Adventures in Food
Pineapple sage and my mother’s garden
Borage, or starflower
“I was so excited when I found borage at the nursery,” gushed my mom recently. Borage, or starflowers are edible, beautiful and just happened to be a regular sight on our dessert plates growing up. (My mom would also freeze starflowers in ice molds to suspend in punch bowls during parties; I loved it.) Frequent visitors to MKES might wonder where I got my hankering for trying new flavors. Maybe from frequent trips to my mother’s garden to trim edible flowers, like borage, or pansies, to dress up dishes. Now, I have none of my mother’s gardening skills, but I do love experimenting with spices, ingredients and techniques in the kitchen.
Pineapple sage
And herbs? We had mint, chocolate mint, parsley, sage, rosemary, and oregano thyme. Just the other day I asked my mom what kind of basil she had in her garden. “Sweet, cinnamon, Thai…” I have no pictures of my own gardening efforts to pass along, I’ll just have to rely on hers for now. Update: I have kept my indoor basil plant alive for a week now. It’s looking good although the cilantro plant didn’t even make it 3 days.
a peek at my mother's herb garden
Your turn–what culinary skill did you learn from your mom? And hey, if it’s how to read the back of a box of brownies, that counts!
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about 1 year ago
I learned what not to cook and how not to serve it from my long-suffering dear mother. I appreciate her enthusiasm in the kitchen, just not the results of it (think gritty lettuce, over spiced overcooked soup, etc.)
about 1 year ago
Ugh, I tried growing cilantro this year, but it died on me.
about 1 year ago
My mother and cooking: an oxymoron. But I managed to learn from many cookbooks and just plain paying attention. As for gardening, I find it is hit or miss. My dad has an incredible green thumb that sometimes surfaces with me. I think it is the luck of the draw at times…
about 1 year ago
Ha! Gritty lettuce doesn’t sound good.
about 1 year ago
You and me both!
about 1 year ago
I believe borage is also good for the skin, when applied topically!
about 1 year ago
I always got the feeling my mom wasn’t all that into cooking, but living on a farm with four kids and a farmer husband who wanted meals 3x a day at 6 am, 12 pm and 6 pm, she was sort of stuck! We ate a lot of pork chops, meat, potatoes, etc. farm food.
about 1 year ago
My mom didn’t know how to cook. I know that sounds weird, but she was a career woman and could barely boil an egg when she met my dad.
Did not know about borage. I want some in my garden!
about 1 year ago
love both borage and pineapple sage too.
my dad tended a wonderful herb garden in our backyard growing up, it was pristine, unlike my rather wild version of same.
but my mum passed down her delight in exploring different culinary flavors, as she’s a great savory home cook.
about 1 year ago
my mohter loved to garden, but cooking, not so much — not that she had much time to do so, what with working several jobs all the while we were growing up. but she was always surprised and delighted that I did like to cook and would, so one of the things she passed down to me in the kitchen was that sense of encouragement and welcome.
about 1 year ago
Wonderful lessons.
about 1 year ago
I hadn’t heard that. I’ll have to research that. And next year, I keep telling myself I’m going to grow a garden and include it.