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October 16, 2007

Borage -- beautiful blues

Borage, Borago officinalis, is described as a gangly, airy plant, with oval leaves, covered with prickly little hairs. It is known for its star-shaped, blue flowers, used to garnish many dishes and to decorate cakes and pastries, in candies or crystallized form. Borage is also used in soup and salad. Borage oil, extracted from the seeds, has medicinal qualities from its anti-inflammatory and balsamic properties.

Borage was introduced to me by the Good Earth organic garden center, in Hope, R.I., in the summer of 2005. I had never heard of it. I was told that it’s edible and was shown how to get the nectar from those beautiful delicate flowers. I was also told that I could make ice cubes, using the flowers and I learned to make these "showing-off" ice cubes, and regularly used them during the hot summer days.

Last summer, I found a couple of borage plants growing in my front yard. I was ecstatic to find out that it self-seeded from the previous year. I loved looking at these flowers of unusual, blue color, which sometimes changed to purple and pink.

This year, the borage has propagated, via self-seeding, into several plants, allowing me to enjoy the unique beauty of the little-known borage throughout the summer. As Fall arrived there are even more new borage plants breaking through the ground, which I did not discover until after I pulled out all the hardy asters.

Posted by Pat Feinstein  at 11:13 AM | Permalink

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