first herb harvest

I feel dubious about growing and using epazote, after reading more...

It contains a chemical that is considered to be an explosive (if extracted, purified and heated). Certainly has a very strong, almost unpleasant odor. When I first cut a few leaves to use in cooking, it seemed sharply acrid, almost citrusy, to me. Made a pot of black beans with it and wow, those beans had the best flavor. Epazote is toxic if eaten in large quantities (just don't make a salad out of it, one website cautions) (probably as much as potatoes, rosemary or rhubarb could be toxic if you ate enough/the wrong part of it) but most of that is concentrated in the buds and flowers. I realized it doesn't take much for the flavor- I used three leaves on an entire pot of beans and that seemed plenty. So I don't need as much plant as I've grown- I cut them all to the ground yesterday, to prevent them from flowering and dry for future cooking use. I think they will be easier to handle if dry- when I first cut the stems, they gave off a sharp scent like gasoline, made me feel slightly ill. I had to dry them outside for most part of the day, then the odor subsided. It is supposedly a short-lived plant in the garden, so I figured taking cuttings now while the plant is thriving was best anyway.

I cut some other herbs from my deck containers to hang and dry- because they are so lush right now, I think I will take and save them for my own use before the insects get at them. Dill is just fantastic:

Summer savory I recently planted out in the box, and the stems were rather long and leggy so I cut them back to promote fuller growth. Leaves are nice size.

Parsley has also grown super thick and lush- it likes cooler weather, too- so might as well cut it down now for the kitchen- it will falter when the heat hits us next month.

I did notice a very small spider has taken up residence, so I left alone the stem it is living on. The parsley and dill I haven't cut back entirely, leaving enough of the plants to use fresh for a while yet.