It is the winter, and D.C. is a condo town. We don’t have a plot of land, and space in the local community garden is impossible to come by. Even if we did have a patch of our own, it’s so frigid outside that even Joel Salatin couldn’t farm grass on it. So, how to indulge our green thumb indoors? Enter the AeroGarden.

The AeroGarden, which costs about $150, is an aeroponic garden that relies on timed artificial light and circulating water to grow food plants from plastic seed pods. It’s a bit like that marijuana greenhouse that your shady college acquaintance Jason set up in his dorm room closet — except that the AeroGarden and its produce are entirely legal and the NASA-tested technology behind it is a touch more advanced.

When our AeroGarden arrived, we placed it on a kitchen counter, installed the lights, inserted the pods from the “Gourmet Herbs” seed kit that came with it, filled the plastic tank with water and two nutrient pellets, and plugged in the bad boy. Two weeks later, without any tending, red rubin basil and Italian basil were growing tall, while cilantro, mint, dill and chives had poked their heads out of the seed pods (the parsley was substantially more sluggish).

Four weeks after planting, with only minimal watering and the addition of a few more nutrient pellets, we were able to “harvest” some basil for a tricolore salad and for a pesto. Five weeks later, we plucked some cilantro sprigs to eat with the pollo asado tacos we’d thrown together. We’ve got our eyes on the chives and the mint next. Yes, the herbs taste perfectly normal. And, oh, the terroir!

AeroGrow, the folks behind the AeroGarden, promise that our garden will produce Gourmet Herbs for at least 4-6 months — after which time we plan to give another seed kit a try (probably the Cherry Tomato kit). Perhaps we’ll even start to sell our bounty to local restaurants. Surely, it won’t be long before menus feature our “AeroGarden winter herbs” alongside Polyface Farms chicken and Toigo Orchards peach cobbler.