Tarragon

The refined anise-flavored herb of French cooking - a cold-hardy perennial you can only grow from a plant, never seed, because true French tarragon is sterile.

Buy a French tarragon plant (never seed), set it in full sun and sharply drained soil, and keep it lean and on the dry side.

Growing tarragon starts with buying the right plant. Get a French tarragon transplant - ideally after tasting or smelling a leaf, which should hit you with sharp anise. Do not buy seed: there is no French tarragon seed, only Russian, which is a different, disappointing plant. Set your plant out after the last frost into full sun and light, well-drained soil, spacing plants about 18-24 inches apart; it grows well in a large pot, which guarantees the drainage it needs.

Keep it lean and on the dry side. Water a new plant to establish, then let the soil dry between waterings - tarragon tolerates some drought and rots in wet, heavy, or overly rich ground. Skip heavy feeding, which produces lush but bland growth. Because the plant loses vigor and flavor after three or four years, plan to divide it (or root fresh cuttings) periodically to keep a strong plant going.

Keep it dry and well-drained, cut back the dead top each spring, harvest often, and divide every few years to renew flavor and vigor.

Tarragon is low-maintenance if you get the drainage right. Its main enemy is wet soil, so water sparingly, never let it sit soggy, and don't overfeed. Each spring, clear away the previous year's dead stems (French tarragon dies back completely) so the new shoots come up cleanly, and pinch the tips to keep the plant bushy. Regular harvesting doubles as pruning.

The one job unique to tarragon is renewal: French tarragon naturally declines in vigor and flavor after three or four years, and the roots become congested. Every few years, lift the plant in early spring and divide the crown, replanting a healthy division in refreshed soil (and potting up spares) - this keeps your tarragon strong and is, along with cuttings, the only way to reproduce it. In the coldest zones, a light winter mulch protects the crown, but sharp drainage protects it more.

Snip 6-8 inch sprigs through the season; flavor is best on tender early-summer growth, and cutting keeps the plant productive.

Harvest tarragon by snipping 6-8 inch stem tips above a leaf, taking up to a third of the plant at a time - it rebounds quickly, and frequent cutting keeps it bushy and tender. The flavor is strongest and cleanest on fresh early-summer growth; it can fade a bit in the heat of high summer, so a hard cutback then brings a fresh, flavorful flush. Cut in the morning after the dew dries, when the aromatic oils are highest.

Use tarragon fresh whenever you can - it's one of the herbs whose delicate anise flavor is best straight off the plant. Strip the small narrow leaves from the stem, or use whole sprigs to infuse a sauce or vinegar and remove them. Fresh tarragon is far superior to dried, which loses much of its character.

Best fresh; refrigerate sprigs for a week, freeze for better flavor than drying, or - the classic - steep it into tarragon vinegar.

Tarragon's delicate flavor is best fresh and doesn't store as gracefully as robust herbs like sage or oregano. In the fridge, wrap sprigs in a barely-damp paper towel in a bag; they keep about a week. For the longer term, freezing beats drying: tarragon loses much of its anise character when dried, so freeze whole sprigs or chopped leaves in a bag or in oil cubes to keep more of the flavor.

The best-known way to preserve tarragon is tarragon vinegar: pack fresh sprigs into a jar, cover with white wine vinegar, and steep for a couple of weeks - a classic French pantry staple that captures the herb's flavor for months and is the base of bearnaise and countless dressings. Tarragon-infused oil and tarragon butter work the same way.

The whole story: French tarragon is sterile, so you can ONLY propagate it from cuttings or division - never seed. Any 'tarragon seed' you buy is inferior Russian tarragon.

This is the section that defines tarragon. True French tarragon is sterile - it rarely flowers, and when it does the flowers set no viable seed. That means there is no such thing as a French tarragon seed packet. If you buy seed labeled 'tarragon,' you will get Russian tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus 'Inodora'), a coarser, taller, easily seed-grown plant that is nearly flavorless - the anise punch that makes tarragon worth growing is almost entirely missing. This single fact catches out countless gardeners: to get good tarragon, you must start from a plant, never a seed.

French tarragon is propagated two ways, both easy. Division: in early spring, lift the plant and split the crown and root mass into pieces, each with roots and shoots, and replant - this is also the periodic renewal the plant needs. Cuttings: take 4-6 inch stem-tip cuttings in early summer, strip the lower leaves, and root them in moist gritty mix or water over a few weeks. Either way you get an exact clone of a plant whose flavor you've confirmed - so once you own one good French tarragon, you never need to buy tarragon again, and you can keep it going indefinitely by dividing it every few years.

Used in small seasoning amounts; the leaf carries aromatic oils and antioxidant compounds but isn't a dietary staple.

Tarragon is a seasoning used in small amounts, so it contributes little by volume to the diet - but the leaf is aromatic and carries antioxidant polyphenols along with its signature anise compound, estragole. Fresh tarragon supplies trace amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, and some minerals, and, like other culinary herbs, adds flavor and interest to food for almost no calories, which can help make vegetables and lean proteins more appealing.

