Bolted herbs are still good.

I’ve been getting these market bags from a friend who has a little farm at her house. The first one she sent had a little tiny bag of tender cilantro whose flowers had already arrived. The seed packets always say ‘slow to bolt’ but cilantro is not easy to grow in Kentucky and it always bolts.

The smell coming out of that sweet little bag about knocked me out. So fresh and crisp, ready to be the star of any bowl of greens. Edible flowers? Sign me up.

Got me thinking about how we disregard so many things in life because of how imperfect they are. But the idea of perfection, what it means and what it looks like, was put into our heads by someone else. Societal standard, the majority opinion. Someone stood up one day and said it was bad when herbs bolted, and we believed them.

Think it’s just because they quit producing new herbs after they bolt? Their life isn’t as long and therefore it is a convenience to us, who wants to enjoy them longer.

Same goes for bruised fruits and little moldy spots on vegetables. We shave them off and discard them. I’m making myself want to finally start composting by even just writing this. We discard so many things.

But I guess all those vegetable and fruit scraps and eggshells and coffee grinds — those get mixed in with all the stuff that goes to the dump. Maybe it helps all those plasticy things we throw in there break down faster? Silver lining?

Anyway, that bolted cilantro really was the star of that bowl of greens.