Tarragon is a difficult herb. It’s even hard to find at the local garden shops. You have to go to the independent, specialty shops where everything costs twice as much. Then when you get it, it’s hard to grow. Not only is the flavor delicate, so is the plant. I have killed more than my share of these fragile babies.
But speaking of delicate flavor, it is almost paradoxical that something so delicate is also so distinctive. Like cilantro, you know when a dish has even a hint of tarragon in it, but at the same time it won’t take over. Tarragon in a chicken salad makes it a main event, and I have a pork chop recipe with tarragon cream sauce that turns that mundane diner staple into fine dining.
As I said, I usually wind up killing whatever tarragon plants I manage to find. I always thought it was the heat, but maybe it’s me. Somehow, last year’s plant survived until frost. Then I got another wonderful surprise. This spring it came back from the root. I didn’t believe it at first. It looked like tarragon, and it was in the same spot as the plant last summer, but I still didn’t believe it—not until I pinched off a leaf and smelled it. Yesssss! This year I don’t have to comb the garden shops looking for another one to kill. It’s right there in my herb bed, waiting for its execution day.
Speaking of these sorts of things, I find it bewildering that people get themselves so wrought up over whether or not the Lord’s church existed somewhere in hiding in the Middle Ages. Maybe it did; maybe it didn’t. Maybe there actually was a spell when no one alive even bothered trying to follow the New Testament pattern. Why should that affect my faith? The seed is the Word of God, Luke 8:11. We still have that seed. We can still plant it and it will produce after its own kind, just as God ordained for every seed from the moment He created the first one.
Sometimes we keep leftover seeds in the freezer. If we had a bumper crop and I put up way too much corn, I may not plant any the next year, or even the next. But when I get that seed out, as I did a few weeks ago, we can plant it again, and lo and behold there is now corn growing in the garden, a few silks already turning brown. It will happen every time we plant that seed, no matter how long it’s been since the last time we planted it. The same will happen when we plant the Word of God, the seed that produces Christians.
And what’s more, we still have the Root, and that’s even better. As long as the gospel exists and we can preach about that Root, the one who came to earth, lived as we do, died, and rose again, faith will spring up from that Root, and the Lord’s body will once again exist.
Why is this so surprising? Why indeed should it bother me one way or the other if I trust God? He ordained this rule. Who could ever undo it? And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. (Rom 4:3). Do you believe Him?
And again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope." May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:12-13
(For this recipe, go to "Dene's Recipes" page)
Dene Ward
But speaking of delicate flavor, it is almost paradoxical that something so delicate is also so distinctive. Like cilantro, you know when a dish has even a hint of tarragon in it, but at the same time it won’t take over. Tarragon in a chicken salad makes it a main event, and I have a pork chop recipe with tarragon cream sauce that turns that mundane diner staple into fine dining.
As I said, I usually wind up killing whatever tarragon plants I manage to find. I always thought it was the heat, but maybe it’s me. Somehow, last year’s plant survived until frost. Then I got another wonderful surprise. This spring it came back from the root. I didn’t believe it at first. It looked like tarragon, and it was in the same spot as the plant last summer, but I still didn’t believe it—not until I pinched off a leaf and smelled it. Yesssss! This year I don’t have to comb the garden shops looking for another one to kill. It’s right there in my herb bed, waiting for its execution day.
Speaking of these sorts of things, I find it bewildering that people get themselves so wrought up over whether or not the Lord’s church existed somewhere in hiding in the Middle Ages. Maybe it did; maybe it didn’t. Maybe there actually was a spell when no one alive even bothered trying to follow the New Testament pattern. Why should that affect my faith? The seed is the Word of God, Luke 8:11. We still have that seed. We can still plant it and it will produce after its own kind, just as God ordained for every seed from the moment He created the first one.
Sometimes we keep leftover seeds in the freezer. If we had a bumper crop and I put up way too much corn, I may not plant any the next year, or even the next. But when I get that seed out, as I did a few weeks ago, we can plant it again, and lo and behold there is now corn growing in the garden, a few silks already turning brown. It will happen every time we plant that seed, no matter how long it’s been since the last time we planted it. The same will happen when we plant the Word of God, the seed that produces Christians.
And what’s more, we still have the Root, and that’s even better. As long as the gospel exists and we can preach about that Root, the one who came to earth, lived as we do, died, and rose again, faith will spring up from that Root, and the Lord’s body will once again exist.
Why is this so surprising? Why indeed should it bother me one way or the other if I trust God? He ordained this rule. Who could ever undo it? And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. (Rom 4:3). Do you believe Him?
And again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope." May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:12-13
(For this recipe, go to "Dene's Recipes" page)
Dene Ward
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