Last summer was my first year growing herbs. Imagining them to be delicate and frail, I fretted over them extensively, checking them morning and evening and occasionally during the day. Fortunately, they shrugged off my over-attention and thrived anyway.
One morning in late May, I woke up to find that someone had pilfered nearly all the sprigs from my baby thyme bush. All but two of its lovely 12cm springs had been surgically snipped right at the base of the plant. I checked over the other herbs but they had remained untouched – who, I wondered, had so brazenly helped themselves to my thyme?
My answer didn’t come until the next morning when noises outside my window broke my slumber. I sat upright and looked out the window just in time to see a grackle, perched on the edge of the thyme pot, close his beak around one of the remaining two sprigs and give a mighty tug.
“HEY!” I yelled, bolting out of bed towards the door, “Get offa my thyme!”
True to his thuggish nature, he gave me a quick once up and down before flying just far enough away so I couldn’t reach him. We locked eyes in a Mexican standoff – him alighted coolly on a branch, head tilted cockily to the side; me, arms akimbo, hands on hips, glaring from beneath a worried brow. He blinked slowly as if to say, “Eh, I’ll just wait until you go to work.” and flew off.
A little research on wikipedia revealed that male grackles often line their nests with fragrant herbs to attract potential mates. Last year, thyme was the AXE herb of choice for the local grackle population. It turns out that lady grackles grow just as bored with last year’s trends as their human counterparts. The thyme bush has been untouched in 2010 but the mint has been ruthlessly savaged.
So, if you’re stuck with a bunch of thyme on a hot day and want to make a nice refreshing salad that goes with with damn near everything, try this:
Ingredients
- 2 medium ripe tomatoes
- 2 medium-sized or 1 big fat cucumber
- 1 cup of cooked chickpeas, sans juice
- 2 tbsps of lemon juice
- 1 tsp of fresh thyme, chopped fine
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
- Chop the tomatoes and cucumbers into chickpea-sized bits. Remove thyme leaves from stems and chop finely. Toss in a bowl with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve immediately or chilled.
Postprandial Notes: The lemon juice has a nice, light flavor and the thyme gives it a little kick. If you wanted a more mediterranean flavor, you could substitute vinegar for the lemon juice and add a splash of olive oil. Chopped parsley instead of thyme or perhaps half and half with thyme might be a nice addition. Maybe some capers and possibly a few sliced black olives.
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