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or god no is certainly one of my
favorite herbs it is a staple in greek
cypriot cooking and it's commonly used
with chicken however there is a lot of
variation when it comes to Oregon owes
in their own right and Maggiore UM's I
tell you what it does my Eddy because
when I go to Cyprus and I go to a
village where a lot my family's from
Hamas it is famous for its oregano and
it don't taste or smell nothing like the
stuff you buy it when the UK especially
now I don't know why that is but when I
started to dig a little bit deeper I
started to realize a few things and I'll
tell you about that in a minute now if
you want to grow Oregon oh it is really
not a fussy plant there's two things it
doesn't like it doesn't like shade and
it doesn't like soggy soil so if you can
get a combination of the two sunny and
well-drained I mean I wouldn't even have
to say I personally wouldn't say you
have to grow in amazingly rich soil
personally and I mean I would do 50/50
compost 50/50 compost mix hello Bella Oh
Bella don't go in there come on darling
know better can you can we have a cuddle
afterwards be so really what you want is
a 50/50 mix a flat sandy soil and a
compost and that should do it likes
well-drained and it likes the Sun follow
them
you shouldn't go wrong now this here is
a typical plant we get in the UK that's
labeled Oregon Oh now I always know it's
this plant only grows maximum 30
centimetres tall whereas the ones in
Cyprus or Greek oregano
can get to 3 foot tall and it's very
very erect very very strong basis now
this don't grow nothing like that
but then if you can see all this dead
foliage here this is the tallest it gets
and I thought it must be because this is
majorem so the more I researched the
more confused I bloody got majorem
actually grows
has a more spreading weeping habit and
there's many different types of marjoram
but there's also many different types of
oregano and I've come to the conclusion
this is an Oregon oh but it's not it's
not the real stuff it's not what I would
call Oregon Oregon and marjoram have got
the same genus they're one of the same
thing or a garden majorem and Oregon Oh
fogers
which means it's very very very little
between these two plants and probably
hence wider confusion
however there are a lot of subspecies of
it and some of the differences within
them subspecies can be overwhelming so
I'm not going to go too much into detail
in the difference between maturing
minora no but what I am going to say is
if you are going to grow Oregon Oh try
and get a decent strain try get sight
that's going to be substantial because I
tell you what when I was in Cyprus about
six months ago
Disgaea is tied at a road goes and
harvests the real stuff the real stuff
from that northwestern part of Cyprus
and I'll tell you what you cannot bloody
compare just one sniffer that will take
you all the way over to Cyprus there's
absolutely no corn parison so there's
all different types so you've got the
Italian or a go/no and you've got a
Cypriot the Turkish now it's common
knowledge that the further east you go
in a bit of training the Oregon Oh gets
harsh up it gets a bit more tangy gets
more spicy gets more an aramaic that
might have site to do with the terrain
and any herb most herbs that more that
are very aramaic
come from places whereas more it's more
of an arid landscape and it's to put off
foraging things like goats and browsing
on these plants because you know the
less plants there are
the more competition there is to eat
plants so the more arid aramaic you'll
and more more Aramaic oils you have in
your in the plant itself the less
animals are going to want to be here
which is the ironic is ironic why we
like which the one reason we like it in
them so there is a lot of variation
between Oregon owes from the Middle East
all the way through to Western Europe
now this typical Oregon note I bought in
the UK garden said no it's not very big
plant it's quite low growing it's not
really my ideal solution for growing
Oregon oh so I harvested some seeds
today so I looked inside this Oregon Oh
mix and I saw there was some small
little seed the spherical sort of little
pods at the end of the flowers and I
fought a trot my luck and won't behold I
germinated quite a lot of them and I've
got that full plants like full pots like
this in this particular pot I only got
one one little clone because off is so
precious and it's upstairs I didn't want
to risk dropping it on the way down but
I crushed one leaf for this just one
leaf for this tiny seedling and it kicks
the hen out of any leaves a whole stem
crush to that so there you go so if
you're Greek or Italian you know there
