Lisa
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BorageHello
I have loads of borage, which I love because it is pretty and the bees like it (as do the blackfly, and the ants like the blackfly...all very interesting) but I was wondering what I could do with it? Given that is is supposed to be a herb, presumably it is useful. My herb book just witters on about floating the flowers in wine cups (?) for bravery (?) - all very medieval. Is there any more up-to-date use?
Thanks
Lisa
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Behemoth
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Borage flowers and leaves are the traditional decoration for gin-based summer cocktails, and may be set in ice cubes to garnish other drinks.
The flowers and young leaves may be used to garnish salads. dips, and cucumber soups.
Candied borage flowers make attractive cake decorations.
Chopped leaves can be added to soups and stews during the last few minutes of cooking.
The leaves can be cooked with cabbage leaves (two parts cabbage, one part borage.)
Borage does not dry well for culinary use.
I have not tried any of this. I think you can make a drink out of the leaves as well but not sure.
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cab
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The really young leaves are pleasant but unexciting in salad. The flowers look pretty in a salad, but add little. The blue flowers turn ever so slightly pinkish in pimms and lemonade, and I think that as such a garnish they're worth using. That's assuming we get any pimms and lemonade weather soon 
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nettie
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It is pretty, but one plant is enough for me! It seeds everywhere!
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dougal
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| cab wrote: | | The blue flowers turn ever so slightly pinkish in pimms and lemonade... |
I noticed this and wondered if it might be a useful chemical indicator?
Like others, I've decorated Pimms, frozen flower in ice cubes... and noticed how effectively it self seeds! But the bees do appreciate it, and bringing them in ought to be a general benefit, surely?
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Blue Sky
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Porridge is lovely with some full fat cream on top and a drop of honey.  Oh, sorry .... you said Borrage!
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judith
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| nettie wrote: | | It is pretty, but one plant is enough for me! It seeds everywhere! |
Yeah. It is a bully, but it pulls up easily and makes very good compost! It also looks nice with calendula IMO.
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cab
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| dougal wrote: |
I noticed this and wondered if it might be a useful chemical indicator?
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Probably a simple pH indicator, of which mother nature has seen fit to supply us with many.
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Treacodactyl
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| cab wrote: | | dougal wrote: |
I noticed this and wondered if it might be a useful chemical indicator?
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Probably a simple pH indicator, of which mother nature has seen fit to supply us with many. |
Tell us more....
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sean
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Red Cabbage is one.
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cab
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| Treacodactyl wrote: | | cab wrote: |
Probably a simple pH indicator, of which mother nature has seen fit to supply us with many. |
Tell us more.... |
Take a compound that you can, say, strip a hydrogen ion from or stick a hydroxyl off (i.e., one that can exist in two forms, dependig on how acidic or basic a solution is). While many properties of that compound will be the same in both states, several others (how it will react chemically and optically) may be different. In fact, a lot of highly coloured fruit and veg can be pH sensitive.
The classic example id red cabbage. You've got a red pigment sitting there doing very little, then you cut up the cabbage and cook it. Cooking tends to break up cell walls a bit, releasing the innards of the cells, which have a higher pH (they're more basic). Lo and behold, the cabbage turns purlpish as it cooks. So to combat this, a couple of drops of vinegar, lemon juice or the like (some acid) can lessen the effect (purplish, dull coloured cabbage doesn't tend to look so appetising). Good game to play with kids.
Take the purple-ish water from cooking red cabbage (boiling water or the stuff from the steamer). Put it in a glass. Add some vinegar, watch it go red. Add some bicarb to it, it'll go purple again. And there are hundreds or thousands of examples; pick a coloured vegetable or fruit that leaves a bright colour after cooking, fiddle with vinegar and bicarb, odds aren't bad that it'll change.
Typically, the colour change will occur over a fairly narrow range, so they're not all that good individually for, say, doing a soil pH check. But they're fun.
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Lisa
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and pink/blue hydrangeas, of course.
Thanks for the suggestions, I might try cabbage-n-borage for tea tomorrow night; otherwise will just use it decoratively and for compost. I don't find it seeds outside its own small patch (maybe just too much competition from all the other self-seeders).
Re pink/blue flowers: sometimes they are pink when they first open before turning that lovely borage blue. Sometimes they are not (even on the same plant). No idea what that is about - boy and girl flowers?!
Lisa
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mochyn
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"I, Borage, bring courage". Don't know where I got that from.
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callas
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I caught a bit of Bob Flowerdew on Goodmorning yesterday and he was talking about Borage. Saying what a good liquid manure it was. Cut it and put it in water and leave it but he said it smelt like urine.
The other fact was that the leaves of Borage used to be used as touch paper to light cannons. It has a lot of nitrade in the leaves.
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wellington womble
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| mochyn wrote: | | "I, Borage, bring courage". Don't know where I got that from. |
Pimms, probably! 
I've just planteed some borage - I hope it does self seed, my garden's looking a bit bare in places, and It'll go nicely with the foxgloves and the lady's mantle!
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@Calli
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Oh I miss my borage bank!!!!
Imiss my old garden...we've just moved to a relatively new property and I miss my polytunnel and orchard but most of all a bank full of borage that you could see for miles... 
Can anyone send me some seeds....
Callie 
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Bugs
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Almost certainly Callie! Maybe a bit late to sow this year but this time next year...you could be boragoofficinalaires...dear me, that was contrived, wasn't it?
If nothing else we could try to collect some seeds from the stuff in our garden for you (unless you could get the people who bought your house to collect some, that would be nicer still). But that will be a while yet and I think there will be much seed swapping going on before next season, so let's see!
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cab
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Oddly, all our borage this year is completely covered with blackfly. It's really suffering, as is most of the rest of the garden, truth be told Never seen so much blackfly before.
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