blueyellow

Flip

Urban gardens are growing in popularity, even in a city as unfriendly toward vegetation as Madrid. But there’s a girl who’s taking it a step further and is trying to make aromatic herbs a part of our daily diet. Her name is Caroline Heredia and she is cultivating her experiment from the terrace of her house in Suanzes. She grows all kinds of plants and herbs, with varieties from all over the world. Her story is called blueyellow and she offers a selection of plants “grown in the city for city people.”

This year she has grown 20 varieties to try out, with excellent results: pimpernel – a French variety of celery “that can be used in stews and soups,” sagebrush – “a medicinal herb that can also be made into vinegar,” spicy oregano, sorrel, anise hyssop – “from the mint family with a strong scent that can be made into a syrup,” and dried mugwort – “used for vinegars and is the main ingredient in ramen.”

The project began as a hobby and now, in its “second plant season,” it includes specially selected and studied varieties, grown in an agroecological way and with respect to the natural cycle of plants. To ensure her product was on the right path, she went from restaurant to restaurant speaking with chefs, “from small catering businesses to high class restauranteurs like David Muñoz, Estanis Carenzo, Dani Ocohoa and Luis Morena (Montia),” to see if her products had culinary value. She not only managed to enter these kitchens but also convinced them to taste her herbs and use them in their cooking. “It’s not easy to contact them because they’re very busy, but ultimately it’s part of their business, and I offer varieties you can’t find elsewhere – not to mention that they’re hand cut and delivered the same morning.”

It seems complicated, but there are a lot of different ways to integrate aromatic herbs into your daily life: oils, salts, sugars, vinegars…all preserve the properties and benefits of the herbs and help to make small, healthy changes to our diet. In fact, everything we cook can include some kind of herb: sugar cinnamon basil, toasted salted almonds, cakes, fruit syrups (great in cocktails, like radish vodka), and alioli (made with egg yolk, lemon, garlic, salt, oregano and spicy olive oil)…the options are infinite.