for all these fab-looking recipes?! What do restaurants do? How much coriander would a thai restaurant get through in an evening?!

Do you have any ethnic/asian shops near you? I used to find parsley and coriander hugely expensive in the supermarkets, but less than £1 if I bought them in an indian grocer. He sold very cheap and good halal lamb, too.

A big basil pot from the supermarket will grow for months on my kitchen windowsill. Parsley and coriander pots can also grow on a windowsill, though I tend to kill them off a bit quicker - garden centre ones will probably last longer than supermarket pots.
But I agree that tarragon and dill are never on sale when you need them - frozen is probably the way to go.

I grow tarragon and dill beacuse they are my favourite, but they don't grow through the winter outside, and I've only had limited success indoors with them. At the end of October, I grab as much as I can and freeze them, they are never quite as good frozen, but not bad. I wouldn't use the dill to garnish something though eg smoked salmon etc as it loses its bright colour and texture. I also made some tarragon vinegar with the straggly ends of my plants this year. I plan on making tarragon mayonnaise soon.

My local Sainsbo's generally stocks tarragon and dill and I order a very big bunch of dill from my local fruit and veg van for Christmas as I use a lot then.

I grow sorrel, lemon balm and chervil here but they really are seasonal ( Spring/early Summer ). I suggest you get some seeds for sowing next Spring if you've a garden or few spare windowsills for pots, as they are more difficult to come by even in the bigger shops.

Sounds cheesy but if you keep to the seasons then the herbs should be more readily available, esp if you can grow some.

Herbs are as seasonal as veg!!

At the moment I am using a lot of thyme and sage, because that's what is till going in the garden.

I look forward to fresh chives on a spring salad

Meal planning is your friend, which fits with the seasonal thing too.

I tend to bunch recipes that uses things like herbs (which they seem to sell in packets large enough for you to always have surplus) together over a week, or cook and freeze for latter.

We love growing herbs, but as others have said, some are very seasonal. We seem to be able to use rosemary, thyme and sage pretty much all year, and some of the mint is still going strong, but am expecting the frosts to soon knock it back.

If your local DIY store has a garden centre, you may be able to get herbs there (Homebase/Focus/B&Q etc). A local college doing horticulure classes may be able to help too.