Yum, savory!

The bounty of herbs at the end of the season triggered the waste-not reaction in me. After harvesting quite a bunch of sage, thyme, oregano, and parsley over the weekend, I parceled it out for friends. I couldn’t quite figure out the herb in the picture and thought it a variety of thyme.

A few days later, a bakery owner wrote back to say they used the thyme in a soup. But wait, I didn’t have enough thyme so I gave them oregano.  Another friend commented that she was probably buying the wrong supermarket oregano because mine looked different. Self-doubt crept in. Did I mix up thyme and oregano? And what exactly is this herb that smells like a cross of thyme and oregano?

It turns out I ought to be eating humble pie flavored with savory. I never even picked oregano because it wilted too quickly and tasted too sharp, leading me to believe it might have been a weed. The tiny-leaved wiry bundle was thyme. And this cross-over herb is winter savory! Savory as a noun. Wow.