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Cooking With Borage
Plants & Gardens News | Volume 22, Number 1 | Spring 2007
by Scott D. Appell
The leaves and floures of Borrage... make men and women glad and merry, driving away all sadness, dulnesse, and melancholy.
—John Gerard
General Historie of Plantes (1597)
Borage (Borago officinalis) is a sturdy annual with dark green leaves and cymes of blue, white, or pink blossoms.
I have a clear memory of the first time I served my family my homegrown cucumber-and-borage-blossom salad. They looked at me—dare I say sheepishly—as if I'd set a plate of fodder down in front of them. "Don't flowers harbor bugs and organisms?" one parent inquired. With a mind-set like that, it's a wonder my sister and I were conceived in the first place.
An old-fashioned herb native to the Mediterranean region and central Europe, borage (Borago officinalis) makes a wonderful addition to the culinary garden. It is one of the foolproof edible plants, growing with ease and abandon in any spot with full sun and average soil. And it's delightfully tasty and versatile in the kitchen.
A sturdy annual plant, borage is covered all over with stiff, fairly prickly white hairs. Its round, hollow, generously branching stems grow between one and two feet tall and produce large, oval dark green leaves with pointed tips. Cymes of pretty star-shaped bright blue (sometimes white or pink) blossoms sit atop the plant throughout the summer.
Borage lends its name to its taxonomic family, the Boraginaceae, which includes such familiar cousins as comfreys (Symphytum), lungworts (Pulmonaria), alkanets (Anchusa), and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). As to the origins of the name itself, theories abound. Some say it derives from the Latin word borra, meaning "rough hair"—a reference to the plant's hirsute stems and leaves. Others believe the name is linked to the Celtic word borrach, meaning "courage," and refers to the plant's curative properties.
The specific epithet, officinalis, translates roughly to "of the apothecaries" and is a direct reference to the historical importance of the plant in herbal medicine. Since ancient times, borage has been employed as a diuretic, diaphoretic (fever reducer), and anti-inflammatory. It was also thought to impart comfort and courage and—in the words of famed 16th-century English botanist John Gerard—"increase the joy of the minde."
Two cultivars are available to gardeners. Borago officinalis 'Alba' is white-flowered and comes true about 50 percent of the time when allowed to self-seed. The other strain, B. officinalis 'Variegata', is very hard to find but worth the legwork. It produces yellow-mottled leaves (which add a nice touch to salads) and blue flowers.
Borage requires little more than full sun in a moist but well-drained soil. Seeds are widely available from mail-order nurseries and should be planted in situ in March and covered with two inches of soil. (Because of its long taproot, borage doesn't react well to transplanting.) Germination is quick, and even young seedlings are easily recognizable by their fuzzy foliage. Borage adapts well to containers and window boxes and even does fine indoors in south- or southwest-facing windows.
The fresh leaves of borage have a mild cucumber taste and may be added to salads, used as a potherb, or brewed into tea. They are also great cut up in cream cheese or added to yogurt. (Don't be nervous about "prickles"; once in the mouth, the leaf hairs quickly dissolve.) The flowers are delicious eaten raw in salads. (Yes, they are, Mom!) They can also be preserved, candied, or used fresh as edible garnishes. The blossoms yield a whitish honey with a mild herbal flavor much appreciated by apiarists.
The dried stems are used to flavor a number of alcoholic beverages, including the British mixed cocktail Pimm's No. 1 Cup. In Spain, the succulent petioles (leaf stalks) are parboiled and fried in batter.
Scott D. Appell writes, gardens, and teaches horticulture in Vieques, Puerto Rico.