Lovage

[roitelet]

By accident I aquired a plant of Lovage. Bought it as flat parsley

I moved it this spring and now instead of lots of leaves it is throwing flowers.
Two questions;-One, is it a perennial and, two, what should I do with it.

Thanks Folks

[Lovage]

congratulations - Lovage is a much undervalued but very useful herb.

It is a perennial and makes a clump perhaps 3ft across and up to 6ft high so you always have plenty to go at and don't have to be afraid of killing it when picking. You can cut the flower stems off if you wish to encourage more leafy growth.

We use the leaves roughly torn in salads of all sorts - especially good in potato salad.
It's great as a major soup ingredient say with potato and onion or with lettuce. Also good to give extra flavour to any soup or casserole, whole leaves can be used and fished out at the end.
A mature plant can be allowed to flower and the seeds harvested to use in curries or in bread. Fish can be cooked on a bed of stems instead of fennel.

Experiment and enjoy!

[chengjing]

Thanks, lovage. I grow it for years never know what to do with it. I must try.

[roitelet]

Thanks for the info Lovage, I have used a little but will now experiment further.

[annacruachan]

I must agree with the championship of lovage; it is a wonderful herb. It has a flavour somewhere between celery and curry and makes a salad zing. It's good with cold chicken too. Mine grows in a big tub and is one of the first herbs to break ground in the spring.

[Flummery]

Fantastic stuff - move it to the back of your border! I leave the flowers on because the birds eat the seeds in autumn.

[vegetable-gardener]

The lovage is a cousin to Celery. It has a strong taste and in Holland (were I am from) it’s known as ‘Maggiplant’ because it tastes like ‘Maggi seasoning’. I love it in salads. It's a herb you don't see very much as people tend to grow the more favourite herbs they see in the supermarkets.

[chris]

Just did a google image search for lovage as I'd not heard of it before, and found this blurb:

Lovage is a wonderful, very old herb with properties perfect for today's healthy lifestyles. Its unique flavor, which is a combination of strong celery flavour with a hint of anise, lends a wonderful flavor to soups, stews, stocks, salads, meat, potato and tomato dishes. You can use it much like you would celery or parsley, but with a lighter hand since it does have a stronger flavor. It is also used as a natural salt substitute, and is said to be an aphrodisiac - hence the name. And every part of the plant - leaves, stems, roots and seed - is edible!

Is that true?

[wellie]

I grew this in my Pub Garden, including it in salad dishes that came out of the kitchen, and it always intrigued people's tastebuds to enquire what it was, because they loved it, and had no notion of what it was, never having tasted it before.

My advice is to use it very sparingly, and where possible, to keep it cut regularly, using the very young leaves in preference to the older, courser, more bitter ones.
And it is absolutely at its' best with oodles of olive oil in a garlicky unctuous homemade mashed potato, or gratinated potatoes and sunchokes, if you're 'on the ball' to preserve some of it in the next few weeks, for use later in the darker months, eh?!....

Brilliant thread.... it's great to introduce more people to underused herbs me thinks?.X

[lettucegrow!]

I bought a Loveage plant just 'cos I liked the look of it, really pleased it's now going to earn it's keep.

[taff]

What kind of conditions are they best in? I planted a couple out but unfortunately, they're very near a tree, which I didn't take into account when I put them there and I think they're drying out a bit too much. Is it safe to move them now or shall I leave it till another time? And which time would that be if yes?

[Jeanied]

Taff there is one on the plot next door to mine. Six foot tall, full sun, dryish growing conditions, good loamy soil. It is flourishing. I'd move them to a sunnier spot but bear in mind they need quite a bit of room once they really get going.
PM me if you want some seeds as a backup.

[SarzWix]

It needs a lot of space... Don't plant it in a pretty little herb garden and expect it to stay in it's place And the flower spikes can be monumental, we had one at around 10ft this year before it fell over The seeds can be used like celery seed in recipes, but we found them a bit stronger, so don't overdo it

[taff]

In that case, I'll leave them where they are, and add a bit of compost to the soil on top. I was worried that the tree roots would be sucking all the moisture away from them more than anything, but there's room for them to grow where they are. Thank you

[wellie]

I've got mine here at The Funny Farm growing underneath an apple tree with the rest of my Herbs, but directly outside of the conservatory/back door by the outside tap (we're on spring water, not mains water), so occasionally, I just let the hose water seep into the soil where the individual herb plant needs water, which seems to work okay enough.