I recently prod and divided the salad burnet in my herbaceous plant garden and a thought occurred to me — why did n’t more hoi polloi use this ancient herb ? With its clean , crisp cucumber sapidity , salad burnet is surprising to those who try it for the first prison term , and apprise the more it ’s used in the kitchen .
Introduced to Elizabethan England in the sixteenth century as an cosmetic herb , the leaves were floated as a garnish in goblets of wine-coloured . Eventually they find favour in European culinary art ( where they ’re often bundled together with other herbs at the markets these twenty-four hour period ) , the name alone tell you what they ’re most used for .
But salad burnet(Sanguisorba minor)isn’t just for sprinkle on salads . It can be folded into emollient cheese or compound butter to brighten little tea sandwiches , or infused into a bottle of vinegar to make a spicy salad dressing . It can turn into a fresh , sourish puree for top irritated fish and twirl into light soups . And personally , my favourite is using it as a garnish for gin and soda pop , iced teas , lemonades , and what I call “ spa water ” — cold , refreshing glasses of cucumber- and lemon - scented water .
Like many Mediterranean herb , salad burnet is drought tolerant and inflame tolerant . It ’s a hardyperennial herbin zone 4 to 10 and can even make it mild winters outside , despite its delicate show . With some protection in hard climate , it ’s one of the first plant to bound back in spring .
Salad burnet bed cover by rootstalk and seed and stays gullible all twelvemonth long , growing in a low , loose rosette of fern - like sawtooth leaves . It forms a clump that can easily be divided to graft elsewhere . In spring , clump of pink and over-embellished bloom look on ear , finally dry into seeds you’re able to amass ( or you’re able to simply let the plant self - ejaculate ) .
If you sheer your salad burnet back ( and you should , to encourage the ontogenesis of attendant and tasty new leave ) , you could save the flush to eat ; they ’re specially pretty as a salad accent . I compare the taste to borage , another cucumbery plant . The leaves can be discase off the stems or the stems can be used whole . Their flavor is smart when picked and eaten the same day .
I grow mine in the heart of an herbaceous plant bed alongsideAfrican Blue basil , unfeigned French sorrel , stinker verbena , stevia , oregano , and chives . It also makes an ideal container plant life if you ’re short on space .
With my cucumber plants winding down for the time of year , having a fistful of salad burnet leaves to toss into a bed of greens instantly brings a minute of summertime into the kitchen … a nice way to tide me over until the next craw of cukes add up into the garden .
