Our ATTC garden is beginning to wake up from winter
We can see lots of Salad Burnet--an old fashioned herb which has beautiful accordion like leaves that unfold and taste like cucumber. Munching on one always makes me think of summer.
Our lovage is also sprouting. Lovage is a bit like celery but is more anise-like in flavor and has a hollow stem--making it ideal for sipping Bloody Marys! It is one of the secret ingredients in our mixed herb pesto and is great in salads. My mouth is watering for summer right now.
We have lots of varieties of Thyme, Sage, Chives and other alliums, and Japanese parsley. Perhaps my favorite unusual herb is angelica. These rich red or deep green stems are topped with big umbrella like ball of "flowers," and it self seeds easily. It takes about 2-3 years to flower and can grow up to 8 feet tall in some conditions. You've probably seen "candied angelica" (as a flavoring and/or dessert with Italian pastries and fruit cake.) Chef Bill is always finding crazy wats to use this striking element.
I was happy to see that our rosemary plant winterized over perfectly and is flowering up a storm in our greenhouse. And, we are crossing our fingers that our Lemon Verbena trees survive their 7th winter. The leaf of this "tender" perennial tree has very high concentration of oil so it is magical when we need to infuse a lemon flavor.
The Japanese Parsley is now at its 3rd year of rejuvenating--in fact, it may be rejuvenating "too much" as it seems to be everywhere.
Now, if someone would promise me that we won't have any snow in the next few days, I'd be a happy caterer and gardener!!
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