Borage

Sold dried, as fresh cuttings, and live from our nursery.

Traditionally, borage was cultivated for culinary and medicinal uses, although today, commercial cultivation is mainly as an oilseed.

Borage is used as either as fresh vegetable or a dried herb. As a fresh vegetable, borage, with a cucumber-like taste, is often used in salads or as a garnish.

The flower has a sweet, honey-like taste and is often used to decorate desserts and cocktails, most commonly, frozen in ice cubes.

Vegetable use of borage is common in Germany, in the Spanish regions of Aragón and Navarre, on the Greek island of Crete, and in the northern Italian region of Liguria.

Although often used in soups, one of the better known German borage recipes is the Frankfurt speciality grüne Soße (“green sauce”).

In Liguria, Italy, borage (in Italian, borragine) is commonly used as a filling of the traditional pasta ravioli and pansoti.

It is used to flavor pickled gherkins in Poland and Russia.

The flowers produce copious nectar which is used by honeybees to make a light and delicate honey.

In Aragonese cuisine, borage boiled and sautéed with garlic is served with potatoes.

Borage is traditionally used as a garnish in the Pimms Cup but is nowadays often replaced by a long sliver of cucumber peel or by mint. It is also one of the key botanicals in Gilpin’s Westmorland Extra Dry Gin.

Traditionally, Borago officinalis has been used in hyperactive gastrointestinal, respiratory and cardiovascular disorders, such as gastrointestinal (colic, cramps, diarrhea), airways (asthma, bronchitis), cardiovascular, (cardiotonic, antihypertensive and blood purifier), urinary (diuretic and kidney/bladder disorders).

In history

Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides said that borage caused forgetfulness when mixed with wine.

Francis Bacon thought that borage had “an excellent spirit to repress the fuliginous vapour of dusky melancholie.”

Companion planting

Borage is used in companion planting. It is said to protect or nurse legumes, spinach, brassicas, and even strawberries. It is also said to be a good companion plant to tomatoes because it confuses the mother moths of tomato hornworms or manduca looking for a place to lay their eggs.