Selecting Thyme

I did my first essay for the Herbal Forumlary 301 class at Grey School today.  I picked thyme as my first herb to study indepth.  It was a close call between thyme and lavendar and lemon balm. Three favorites! But the thyme is growing, more or less, even in winter.

Here is what I wrote:

It's About Thyme
When I moved into our new house five years ago, I inherited a little side garden under a big messy pine tree up against the neighbors fence Along with the little shady garden plot, I also inherited about ten little scrubby bushy plants and smelled great. I knew the smell, but what was it? I couldn’t believe I couldn’t tell. My friend Debi, the organic gardener, dropped by one day and I asked. She looked at me in a kind way, as one does with particularly slow children or very old people, and said. “That’s thyme.”


I was just a little embarrassed. The ubiquitous culinary herb used in practically everything, one of the quartet of herbs made so famous by Simon and Garfunkel., an Italian classic and a wonderful smell on a hot summer day when one brushes against the little plant--Thyme, Thymus Vulgaris--common, everyday garden variety Thyme. I owned thyme plants and they looked really healthy!

Next thing I knew, we planted about 50 little thyme plants of different kinds: mother of thyme, creeping thyme and purple thyme. We decided we liked it so much we would have a thyme garden, the kind one can walk on like a lawn.

Five years ago, I didn’t even recognize a thyme plant, now I have a thyme garden, and yet, what do I know about it? Not a lot.

I know it comes it a lot of varieties. I know it has little leaves that pack a powerful olfactory punch. I know that it is easier just to pop an entire stem of thyme into a stew because cooking it will make the little leaves fall off on their own and then you can just pull the stem out. (Thanks Alton Brown!) I understand one can make a tea out of it, because Debi said her husband Dave is the only person she knows who can drink it without anything else in it. I’ve never tried it myself. And I recently discovered it has a lot of magickal uses because I did a preliminary search for the TWIG challenge on what herb I would pick for magickal use if I could only use one. Other than that, nothing, nada, zilch. I confess my ignorance of the plant that dominates the garden two feet from where I sleep each night!

I select thyme. From its common variety to its most exotic blend I can find, I want to know more about it. I select thyme because it is January and at the moment it is one of the few green things out in the garden that doesn’t care that it got snowed on yesterday. It just sits there, being green and smelling great. (I also know my success rate in growing plants indoors-- that would be zero percent of the time.) Thyme is available, thyme is useful and thyme is, frankly, really neat.

Since I know very little about the herb (or any herb) my interest is everything! But I do not wish to complicate my world by trying to become a medical herbalist quite yet. Herbs can kill when used incorrectly, probably even thyme. I’ll stick to magickal use and culinary use since thyme is already so well known in that area. Since I have so much of it in my yard, it makes sense to choose it for magickal work since it is always fresh and available. Likewise, in cooking, I have a fresh supply in the depth of winter and only recently have I begin to understand the joy of cooking without a book. (just open the ‘frig and see what happens!) The more I know about thyme, the more I will be able to incorporate it into my life, magickally and mundanely.

I am also interested in seeing what other applications in which thyme might be used. Again, Debi, my fount of wisdom and a Green Wizard if ever there was one, said it can be used in salve, lotions and potions. Really? Cool! I had no idea.

My decision made, I took a moment this morning to see if indeed the thyme in the garden was green under the dusting of snow we got last night. It was. But what was that little plant in the garden? Small leaves, ground cover, not like the common thyme bush. I picked a sprig and gave it a sniff. Thyme! But not just any thyme, this was lemon thyme. I have lemon thyme too! Who knew?! I think I have a lot to learn.