Bouquet garni…

It’s that soup and stew time of year and yesterday, as I boiled the chicken carcass from our finished roast dinner to make a stock, I went out in the pouring rain to pick myself a few herbs to make a 'garnished bouquet' (as the say in the French) to flavour it.

I’ve had a successful year with my herbs. The six in one pack of seeds I bought from the pound shop all grew well. Parsley, oregano, dill, thyme, chives and some strange stuff that looked like some sort of pea that wasn’t a herb at all. I think it may have been white alfalfa; it certainly wasn’t the sage I was expecting. Well, it was the pound shop and it could have been worse, it could have been marijuana.  

I couldn’t find any fine kitchen string so tied it all together with a plastic twist. The bay leaf came from the tree in the front garden which is still going strong despite the hard frosts of the last few years.

I’m going to make a chunky chicken and vegetable soup with the left over chicken and whatever vegetables I can find in the fridge. Of course my soups, stews, and stocks wouldn’t be quite the same without my home grown herbs to add that little bit of freshness and zing. But I bet they'd taste even better if I'd mistakenly gown some pot and tied it into my bouquet garni as well .  

Note to self:    Get around to drying some of those herbs before the winter comes.