Thoughts Of Herbs Infuse A January Meeting

By Kaaren Valenta

There may be snow outside and temperatures well below freezing, but winter is an ideal time to start thinking about growing herbs.

Sal Gilbertie, a third generation commercial grower, brought this message and cartons of fragrant herb plants to the St Rose of Lima Women’s Club’s January meeting in the church hall.

When Mr Gilbertie followed his father and his grandfather into business as a commercial grower, herbs were an insignificant part of the stock.

“Originally – in the 20s, 30s, and 40s – Connecticut was filled with huge greenhouses, some with 40 acres under glass, that grew cut flowers for the New York market,” Mr Gilbertie said. “When air freight came after World War II, these growers either went out of business or diversified. My family went into potted plants.”

The Gilbertie greenhouses supplied many of the large estates in Fairfield County with hundreds of flats of flowers each year. One estate in Westport put in an herb garden in 1959 and ordered 60 plants of each type of 12 herbs; from that inauspicious beginning, the market grew to 69 varieties 10 years later.

“In 1969, on the 100th anniversary of the Danbury Fair, we decided to have a booth at the fair and sell herbs,” Mr Gilbertie said.  “The Simon and Garfunkle song ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme’ was big, and we figured that if 710,000 people were expected to attend the 10-day event, we could sell one plant to every 10 people, or about 70,000 pots.”

The booth held only 3,500 plants, so Mr Gilbertie devised a delivery system to meet the anticipated demand. What he hadn’t counted on was that fair goers weren’t interested buying plants that they would have to carry around.

“We sold 412 plants,” Mr Gilbertie recalled. “But it was a valuable experience. I learned how to mass produce and I learned marketing really fast.”

Local garden centers weren’t interested in purchasing the plants for resale, because herbs were difficult to sell. “There was a void in information about growing and using herbs, and the plants were viewed as too much trouble to sell,” Mr Gilbertie said.

So Sal Gilbertie developed a labeling system that is still in use by many commercial growers today. He also began to write and publish books about herbs. By 1973 Gilbertie’s was a wholesale grower of herbs, and now is the largest single herb grower in the country with 400 varieties, about 150 grown from seeds, the rest from cuttings.

Growing herbs is easy if you remember that most thrive on neglect.

“Herbs are soft stemmed plants that are very susceptible to fungus,” Mr Gilbertie said. “They need sun, space, air and light circulation, and well-drained soil. If you grow 10 or 12 different herbs, insects usually aren’t a problem. Herbs are really easy to grow.”

Herbs should only be watered in the morning, and only when they really need it. Except for the annuals, most herbs require very little moisture.

Herbs grown inside in pots are best grown in a medium that includes sterilized topsoil, peat moss, sand, and perlite.  “Don’t use vermiculite because it holds water,” Mr Gilbertie said.

Organic fertilizers should be used because herbs readily take up any chemicals that are placed into the soil. Mr Gilbertie said bonemeal adds phosphorous, cottonseed adds nitrogen, and manure and fish emulsion also are good. Annuals require more fertilizer than perennials.

“The less fertilizer, the better the scent,” Mr Gilbertie said. “Fertilizer causes too much growth so the scent, and the flavor, are not as strong.”

Herbs don’t need a lot of room and they don’t require a lot of attention, making them fun to grow and good for people who don’t have a lot of time or who are frequently away from home.

Basil is one of the few herbs that attract Japanese beetles, but dwarf or Greek varieties such as Spicy Glow and Minette don’t attract the pests. “Otherwise, you have to use beetle traps, but you must change the bag every two days,” Mr Gilbertie said. “Put the traps 20 feet away from the plants.”

 An annual herb called gopher purge chases away moles. It has a root system that extends 20 feet in all directions so individual plants must be planted 40 feet apart.  The plant is toxic to moles, Mr Gilbertie said.

Among the hot varieties of herbs today is fruity sage, which smells like Juicy Fruit gum. It is commonly used in fruit cups, fruit drinks. Other very popular new herbs are variegated varieties like variegated marjoram, which can be used as a pretty border in a garden as well as a culinary herb.

“The herb of the year is rosemary,” Mr Gilbertie said. “There are hundreds of species. It is a great herb, one of the most versatile. There are hardy varieties, but you will never get a rosemary that is hardy [for the climate] in Newtown.”

Herbs like parsley, chervil and tarragon require four to six hours of sunlight a day. But there are herbs that thrive in shade including brunet, sweet woodruff, and some medicinal herbs such as ginseng, goldenseal, and angelica.

“Lemon thyme is the only thyme that does well in shade, but it also has the advantage of keeping mosquitoes away,” Mr Gilbertie said.

While the culinary use of herbs skyrocketed, 10 years ago the use of herbs for medicinal purposes was a small part of the market.

“At shows, those people were off in the corner – considered kooks,” Mr Gilbertie said. “In 1969 I was growing 25 flats – 450 plants – of St Johns Wort and dumping six to eight flats at the end of the season. Last year I grew 680 flats and was sold out.”

Garlic is grown and used more than any other herb in the world and has incredible medicinal properties, he said. But most garlic in the United States is not grown organically.

“Because chemicals are used in growing, there is a lot of stuff in garlic that you wouldn’t want to consume. Try to buy organically grown garlic – the supermarkets have it,” Mr Gilbertie said. “It is especially important to buy organically grown vegetables because those with root crops really suck up the chemicals.”

Growing herbs in containers is popular year-around because they don’t require as much space as in the garden. The plants can be moved around to get as much sunlight as needed.

“Make sure the pots are well drained,” Mr Gilbertie said. “Clay is okay but the soil dries out and the pots get too hot. Don’t use plastic. Wood is best.”

Keep herbs trimmed and don’t let them go to seed because that weakens the plant, he said. Many plants like oregano are cross-pollinated by bees, so plants that could be grown from these seeds won’t be as strong.

There are two types of tarragon on the market, the French, which smells and tastes like licorice, and the Russian, which tastes like grass. Make sure you are buying the French varieties, Mr Gilbertie said.