the cilantro miracle

In March, on one of our first weekends at the farm, we cleared out a narrow bed along the fence right outside our house and planted the herb centerpieces from the rehearsal dinner. We also raided the farm's seed stores for past-date things and scatter-sowed the rest of the bed with huge handfuls of chard, mustard green, cilantro, and dill seeds. But watering and waiting brought only green weed sprouts, and after a few weeks of checking the bed we gave up. Too early, we said, and too cold for anything to make it; it wasn't even spring! And then my hoped-for house plants died. Isn't it sad, I thought, that I live on a farm and can't grow a thing? 

But this morning, as we were stretching post-run out in the grass, Tim said, "Hey look, chard!" I lunged my way slowly over to the bed—which I thought had been lost to weeds. But there was chard, about two inches tall. Tim pointed again. "And mustard!"

Now the hunt was on. And in seconds I discovered—it couldn't be—something vibrantly green with lacy-edged leaves; so small still, barely three inches tall, that I almost couldn't relate it to its gangly grocery store sibling. This was cause for shrieking, even at 7 in the morning. 

"Tim! Cilantro!" I yelped. We smashed a leaf between our fingers and sniffed (actually I did; Tim just popped one in his mouth). And voila, magic, surprise, it was cilantro, and now we could see it everywhere, up and down the bed, so much that I kind of felt stressed out. "Enchiladas! Tonight!" I cried. 

Now we were down on our knees in the wet grass, searching the bed for more. This spiky gray-green thing? That fuzzy purple-green thing? Tim pronounced them weeds. 

"What about this?" I pinched off a handful of something else green and feathery. 

Tim sniffed. "Dill!" 

I sniffed too. And yes, dill it was, smell-able even through the rich cilantro scent still sticking to my fingers, making an herby cocktail that nearly knocked me over. 

I'm pretty sure we planted other things, although now I can't remember what they were, that didn't come up. But long after we gave up hope—and completely forgot about it all—those hardy past-date seeds decided to sprout en mass! And yes, we are most definitely having enchiladas tonight with cilantro on top. 

(Update: fresh cilantro on enchiladas!)