Joy Of Fresh Cilantro

Day 259: Anyone who knows me even half well has heard me complain that I cannot grow vegetables. I failed miserably at Radishes and I flunked Zucchini in grand style. Yes, it's really that bad! For several years, I managed to convince a pair of cherry tomatoes that they were flowerbed fare by planting them in a huge pot sunk to the waist just outside my kitchen door. That said, for the last two years, I've gotten less than a dozen tomatoes from two plants. I do have a patch of leathery chives within easy access to spice up scrambled eggs and cottage cheese, but even the Greek oregano behind the garage has given up the ghost.

This year, I decided to try something new: growing a leafy herb in a pot. Since I only use basil on the rare occasions I make Carbon River salad, I decided to go with one of my other favorites, cilantro. It should be as easy as parsley, right? But my attempts at parsley have been less than successful.

Cilantro is definitely an acquired taste. There was a time when I thought it tasted like soap, a time even the slightest speck of it in salsa sent me hunting for a toothbrush. Then on a visit to a local Mexican restaurant, I discovered that in the right combination with other spices, it was palatable. Little by little, my taste buds became sensitized to the subtle undertones in the herb, and I actually found myself enjoying it more and more. Then I began adding it (dry) to my own Mexican dishes, and eventually came to a point where I was willing to try it fresh.

A year or two ago, I was at a picnic and someone brought a black-bean salad heavily laced with fresh cilantro. I went back for seconds, thirds and fourths. To me, the black beans, corn and avocados are secondary. The joy of eating is in the greenery: cilantro! Recently, I have begun using it in place of lettuce to stuff soft tacos, and that's a long way from the days when I didn't want to get a piece of it in my mouth!

Fresh cilantro, growing just outside my back door! Doesn't get any better than that, and I think I've convinced it that it's an ornamental!