Sallygardens Smallholding

Starting with Herbs

One of the delights of having a polytunnel for me personally is the treat of year round herbs. Rosemary, sage, mint and flat and curly parsley pretty much keep going all year. By March I can expect to add in chives, garlic chives, oregano, lemon balm and thyme. In mid April I can start using coriander, dill, fennel, horehound, feverfew, camomile, clary sage, lovage, chervil, sorrel and mallow. There's hardly a meal I don't sprinkle a selection of chopped fresh herbs onto these days. Herbs are also lovely for adding to homemade cream cheese which I make by straining my kefir (a post on this to come).

Besides tasting absolutely delicious each herb offers a unique array of beneficial qualities for our health and wellbeing. I have written previously about borage which now happily self seeds in the polytunnel.

Yes indeed all herbs are a blessing and a great addition to our diet. Nature provides all we need to heal and stay well. Even if you are not a gardener herbs are so easy to grow. From your local garden centre you can buy a pot for the cost of two packets of lanky lifeless 'fresh' herb leaves from the supermarket. Transfer your herb into a large pot and keep it watered on a windowsill (outside in summer, indoors in winter) and you'll be using it for the year. Both parsley and sage are easy to grow and quite hardy so would suit a beginner. That's a massive saving and a great addition to your healthy diet.

Beautiful Borage

This time of year the herb garden is bountiful. The foliage and flowers are bursting with colour and flavour, enticing the gardener to graze. Personally, I can't pass the herb garden without at least one daily munching on the feathery leaves of fennel, dill and coriander, and a mouthful of nasturtium or borage flowers. Herbs are a boost to the soul, a gift from natures pharmacy, all beautifully packaged and perfectly presented. Herbal remedies are one of my passions, in particular those available from the plants that grow wild in the Irish countryside. They have so much to offer, and the treatments, if used carefully, are so much more gentle on the system ... a pleasure to work with. Oh, and of course, they are free! Attending a course, and/or purchasing an excellent book are essential steps before embarking on a herbal voyage of discovery. Several herbs that grow on our shores are lethal, so nibbling on various unknowns is a mugs game. Even overdoing it on Borage can have serious consequences on the liver. This is the book on my kitchen shelf.

Borage is in full bloom outside our kitchen door. I didn't plant it this year, it has self seaded from last years flowers, so a very welcome surprise in the flower bed. The stems are covered in little bristley hairs which can be quite painful, but give the plant a beautiful fluffy appearance. The angelic little blue star flowers bow their humble heads, turning from blue to pink as they fade. The flowers themselves are delicious, beautiful in salads, or adorning the edge of a plate and bursting with borage oil.

Bring the beauty of these little flowers to your iced summer drinks (homemade Elderflower cordial for example). Put one flower head in each ice cube section, and fill with cooled boiled water (for a clear ice cube), place in the freezer overnight. Here I've used a mixture of borage and golden feverfew blossoms.

Exquisite.