Grow Bouquet Garni Herbs

Herbs to make a bouquet garni can be grown at home and used later for cooking. All these herbs you can grow in the garden or on a suitable windowsill. The ingredients for our basic Bouquet Garni are the herbs Parsley, Thyme, Bay and a clove of Garlic. Tie them together with undyed string. Then add other herbs that are specific to the dish you want to cook.

Use the herbs that are fresh and in season. If you have dried your own use sparingly to test the strength of flavour. Herbs with high oil content can withstand longer cooking in stews and casseroles and include Rosemary, Oregano, Sage and Bay. Loveage and parsley also retain flavour during lengthy cooking and combinations of stronger flavours are good for cooking meat dishes. Poultry blends well with lemon flavour so lemon thyme, lemon grass leaves (harder to grow) and lemon balm will add the flavour you seek. You can also add a mixture of summer savoury, tarragon or hyssop. Fish combines best with soft leaved herbs. Fennel, tarragon, dill and sweet marjoram are suitable as can be mint or welsh onion.

Jekka McVicar runs her own organic herb farm in Bristol and is the author of many books about herbs including ‘Jekka’s Complete Herb Book: In Association with the Royal Horticultural Society’ shown above. Her tips for growing herbs include

Jekka grows more than 600 species of culinary, medicinal and aromatic herbs at her farm. She has been awarded 12 Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show for her herb displays

Ginger Mint French Parsley Chives Rosemary Garden thyme Angelica Fennel Winter savoury Greek basil Bay Sweet cicely Garlic Greek oregano French tarragon Lovage Lemon balmMoroccan mint Dill Lemon thyme Parsley Sweet marjoram Chervil Coriander