Sage Advice

Herbs are an integral part of our garden. Now is the time of year to start cooking with fresh herbs again adding them to salads, soups and other dishes. Another way of using them is putting them in a bottle of good olive oil to use over the winter.

 

 We have a herb border in the kitchen garden and also some baskets near the back door . These are for folk in a hurry or that can't be bothered going all the way to the kitchen garden especially when it's raining.

Many of our herbs are of the better known varieties but we do have some more unusual ones. But that's for another time and another post.

Sage comes in several different colours. It's a strongly flavoured herb and we use it sparingly in general cooking.We grow the plain green one and two of the variegated ones.They tend not to be hardy over the hard winters we've had recently and need to be replaced through overwintered cuttings. Tangerine and pineapple sage have got very fine green eaves and are not hardy at all. We grow them for their bright red flowers and they only go outside in high summer. They don't taste very pleasant although I'm sure they could be used in cooking.

The plain green sage bush overwinters well and gets cut back hard in early spring.It looks like twigs for a while but soon bounces back.

We like to do sage leafs in tempura batter and then fry them. They come out very crispy and are a real treat!

Parsley. Do you like yours flat-leaf or curly?

 I think they taste much the same but the curly parsley has a better texture. Flat leaf is great for decoration. and garnish. We use them both in general cooking as they have a great flavour and a bright fresh colour. The hens are also very partial to the odd stem and make straight for the parsley whenever they get a chance.

Chives. The prettiest of herbs with their straight stems and frothy and pale purple flowers. Freshly

chopped they add a real zing to potato  salad. We also keep chive (and parsley) butter in the fridge for fish and chicken dishes. It also makes a lovely garnish and decoration. The flowers are a great addition to a summer salad as are nasturtium flowers and leaves.

 Tarragon. French, that is not Russian. For years we used to grow the Russian tarragon because it could be grown from seed. French tarragon was hard to come by except from specialist growers. But is it often said that the French variety has a finer flavour. I have never compared the two so I really couldn't comment.....

 When we moved south french tarragon was added to the herb garden. It's got a reputation for being on the tender side but so far it has coped with two harsh winters and comes back better than before.

It's great in sauces especially with fish or chicken. it's also reputed to aid sleep if taken as a tea before going to bed. 

 

Mints. The varieties of mints are many and we only grow a few. As every knows they are thugs and should be grown in pots or in the ground with some sort of restraining order.

At the moment we grow apple mint and spearmint. We also have orange, Russian and ginger mint.

Most are great for making mint tea and putting with new potatoes and in soups.

 These are some of the commonly used herbs that we grow. Others include basil, coriander, bay, thyme and oregano.