Lovage

Levisticum officinale, livèche, Liebstöckel, apio de monte, luáiste

Lovage… I first grew this in London and was happy that it grew so easily from seed, then reached a height of about 7 feet. I can’t remember using it in its first year, and then moved away from home. But it grew, and grew well.

Years later, I bought a plant in Adelaide and expected it to do equally well. It grew, but barely touched 45cm (I’m more metric these days), and this seemed to be the same for another lovage lover I know. . Hmm… I persisted, and my current plant (or group of plants, more likely) has grown to about 60cm with flowering spikes up to 1.80m and provided a fair harvest of both leaves and seeds in its third year. It’s also in a part of the garden where herbs do unsurprisingly well. Rocky soil, slightly moist and afternoon sun.

So what did I do with the harvest? Dried it. Have a look at this YouTube. Meka dries the leaves in the oven, then grinds to a powder in the blender. Easy! When I first tried drying the leaves naturally, they turned an unappetising shade of khaki. It’s still summer here, so I tried another bunch, this time grinding them when they were crisp.

Success! The powder is an attractive shade of lime (better than in the photo), like Meka’s, and extremely aromatic. I’ve used it once already, and should have enough to last until next season.

What does it taste like? If you’ve never fondled this herb before, the pungent aroma of celery is the giveaway. Strong celery. I find that some of the strength dissipates with cooking, but it’s still one to use in moderation until your experiments result in the right amount.

What’s next on the list? Spring onion greens…

Drying the harvest

I choose wine by the quality (together with the price), but when the bottle comes in an organza bag, that’s an added bonus. I now have a sizeable collection and there’s always at least one hanging on the washing line at any time of the year. In summer there can be bag a good half-dozen.

Leaves are generally tied in a bundle to hang off the laundry door for a week or so, but when flowers are plucked one or a small handful at a time, they go into the wine bags (gift bags, not goon bags) on the back wire of the clothes line where they get shade 24/7. This also goes for tagetes heads which would otherwise shed hundreds of seeds over the floor.

I originally spread some wire fencing over the “rafters” in the shed, placed flyscreen wire on top and spread dahlia flowers over that to dry. Now I find that if there are not too many in one go lemon myrtle , they too can go into a wine bag. This is only practical in summer, where they can dry within a day; in winter the tree dahlia heads go mouldy when piled into a bag.

And avocado pits? When a colleague donates them on a daily basis, they stay on my desk shelf at work and dry well without going mouldy. Easy! At home they get put into a bag along with the skins – after going over both with a nail brush to get rid of any remaining flesh.

On the right: half-a-year’s harvest of lemon myrtle from the 50cm-high specimen in a pot. I remember buying 100g of these about 18 years ago when they were $50/kg! Although they’re not native to SA, they’re really easy to grow both in pot and in open ground.

Za’atar – Thymbra spicata

zaatar3 I originally came across this plant in Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs many moons ago, and after the internet took off, started searching for it high and low. I was very kindly sent a small cutting by an interstate nursery with an order, but one day of typical Adelaide summer weather put pay to that. Then a couple of years ago, I was able to order a couple of packets of seeds from a US nursery. This was after waiting for AQIS to list it as a permitted import, which they did quite quickly as they’d had a number of requests about the plant. How’s that for a government department!

I only managed to grow one plant to maturity from the first sowing zaatar-flower , but it produced enough seeds for me to grow a second run this year (which was good as I’d misplaced the packets). This time I thought more about the conditions it would need: a plant from mountains in the Mediterranean and Middle East… The seeds were sown on top of potting compost with a thin covering of vermiculite.

Success! A baker’s dozen meant that I had enough to grow a decent crop for us and pass on plants to interested parties including the “local” herb nursery: Hillside Herbs at McLaren Vale. I’ll also be contacting the nursery that originally sent me a cutting.

So, what’s it used for? There’s zatar (funny, that) – the spicy mixture for dipping bread (after a dip in olive oil), and no doubt any other recipe that calls for some herbal zip. I’ve asked a number of acquaintances from the Middle East what they would use it for, but they tell me that za’atar is thyme, or Syrian oregano. It could be any one of a number of plants, including Satureja. I guess it depends where you’re from and what herb is locally available to give that spicy-herby flavour.