What is "savory"?

I was using a recipe that called for savory. After unsuccessful  trips to two grocery stores, I gave up and used rosemary. The dish (pork tenderloin) was great, but would it have been better with savory?
 
Do any of you use it? What does it taste like?

Savory (genus) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Description| Ecology and cultivation| Uses| Selected species
Satureja is a genus of aromatic plants of the family Lamiaceae, related to rosemary and thyme. There are about 30 species called savories, of which Summer Savory and Winter Savory are the most important in cultivation.


I think rosemary and/or thyme are a good substitute. The dried savory in grocery stores can be somewhat old due to it's limited appeal. 

My Mom always had a couple bushes growing on the side of the house.

It has a slightly peppery bite to it, a hint mint, and people often say it reminds them of thyme.

She used it in green beans a lot, also in her poultery seasoning and sausage seasoning mixes.
 
Edit:  Hey, I'm a double chili cheeseburger now.  :-)

Our farmer's market here in Minneapolis usually has both summer and winter savory.
 
I like them both.
 
Sage is a good substitute for summer savory.

mbrookes - a local restaurant critic/cookbook author Tom Fitzmorris, recommends using it in cooking dried kidney beans(red beans) but like you, I gave up after checking several grocery stores.  I did eventually see it in the spice section of World Market, but haver yet to try it. 

Thanks for the information, y'all. I think I'll just keep substituting rosemary and thyme unless I happen to stumble over some in a local store. It doesn't seem worth ordering off the internet.

Thyme and mint, regular garden mint, not peppermint or spearmint.  More thyme than mint, but definitely some mint.

A timely question. (no pun intended) I just read the June '09 issue of Cook's magazine & someone had aked the same question.  They did taste tests for substitutions & found the closest taste for 3 tsps fresh savory came from 2 tsps chopped fresh thyme & 1 tsp chopped fresh sage 

I don't currently grow any but did use to have a small pot of savoury in summer in my old garden way back. Its a nice addition to lots of things whilst fresh such as stuffings, salads, green veggies, salad dressings etc. I tried drying some - it dried well but the flavour was not really distinctive enough to warrant me doing it on a regular basis.

I think maybe buying ready dried would not be worthwhile but if you have room to keep a little pot of it going fresh for a few months over the summer it is not too hard to raise from seed.