The honest summary: tarragon is a flavor herb, not a nutritional powerhouse in the quantities you actually use. Enjoy it for what it does best - transforming a chicken, a sauce, or a vinaigrette - rather than for measurable nutrition.

The defining herb of French cooking: bearnaise, chicken tarragon, fines herbes, and tarragon vinegar - refined, anise-scented, and best added late.

Tarragon is one of the pillars of French cuisine, prized for its refined, slightly sweet anise-and-licorice flavor. It's the essential herb in bearnaise sauce, one of the four classic fines herbes (with parsley, chives, and chervil), and the star of chicken tarragon, creamy tarragon sauces for fish and eggs, and tarragon vinegar for dressings. It pairs beautifully with chicken, eggs, fish, mushrooms, and creamy or buttery sauces.

Use it thoughtfully: tarragon's flavor is delicate and fades with long cooking, so add it near the end, and use a moderate hand - too much turns a dish sharply licorice. Fresh tarragon is far better than dried, which loses most of its character. Beyond the plate, it makes superb tarragon vinegar, tarragon butter, and infused oil, all classic ways to carry its flavor through the year.

A modest folk-medicine tradition (its old name 'little dragon' hints at snakebite and digestive uses) but little modern clinical evidence - enjoy it as a flavorful food.

Tarragon has a real but modest medicinal tradition. Its botanical name, dracunculus ('little dragon'), and old common names reflect folk uses: it was reputed to treat the bites of venomous creatures and mad dogs, and across European and Middle Eastern tradition it was used as a digestive aid, an appetite stimulant, and a mild remedy for toothache (chewing the leaves has a slight numbing effect from its aromatic oils) and to encourage sleep. The plant does contain compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial activity in the lab.

The honest line: rigorous modern human evidence for tarragon's medicinal claims is limited, and it belongs firmly in the 'flavorful, healthful food' category rather than the medicine chest. One real caution worth noting: tarragon's aroma comes largely from estragole, a compound that is harmless in the small amounts you cook with but is best not consumed as a concentrated extract or essential oil, which is not for culinary use; medicinal doses are traditionally avoided in pregnancy. As a kitchen herb and a mild tea, tarragon is safe and pleasant.

The 'little dragon' of medieval Europe - brought west from Central Asia, beloved in French cooking, and forever split into the prized French clone and its bland Russian cousin.

Tarragon's story runs from the steppes of Central Asia and Siberia, where the wild species (Artemisia dracunculus) grows, westward into medieval Europe - reputedly carried along trade routes and through the Arab world, where it flavored food and drink. Its name across languages ties back to the 'little dragon': the Latin dracunculus, the French estragon, all echoing old beliefs that its coiled, serpentine roots or its remedy for venomous bites gave it a draconic character.

Somewhere in that history the plant split into two lines that still define it. French tarragon is a superior sterile clone, selected and propagated by hand for its intense flavor and cherished in French cuisine since at least the Renaissance. Russian tarragon is the hardy, seed-bearing, largely flavorless wild type. That the good tarragon can't be grown from seed - only passed plant-to-plant, division by division - means every French tarragon in cultivation is, in a sense, a cutting of a cutting stretching back centuries.

A cold-climate perennial that needs winter dormancy - best in zones 4-8; in warm zones 9+ it fails, and Mexican mint marigold is the anise-flavored substitute.

Zones 4-5: fully hardy and in its element - French tarragon relishes the hard winter it needs for dormancy; give it sharp drainage and a light winter mulch. Zones 6-7: the sweet spot - an easy, reliable perennial that dies back each winter and returns each spring. Zone 8: the warm edge - it can persist but tends to be shorter-lived and weaker-flavored where winters are mild, because it isn't getting the deep chill it wants. Zones 9-11: French tarragon generally fails here - it can't get the cold dormant period it requires, and heat and humidity finish it off. The classic solution is to grow Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida) instead: a completely different plant - a marigold relative, not an Artemisia - but one with a remarkably similar sweet anise flavor that thrives in heat and serves as the warm-climate tarragon substitute. Everywhere French tarragon grows, the constant is winter chill plus sharp drainage.

No flavor usually means you have Russian tarragon (or a seed-grown plant); wilting despite water is root rot; fading vigor after a few years is normal - divide it.

Grew fine but has almost no flavor: the classic tarragon disappointment - you have Russian tarragon, not French, almost certainly because it was grown from seed (French tarragon is sterile and can't be). There's no fixing it; source a true French tarragon plant instead. Wilting, yellowing, or dying despite watering, with soft roots: root rot from overwatering or poor drainage - the number-one tarragon killer; improve drainage and water far less. Plant looks dead in early spring: usually normal - French tarragon dies back completely and resprouts late; give it time before assuming the worst. Getting weaker and less flavorful after 3-4 years: expected aging - lift and divide the crown in spring to renew it. White powdery coating in humid weather: powdery mildew - improve airflow, space plants, and avoid overhead watering. Struggling in a hot climate: French tarragon needs winter cold; in zones 9+ switch to Mexican mint marigold.