Your fall recipes will taste better with the addition of fresh herbs, and one gardener is showing viewers on Instagram how to collect "endless amounts of herbs" during the cooler autumn months.
The scoop
Sheila (@petitegardeninspirations), an urban gardener, shared a video about how she grows cilantro to maximize her fall harvest. She starts by allowing some of her plants to go to seed. She then spreads the seeds in November in her garden by gently tossing them into containers and bins filled with soil.
As Sheila shows in the video, she's rewarded with an abundance of cilantro when the harvest time comes. In the caption, she explains that she is going to try to sow the seeds in October rather than November and add a second sowing about six weeks after the initial one. The hope is that this will give plentiful cilantro throughout the growing season.
How it's helping
Cilantro is a popular kitchen herb, so there's always a reason to have a supply. From garnishing tacos to making pesto, it's clear that having easy, inexpensive access to this herb is important for a home cook.
Growing your own herbs throughout the season means you don't have to get the wilted, plastic-wrapped version from a grocery store, which will reduce your expenditures and allow you to have consistent access to the produce. Plus, if you grow too much, you can always give it to your friends and family. We couldn't think of a better gift.
Although Sheila is based in sunny Southern California and can grow cilantro throughout the autumn months, she shares in the comments section that cilantro can also be grown in a container next to a sunny window.
Other users have shared hacks about growing cilantro. One user recommended clear-cutting the plant down constantly to prevent it from flowering at high temperatures (which, though, is helpful for collecting the seeds).
What everyone's saying
Users in the comment section were excited about having a way to grow a bounty of cilantro for their autumn recipes. "Just wow," one user wrote.
"Everyone in my family has the cilantro loving gene so this autumn I'm going [to] try growing it in containers," another user exclaimed.
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