Chervil: varieties, growing and uses

How to create your own herb-growing space

Use chervil productively in a calmer corner: morning light and protection from hot afternoons may beat the warmest site. Put a short sowing row beside a regular route to notice drying and enough young leaves for cutting promptly.

Choose a suitable growing position

Compare flat and curled leaves on bread with the same soft cheese or beside egg. Visual difference is certain; major flavour differences need not be. Tasting reveals preferred leaf texture too. Choose Vertissimo mainly for garden behaviour, not an unproven new aroma.

From plant to kitchen

Sow another batch before the first leaf row ends. Keep seedlings identifiable and eat only intentionally grown, labelled chervil. Related wild umbellifers are no safe photo-based substitute. Flowering plants can serve insects while young harvests continue elsewhere.

Scent, flavour and use

Leaves with a subtly warm anise-like flavour. Chervil is gentler in character than a strongly anise-flavoured herb; a specific cultivar strength is not substantiated.

Care, cutting and harvesting

Light shade and moist, well-drained soil. Sow in the final position and avoid heat and drought stress.

No woody pruning. Replace an old flowering plant with a new sowing for leaf harvesting.

Snip young leaves. Add when serving so the delicate aroma is noticeable in a simple dish.