In and out of my herb garden in December, week 2
More flavour and beauty from herbs in the garden and in the kitchen
Week 2 of my daily herb diary which keeps me going through the winter days of December includes herbs such as sweet Cicely, borage, chervil and sweet tea vine. Some of the herbs I mention have died down for their winter break while others are still there for the picking, although the current freeze is limiting this.
December 8: Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata) has soft fern-like leaves, divided into leaflets. Its white flowers in summer remind me of cow parsley that fills hedgerows and field edges. The flowers have a woodland scent and the black seeds that follow have a liquorice flavour. The seeds in ‘ye olden times’ were offered to children as sweets! And yes I have tried them and would probably refuse if offered!
The leaves are my ‘go to’ for reducing the sharp taste of rhubarb, which I don’t mind anyway. But it means I don’t have add to sugar to any rhubarb dish. Sweet Cicely is a hardy herbaceous perennial that dies back in winter. I expect recent frosts will have done for the leaves. If not, I will pick a few and freeze them for use when forced rhubarb is first available!
If you save the seed sow it in autumn.
December 9: Sweet tea vine or Jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum) is an intriguing vine. It grows well all summer making long twining tendrils and in winter dies back. My sweet tea vine is growing in a container and so I keep it in the greenhouse over winter, although it is described as a hardy herbaceous perennial. It is said to be the ‘poor man’s ginseng’ as it is a good tonic for overall health. I have been growing it for several years and after it was well-established I began to harvest leaves to use fresh and also to dry to make a refreshing tea. I air-dried them in the hot summer of 2022 and have stored them in a container out of sunlight. I make tea in a small glass teapot and use 2-3 fresh leaves steeped for a couple of minutes. The tea has a fresh sweet flavour. My plant came from Jekkas Herb Farm.
December 10: Borage (Borago officinalis) is a garden symbol of summer for me. So it is pleasing to see that there are self-sown seedlings appearing in the garden. As this is a hardy annual I am hopeful that they will survive the hard frosts we are having currently. We will see! Anyhow borage’s starry flowers earn it the common name ‘starflower’ and it is grown on a commercial scale for medicinal preparations. In the garden it is a pollinator magnet and comes in this blue colour as well as white. I had both last year. I always think of drinks such as Pimm’s, Mint Julep and any other sophisticated cocktails when I plan to use borage. The leaves have a cucumber flavour hence their use in drinks. The flowers in ice cubes are a pretty ornament for drinks and are also useful in summer salads or crystallised for cake decorations.
December 11: Stridolo or sculpit are among its common names and Silene inflata is its Latin name. I sowed seed from @seedsofitaly aka Franchi seeds some years back and have had it in profusion ever since. It is a perennial that spreads like crazy by self-seeding. The leaves come into their own now in winter and also in spring when there is not a great deal to choose from in the fresh herb and salad department in the garden. They offer a lightly spicy flavour, with a slightly bitter edge to them and a springy, crunchy texture. In summer the pretty blooms with veined, balloon-like shapes appear. My plants are so well established and seem ready to take over one of the raised beds so I do pull or dig some out to replant elsewhere. They are good in salads, omelettes and risottos.
December 12: Lovage (Levisticum officinale) is a hardy herbaceous perennial herb. Although it is currently still in leaf in the garden in December it will soon die back or I will cut it back. I like seeing its bright pink-red shoots in spring and love watching the fresh young leaves unfold. When stems are are about 1ft long I harvest some and make a spicy soup. Lovage soup has a curry-like flavour and is one of the spring dishes I look forward to.
I continue to use the leaves until flower stems begin to show when the flavour becomes less intense. The flower stems grow to about 6ft and I usually leave them to flower and seed. They are great pollinator attractors and later birds seem to go for the seeds.
Sometimes I cut a section back — I do have a lot of lovage — to get a second flush of leaves for soups, salads and casseroles.
December 13: Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) is definitely out of sight in the garden currently, having died back earlier. It is a hardy herbaceous perennial. It makes such a neat rosette of small tooth-edged leaves and offers blush-red, bobble-like flowers on tall stems. And it self seeds freely, so you should always have new plants. In a mild winter I have had plants that continue to offer their distinctly cucumberish flavour for salads, but this winter that is not going to happen. I do snip out the flower stems to keep the leaf supply going, but eventually I let the plants flower. When it overwinters I use the leaves in salads and in the spring and summer I use them in soups, stews, as well as salads, and also in herb butters.
December 14: I cannot grow enough chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium)! I just love the zesty aniseed flavour of the delicate, soft and ferny leaves of chervil. In spring and summer I sow it in succession so that I always have plants on the go, as I harvest them quite ruthlessly for use in the kitchen in omelettes, salads, fish and poultry recipes.
It grows well in shady sites. In full sun or very hot weather the plants will bolt and flower, producing seed and the leaves will not be so flavoursome.
Currently I have some plants that I bought late in autumn from @pepperpotherbs in the greenhouse doing very well. Outdoors in the @vegepod I have plants that I grew from seed earlier in the year, so I have plenty of leaves to harvest as I need them. The metal cloche bought a few years ago from @crocus.co.uk is useful to protect the plants from birds.
Part 3 of my daily compilation of herbs in and out of my garden will be ready at the end of the week.
Thank you Mark! Yes I hope mine chugs on. It is in greenhouse which is kept just above freezing! Planting list compilation is an activity for the next few weeks!
I grew sweet tea vine back at the farm and this has nudged me into putting it on the planting list for this coming year. Thank you...a lovely read