Lovage
A serendipitous herb to arrive at this month as lovage is a perfect soup herb to add depth of flavour: try a chopped tablespoon or so of leaves in leek and potato soup or vegetable broth. However it is so much more than just for soups adding a rich flavour to stock, stews and casseroles. Add young leaves to salads, chop and sprinkle over chicken before baking or grilling, scatter over tomatoes before grilling. Peel the roots before roasting them as a vegetable. Cut the stems into short lengths, steam them and serve with a butter sauce. Crush the seeds to speckle over salads, rice and potatoes or use in bread and pastry. Truly lovage is an essential culinary herb. The flavour alludes to a cross between parsley and celery, but easier to grow! This flavour is quite strong but mellows as cooked: add sparingly while you are trying out the flavour at first. Plants like a sunny position or semi shade in a warm area. The flowers will help attract beneficial insects; indeed a mature plant looks lovely at the back of a border. Your lovage can grow into a statuesque plant upward of 5ft tall, even when grown in a pot. So for a supply of young leaves you can cut around the edge of a clump so that new shoots and leaves spring up of choose to sow fresh every year or so to retain young vigorous growth without the height. We sell 25 seeds for 50p