Market Farming

[Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>]

Ron wrote:


> I have got borage growing rampant around the house gardens. Planted by 
> previous owner. Does it have any value?

Borage tastes like cucumber, both the leaves and the flowers.  Besides the 
herbal market, you might want to see if any restaurants are interested in 
edible flowers -- they look and taste great sprinkled on a salad or used as 
a garnish.

The leaves get furry when they are older, so lots of folks don't tend to 
eat them at that point raw.  You can add the tiny leaves to your salad mix 
and it will give the mix a nice flavor.  I'd sell the big leaves as a bunch 
for herbal tea -- print out the uses and directions and see if folks will 
buy it.  The use of borage as an herbal tea seems to be getting more 
popular -- folks at the community garden are picking our self-sown borage 
more for this purpose than any other (although I really like putting the 
flowers in salads!).

Borage appears to self-seed readily (I haven't planted it in about 4 
years), but it covers the soil nicely and keeps the pollinators happy and 
anything that keeps the pollinators happy and doesn't require much care 
should be left it do its job! :-D





Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA  19460