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Lighthearted HERBS

Today we celebrate plants that come with 'a million ramifications'

n all my years of going to Herb Day, I don't remember the word "volatile" ever entering into the discussion. And it turns out that's the word on which the whole discussion hinges.

Volatile to me implies power -- and that could be a good or a bad thing. I tend to think of it in the sense of something being explosive or changeable, but there are other shadings of meaning: flying or having the power to fly, lighthearted, difficult to capture or hold permanently.

This is a word I could come to love, even pattern my life after. It applies to angels. And definitely to herbs. Is there a more lighthearted classification of plant?

But what I found out this week is that the one thing that makes an herb an herb is the fact that it contains a volatile oil. And that means the oil vaporizes readily.

I, of course, am familiar with the term essential oil, but I finally had the volatility spelled out for me by, properly enough, Beverly Fennell of Little Rock. She is a retired herb-cooking teacher who will give the keynote address today at Herb Day at the Extension Education Center. The name of her talk: Elements of Herb Cooking, at 10 a.m.

"You have to treat them without any heat if you can," Beverly said of herbs. Once you lose the flavor of the oil to the heat, she said, you've lost pretty much everything herbs have to offer in cooking.

"They're not very nutritious. They simply make things taste wonderful."

Lighthearted. Changeable. I see that the meanings of volatile are indeed connected in the wonderful reality of herbs.

Beverly Fennell's name makes you wonder whether she's one of those people whose path in life was dictated by her name.

But she was into herbs long before she married Mr. Fennell, and the emphasis is on the "nell" anyway, not on the "Fen."

In fact, Beverly's heritage is half-Amish, and the Amish "were the first herb growers in this country and still are," she said. She grew up growing and eating herbs. Interestingly, though, the Amish don't use the word "herbs." They just say, "Go out and pick some marjoram for the chicken we're having for dinner tonight."

"I found out as I got older that I really wanted some," Beverly said, making herbs her own. "I've had little gardens all over the country."

And she's taught many people how to cook with them. Beverly did her first teaching at Cook's Mart in Chicago, one of the oldest gourmet shops in the country. "I sous-chefed for them," and saw the likes of Julia Child come through. She later moved to Tennessee, where she taught 1,100 people to cook with herbs on her farm, Hyssop Hill. For seven years, she had a show on cooking with herbs on Nashville's PBS affiliate.

She now lives in Little Rock and is involved in the Arkansas Unit of the Herb Society of America. Last year, she won the Herb Society of America's Achievement Award, an honor that obviously still makes her very happy.

Mary Roark, chairman of the Arkansas unit of the herb society, also will be at Herb Day, talking about herbal topiaries at 8:30 a.m. today.

Beverly also will cover the basics of preserving herbs, and at noon will show a video called "Herbs Make Life More Fun."

Her favorite herb, shared by other gardeners I've talked with over the years, is lemon verbena, because it's so darn lemony.

"I call it nervous Nellie. It's very hard to grow and it sheds its leaves if you look at it cross-eyed. It has a wonderful smell and taste."

To grow lemon verbena, "protect it from extreme temperature change and wind and hope it's in a good mood," Beverly said.

She not only uses it in foods that call for lemon (including pound cake and as a garnish on fish and just about everything else) but she also puts leaves of lemon verbena in a bag of muslin for her bath. You can decorate the bag with lace and pretty ribbon and... oh, forget that. Just tie up the fabric and toss it in the water.

Beverly also singles out savory as an herb many people probably don't grow but may want to try.

"Savory with green beans is simply heaven," she said.

Then there's basil.

"Everybody loves it, including you, I can tell. But there are a million kinds of basil. And some of them are very spicy, such as Thai and African blue."

I'm usually tempted to go with the little-leafed bush basils, to avoid having to chop, but for pesto, Beverly recommends ordinary big-leaf basil (Genovese is often used) because it's easier to accumulate into the four cups of pressed-down leaves required in the recipe.

"Of the bush basils, my favorite one is Piccolo Fine Verde, which means 'little fine green.' You just strip the leaves onto a salad or whatever, or over tomatoes with some olive oil and a little mozzarella."

She grows herbs in pots as well as in the ground -- basil, for example, is great planted around tomato plants, because we so often eat them together, but she also keeps a big pot on the deck, close to the kitchen door.

Maybe one of the neatest things Beverly is doing with herbs right now is growing eight cuttings of peppermint-scented geranium that she'll be giving as presents to friends of hers who are blind.

"The leaves are soft to touch and smell like peppermint," Beverly said.

Leave it to volatile herbs to keep changing it up.

"There's just a million ramifications to these things," Beverly said.

Reach Annie Calovich at 316-268-6596 or acalovich@wichitaeagle.com.