A fresh leaf when chewed explodes with honey, as sweet as a piece of candy. Most recipes that call for stevia require only a scant teaspoon to substitute for as much as a cup of sugar. Stevia is a tender perennial, growing like a weed in its native land. Like fenugreek, stevia is compact and grows well in containers filled with ordinary garden soil. The intensity of its sweetness is diluted with too much fertilizer, so use compost only while the plant is growing.
Plants are available sporadically and usually only from herb specialists.
Mulberry Creek offers a stevia care sheet on its Web site. More commonly available but often overlooked, chervil is one of those herbs that, when added to a dish, seems to bring it all together and add a dimension that is unfathomable yet almost addictive. A relative of parsley and cilantro, chervil is a fleeting flavor, not because it's lacking in impact but because it bolts readily when the weather warms up. After the plant sends up its flowers, powerfully attractive to butterflies and bees, it becomes useless as a culinary herb. Chervil is a compact little plant that sprouts readily in cool soil.