Gardeners add the uniquely flavored leaves of common garden sage, an herbaceous perennial, to sauces, stuffings, poultry, pork, and sausage. It provides a lovely fragrance and flavor to a dish, especially when leaves are sautéed before adding. It is a good fall and winter plant in hot climates. Great for containers.
What can I do with garden sage?
Fried sage can be crumbled over a dish to heighten flavor at the last moment. Sage can also be used to add herbaceousness to sauces, compound butters, meat marinades, pastries, and breads. Add fresh sage leaves to cocktails and teas for an instant hit of herbal flavor.
Can garden sage be eaten?
Cooking with Sage
Sage is primarily used as a flavoring for fatty meats, sausages, beans and vegetables. The herb is rarely, if ever, used raw, because its aroma and flavor is best released when cooked (plus the herb is a little bit too pungent to be consumed raw).
What is sage most commonly used for?
Sage is perhaps most notably used in the preparation of holiday stuffings and sausage, although it pairs well with any meat, especially poultry. The herb is also commonly used to create a flavorful butter sauce for delicate pastas.
Can I use my garden sage for smudging?
Garden or common sage will do the trick, too. Other smudging plants to use include cedar, sweetgrass, and sagebrush. Various herbs and wildflowers make as wonderful additions to your smudge stick. Resinous herbs you may have laying around that you can use include thyme, yarrow, lavender, rosemary, and pine.
How long does garden sage last?
How long does sage last? As long as properly cared for, harvested and pruned every season, your sage plant can last you many years. Some have found that their plants get more and more woody as the years go by, and that by year 3, the plant is no longer as productive or flavorful.
What happens if you eat raw sage?
Some species of sage, including common sage (Salvia officinalis), contain a chemical called thujone. Too much thujone can cause seizures and damage the liver and nervous system.
Is boiling sage safe?
To avoid any health risks, you should limit yourself to 3 to 6 cups of sage tea per day. The amount of sage in tea and other foods is considered safe. However, sage contains a constituent called thujone, which can cause seizures and other adverse effects.
How do you harvest garden sage?
How to Harvest Sage. Pinch off leaves or snip off small sprigs from the plant. During the first year, harvest lightly to ensure that the plant grows fully. After the first year, be sure to leave a few stalks so that the plant can rejuvenate in the future.
What does garden sage repel?
Sage repels the same insects as rosemary, especially snails, cabbage moths, beetles, black flea beetles, and carrot flies, as well as flea beetles, which prey on potatoes and sweet potatoes. Do not plant near cucumbers, onions, or rue.
Is garden sage regular sage?
sage, (Salvia officinalis), also called common sage or garden sage, aromatic herb of the mint family (Lamiaceae) cultivated for its pungent edible leaves. Sage is native to the Mediterranean region and is used fresh or dried as a flavouring in many foods, particularly in stuffings for poultry and pork and in sausages.
Is garden sage invasive?
It does well planted as a low background herb plant in a border with other herbs and also in its own bed. What is this? Mediterranean sage can be invasive. so it is a good choice for containers if you don’t want it to take over your garden area.
Does sage have any benefits?
Sage contains vitamins A and C, along with several other antioxidants which help reduce the risk of serious health conditions like cancer. It’s also rich in vitamin K, which aids the body in clotting blood. Since sage is usually taken in small amounts, it provides a high amount of nutrition without a lot of calories.
How do you use fresh sage leaves?
It’s a hearty herb with thick, almost fuzzy leaves, so, unlike many other herbs, it’s usually not sprinkled fresh onto finished foods. Rather, it’s generally chopped into a fine mince or ribbons and incorporated into dishes during cooking, or occasionally fried as whole leaves until crisp and used as a garnish.
What are the side effects of sage?
Sage may be unsafe when taken in high doses or for a long time. Some species of sage, including common sage (Salvia officinalis), contain a chemical called thujone. Too much thujone can cause seizures and damage the liver and nervous system.
Is garden sage same as white sage?
The mature leaves of a white sage plant are smooth and white, while the leaves of garden sage are gray or gray/green. Also white sage is slightly larger, growing 4 to 5 feet tall compared to garden sage’s 2 feet height max.
What type of sage is best for cleansing?
blue sage
For example, blue sage is used in cleansing and healing rituals, while desert sage is used for purifying and protection. Other herbs, including juniper and sweetgrass, can also be burned for similar purposes.
What should you not do when burning sage?
Extinguish your sage.
Pro tip: Don’t get it wet! “Don’t use water to extinguish the hot embers—it will ruin the tip of the stick and make it harder to light next time. When you are done using the smudge stick, you can keep it in a vessel until you are ready to use it again,” says McCann.
Does garden sage come back every year?
A majority of herbs are perennials throughout most of the United States. That means they come back year after year and usually get bigger or spread in territory each year. Some of our most-used cooking herbs are perennials, including sage, oregano and thyme.
Will garden sage survive winter?
Herbs like bay, sage and thyme are hardy enough to survive the winter outside, but will not grow. If you want to harvest from them, protect them against the coldest weather. You can move plants into a coldframe, or an unheated greenhouse or conservatory. Make sure to ventilate them on milder days.
How do you store garden sage?
To store, simply wrap the sage leaves in paper towels and put them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Make sure to use the leaves within four to five days. Fresh leaves that are covered in olive oil can be stored for much longer in the refrigerator, about three weeks.