are specific smells and aromas to your
specific region now the late name for
our garden means lives on a mountain so
this can take quite cool temperatures
even though like sunny and well-drained
site and it flows in a warm climate it
will take the cold and I've over the
years been amazed just how much torture
in terms of cold weather Oregon Oh can
take em even underneath snow it will
come back and it all fried as long as
it's not too wet and it rots or Agana
can come back it can if any controller a
extremely cold temperatures it is a
perennial and it should grow back every
year
so really Oregon Oh should be or a
Garnon vulgaris vulgaris itself is the
one that's in this pot from the garden
center
well there's also
I've seen an advertiser at the moment
with a very accurate picture of what I
think I think to be is Greek oregano and
it's the really rigid two-foot tall
plant with arrow shaped leaves really
rigid really woody and you can you can
literally harvest that bunch that up
hanging outside down in bin liners on a
sunny day and dry it slowly it's got
really rigid stems that's what I think
of when I have ever gone oh and my uncle
even when I was younger what he'd do is
he'd get all the chicken on the grill
and they'd have it on the rotisserie
I need always even in North London he
was pretty happy old bin liner with his
rigid stems and he just flipped there
flicked leaves flicked the leaves and
the dried flowers onto that me and I'll
tell you what you cannot compare you
cannot compare this to what you buy in a
supermarket
and this stuff now what I did a little
bit of extra reading I discovered that
Cyprus has got his own endemic Oregon oh
who would have fought it and it's a very
very robust rare own type of aggregate
Oregon oh and it has big spiky flower
heads and it's exactly the ones when I
research this at length the ones that I
saw in the village when I was younger
and I'm so happy I've managed to
germinate some seeds from this spice mix
from the village and it is actually
growing the fact that one tiny little
leaf off the side of that seed I
shouldn't even be taking leaves off of
this crush is about ten times as strong
as that so you know from the research
I've done Italian Oregon Oh fruits Greek
Oregon Oh is a little bit more rigid and
a little bit more Aramaic and then when
you go all the way over to the Middle
East Turkey Cyprus and then you've got
the Oregon Osirak um Syrian Oregon Oh so
the further you go east the spicier more
varied the Oregon Oh smells and taste so
you know it could be it could be that
what I have here is
nation because you know Cyprus is
surrounded by Turkey Syria Egypt it's
very possible this own endemic type in
Cyprus has got its own mixtures because
the seeds are very smaller could have
been blown on the wind it's very very
interesting how that this specific or a
goal no society us has such a powerful
smell and I'm so blooming happy though I
managed to germinate something out of
this because you ain't going to get out
of a seed packet mate if I managed to if
I managed to grow trees on a decent
level I will propagate them and I will
offer them through the website without
doubt and that's what I'm gonna be
aiming to do and why have to get rid of
any of these other types I don't want
any cross-pollination so Oregon Oh Oh
Knights is the Latin name for the one
commonly found across Greece and Turkey
more rigid sort of stems Oregon Oh
cyrano custer Syria Israel the Middle
East an Oregon Oh Cordy folium the
endemic native Oregon o of Cyprus I
don't know if I've got a mixture of the
Greek one and the cordifolia min here
but I'm pretty certain that the ones
they gather in the mountains just near
that village and if you read up on it
it's that north western part Cyprus is
where this endemic one comes from and
that's why I'm pretty sure the Oregon Oh
in Cyprus is like none other
you will ever smell and taste so there
you have it Oregon oh don't get too
bogged down in Oregon Oh majorem if you
like cooking from a specific region and
you put and you like the cuisine of that
specific region you need to do a bit of
research on that specific Oregon oh
because they might as well be different
plants in terms of their smell and aroma
there's many different types so if
you're really passionate about your
Oregon oh you might have to go abroad
you might have to buy some seeds or you
might have to take some Oregon out and
try and extract some seats from that so
there you have it
Oregon Oh not much to grow in the stuff
well-drained sunny site keep it warm
great from your great herb loads of
different variations specific to your
type of cooking be it Greek Italian
Eastern Oregon oh great herb get out
there and grow some