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One of the herbs in my new herb garden is Borage. Borage is an annual so if I like it I’ll need to plant it again next year. I planted the seeds right in the ground after the danger of frost had passed (okay, it had long passed–they were planted around the end of May) and they had no problem germinating and growing. The Borage leaves are supposed to taste like cucumbers, which they do–we’ve tried them. It’s like chewing on cucumber with the peel on, not as mild as a peeled cucumber.
You would think this would be a great thing to add to a salad or just snack on as you’re weeding the herb garden. The problem with my Borage is that the leaves are hairy and spiny. You can see the spines on the underside of the leaf in the next photo. I’m not putting that in my salad! Are there other varieties that have a smoother leaf? I’ll be checking into this for next year. The hairy salad just doesn’t do anything for me.
Image may be NSFW.
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I’m also thinking that maybe if the leaves are cooked the hairy/spiny stuff would soften and not be noticeable. I may have to try it. According to wikipedia, cooking Borage is a common way to serve it. We’ll see what we come up with. It’s having no trouble producing leaves.
Anyone with any Borage experience? Is it always this hairy?
