Borage
€1.80
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 sow direct.
Spacing:
20cm x20cm
Approx. seed count: 30
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. 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.
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’. So 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.
For more information have a look at my monthly newsletters on:
https://greenvegetableseeds.com/newsletters/
Have a look at the Irish Garden magazine:
