Now that the garden is torn down the last plant to be pulled is a wild borage that took over the far end of my tomato berm. I could have pulled it, to give the tomatoes more light, but it had attracted so many honey bees I decided it would serve my garden well. Botanical.com indicates that in the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the leaves considered good in salads. Women pressed the beautiful starburst blue flowers...and they were candied as a decoration for pastries.
Pliny called it Euphrosinum, because it "maketh a man merry and joyfull". He wrote: "Those of our time do use the flowers in sallads to exhilerate and make the mind glad. There be also many things made of these used everywhere for the comfort of the heart, for the driving away of sorrow and increasing the joy of the minde. The leaves and floures of Borage put into wine make men and women glad and merry and drive away all sadnesse, dulnesse and melancholy, as Dios corides and Pliny affirme. Syrup made of the floures of Borage comforteth the heart, purgeth melancholy and quieteth the phrenticke and lunaticke person. The leaves eaten raw ingender good bloud, especially in those that have been lately sicke.' " (20 spell-check warnings in that last paragraph!)
At our last IPG my friend Claire mentioned that her family served the flowers on top of tomatoes, and that they have a sweet, cucumber fragrance. So, I tried them.
The hairy little plant (well, mine wasn't so little....it grows up to three feet tall, and mine shot up to five feet) always had bee festivals, just ooooozing good will. Even when it blocked the sun, making my tomatoes stunted, I knew it had a reason for being there. Recently I read that the candied flowers can be put into the centers of ice cube trays, and served with sparkling cider in the winter time. The seed packets say it will 'gladden the heart'! How fun!I made carrot soup this week, using a carrot-ginger soup base by 'Imagine' that was on sale at Bartells.
These soups which come in a box are organic, and provide an instant soup. All one has to do is add more vegetables. So, I added peas, carrots, zucchini, and lentils, and purried up about 20 small tomatoes and added them to the broth. It was tasty and a tad sweet, perfect with cornbread.
Just a couple of smooth little pumpkins. My neighbor swapped them for a few of my dahlia tubers. Now, to find a recipe...
