floradania.dk – HERBS

Plants in cooking

Interest in edible plants is greater than ever, and several growers are working diligently to offer consumers new and different flavours in the form of exciting exotic plants or various herbs customised by taste and purpose.

Make your own miniature tea plantation
Mint is a fantastic herb to have in your sense garden because of its lovely, aromatic scent. Mint can also be used in your tea, where you can add mint alone or mix it with other herbs. Try for instance fresh Thymus Orange and Marroccan mint, add boiled water and enjoy a nice cup of tea.

As mint easily will spread over an indeterminate area it is advisable to plant the herb in garden pots. 

Sweet, sweeter … Lippia dulcis
If you need something sweet for your tea, Lippia dulcis, is a fun and different plant to have. It has an exotic, sweet scent and when you take a bite of the leaf you can sense its sweetness. 

Lippia dulcis is known by its common name ’Azteker sweet’ and it was used as a sweetener and a farmaceutical in Mexico and Central America together with the Stevia-plant. The Azteker sweet has not yet been approved as a sweetener. 

Journey of flavour
When you grow your own eatable plants in pots or beds you can surprise your family with nice flavour experiences. Pericaria odorata or 'Vietnamese coriander' is a new and exciting herb.

Vietnamese coriander has a strong scent and a taste of coriander and is used in the Asian kitchen, but it can also be used in a creative way as a flavor enhancer in the family's usual cooking preparations.

Vietnamese coriander is a multi-annual tropical plant and must therefore be placed inside during the winter.

Colourful salad
In the same way you can use both the leaves and the flowers from garlic chive with the difficult latin name  Tulbaghia violacea. It is not as strong as garlic. Slice the leaves and use them in salads as green sprinkel or in herbal butter like parsley and thyme.

The nice light purple flower is edible and is therefore a fresh and colourful feature in the salad bowl. Garlic chive is not winterhardy, but they can overwinter in places that are free of frost and be taken out in the garden in the next spring.