Growing Herbs: Oregano

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Oregano is one of the more popular herbs grown in the garden. It's practically synonymous with Mediterranean cuisine including Italian, Greek and Spanish. This herb livens up a variety of dishes and is easy to grow. Oregano is often confused or used interchangeably with sweet marjoram since they are from the same botanical family of origanum. They do taste similar, however, oregano is more pungent while sweet marjoram is more delicate and well, sweeter. Each brings a unique flavor to dishes and deserves to be treated separately rather than interchangeably. When choosing plants, oregano will bear the name origanum vulgare while origanum majorana is sweet marjoram. 

Growing and Harvesting Oregano

Oregano is hardy to zone 5 which means that it's not hardy here in Minnesota. However, that means it's perfectly suited for container gardening to grow inside the house as well as out. My personal preference is definitely for  fresh oregano. Prior to trying this herb fresh, I just didn't care for it. This is something to keep in my mind when trying herbs. If you don't like it dried you may find fresh is a completely different experience. The opposite can be true as well. 

Oregano is easy to grow, preferring full sun and average, well-drained soil. It can be started from seed about 6 weeks before the last frost. It can also be propagated by cuttings or root divisions if you are growing as an indoor/outdoor perennial in a container. It's a low growing, mounding plant which makes it ideal for borders in the garden. It's mounding habit also makes it perfect for container combos as a filler plant. 

Oregano needs to be harvested before it flowers. Harvest throughout the season for fresh use once the plant is at least 4-5 inches tall. Stems can be cut back to the ground and will encourage a fuller plant and more oregano!

While oregano dries easily and preserves much of it's flavor, it's much better used fresh (in my opinion). The herb can be dried by hanging bunches of stems in a cool, well-ventilated space to dry. As always, oregano can be chopped and mixed with water to be frozen in ice cube trays for use throughout the winter. Oregano also preserves nicely in butter. Mix finely chopped leaves in softened butter for use on bread with Italian dishes. It will keep several weeks in the refrigerator. 

Using Oregano

Oregano is most commonly used in spaghetti sauces and on pizza. It's pungent flavor is perfect for these dishes. However, oregano can be used in any tomato-based dish as well as pasta and rice dishes, eggs, chili, salad dressings, vinegars, beans, chicken, mushrooms, peppers and zucchini. 

Easy recipes include baked chicken breasts seasoned with garlic and oregano or add fresh oregano to olive oil for bread dip. Check allrecipes.com for their collection of recipes featuring oregano.