Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Borage

Click photos to enlarge.

My borage is finally starting to bloom. Both the leaves and flowers are edible, and I have plans for both. The leaves can be cooked and used like spinach-I will probably stuff ravioli with it, and the flowers can be candied with egg whites and caster sugar. probably not this week though-man, is it ever hot and humid at the moment. I also have a recipe for jelly, which uses both the leaves and flowers, so I might give that a try as well.

If you're a traditionalist, go ahead and freeze the blossoms in ice cubes. There's a trick to that-freeze water halfway in the tray first, then add the blossoms and more water to freeze solid.

Did I mention that bees and flies love borage. I would be OK with the bees, but my neighbours keep cattle and well, let's say we're not short of flies to begin with. I never should have planted this so close to the door....ah well, live and learn. They are beautiful though.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

You are a genius as usual! What an interesting plant. I was surprised about it being edible since there's fuzz on the branches & floweres. What does the flower taste like anyways? I assume the leaves taste like spinach.

Goody said...

It tastes like cucumbers and lemon. The fuzziness melts away, sort of like cooking nettles.

Believe me, I'm not a genius of any sort, or I would have planted these an acre away from the house ;)