Thyme After Thyme

Who knew that thyme was a super germinator? Not I. After transplanting some of my herbs to pots to give my sprouting rosemary some room, I decided to use the vacated space in my little greenhouse to start some more seed. This time I planted thyme and lavender, along with second batches of some of the previous herbs. And I admit I seeded liberally. What the heck—if tiny seeds produced tiny shoots, wouldn’t more seed yield more sprouts?

And how! Within two days, I had a lush outcropping of plants in “double thyme.”

“What’s that one?” queried my hubby.

“It’s thyme,” I said.

“Time for what?”

“Not that kind of time,” I explained. “You know—‘parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.’”

He stared blankly.

“Like in Scarborough Fair,” I expounded. At this point I launched into singing a few bars of Simon and Garfunkel.

Hubby, who is quite accustomed to and unimpressed by my vocal impromptus, finally said, “Whatever. It looks just like the oregano. What do you use it for?”

“To flavor fish and eggs.”

“Who eats fish with eggs?” he wise-cracked.

“It’s to season fish or eggs,” I corrected.

His nose wrinkled. “Not my eggs.”

Hubby only eats his eggs sunny side up or scrambled—never with anything remotely green mixed in.

“You use it to season quiche,” I said.

“I thought you couldn’t eat quiche.”

He had a point—my low cholesterol/ semi-vegetarian diet left little room for
eggs—or cheese—or butter. Why had I planted thyme?

And it seems that I may have a bumper crop of this hearty little herb. Anyone need some extra thyme? It seems I have “too much thyme on my hands.” And that, my friends, is a problem I’ve never before experienced. Oh, the irony.

The Kitchen Garden Novice