If you favor thyme in your favorite dishes, why not make the herb a part of your home by building a thyme garden? Read on to discover how thyme can flourish in your space.
Thyme is one of the popular and most used culinary herbs available in the garden. This herb is a bit easy to grow on your own and it can be utilized for decorative purposes or to be added as an ingredient in culinary recipes. It is unusual not to find thyme as a seasoning in recipes for soups, chowders, vegetable and meat dishes, salads, breads, with the inclusion of jellies and desserts. In our time today, cooking masters add herbs in a number of recipes with the thought that people will enjoy the added taste it creates. The herb thyme is also an important component in creating bonquet garni, and is a main ingredient in the extravagant and very famous Benedict liqueur.
Thyme is part of the mint family and is classified as a perennial evergreen shrub. Gray-green to green leaves surround its woody stems which could explain the aroma given off by the plant. The distinct aroma it releases makes this herb a favorite among those into gardening. It is also popular among people who love styling their homes. Enclosed with it are tiny two-lipped flowers that range from the color pink to purple and it contains a number of nutlet fruits. Owing to the aroma it gives off, thyme is a famous member of any herb horticulturist’s garden. This smell is the most noticeable effect for people visiting the garden.
Thyme has a number of existing variations. Garden thyme and Lemon thyme are its most common examples. The similarities in appearance of these herbs make them hard to differentiate from each other. This is most evident for people who are just gaining appreciation of this herb.
There is a small difference between Garden thyme and Lemon thyme. Lemon thyme produces a distinct lemony aroma which makes it a known ingredient in creating fish dishes. The flavor it creates in the dish is the main cause of its popularity today. Those who are reluctant to eat fish due to the peculiar smell it exudes are now more inclined to try the dish. The lemony fragrance of this herb, the Lemon thyme, is perhaps the cause of this loss of distaste.
Bees find all the variations of the thyme herb highly attractive. The aroma the plant produces is the main cause why the flowers captivate these insects. The nectar is what the bees suck out from the herb’s flowers. Honeys coming from bees that feed on thyme flower’s nectar are a gourmet’s delight. This is comparable to the herb itself being an ingredient in food recipes.
Yet, unknown to many, thyme repels a number of insects. The common procedure in repelling these insects is to create thyme tea and set it in a plant mister. Spraying it around the room and on window is another way to keep off the insects that abound during warmer climates. This capability of the thyme herb is unexplainable, adding in the fact that the plant is aromatic, yet it also contains the ability to repel insects. Thus, more studies are required to acquire added facts.