Borage
€1.95
Description
Borage is an annual flower with attractive sky blue flowers which are ideal for salads. The plant self – seeds freely and thus it only need to sow it once and you’ll have it forever.
Sowing:
From March to June.
Sow one seed per module and plant out 4 weeks later. Alternatively the seeds can be sown directly into the ground from April onwards and raked in.
Spacing:
20cm x20cm
Approx. seed count: 30
Borage:
Borage flowers are a great addition to salads, they are both tasty and look beautiful in any salad dish. Apparently they even lift the mood. Also, individual borage flowers can be frozen in ice cubes and used in cocktails.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were still sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the young leaves were formerly considered good in salads.
The fresh herb has a cucumber-like fragrance. So, when steeped in water, it imparts a coolness to it and a faint cucumber flavour. And compounded with lemon and sugar in wine, and water, it makes a refreshing and restorative summer drink.
Also, our great grandmothers preserved the flowers and candied them.
In all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, where it is plentiful, it is spelt with a double ‘r’. Therefore, the word may be derived from the Italian borra, French bourra, signifying hair or wool. Words which in their turn are derived from the Low Latin burra, a flock of wool. This is in reference to the thick covering of short hairs which clothes the whole plant.
Other edible flowers which I use in salad bags include calendula, chive flowers, nasturtiums and violas. When we sold mixed salad bags to shops.
For more information have a look at my monthly newsletters on:
https://greenvegetableseeds.com/newsletters/
Have a look at the Irish Garden magazine:
