Taste

The sense of taste is specific to the sensation detected by our taste buds of the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Taste is important because it allows us to determine if food is safe to eat. Also, maybe less true in today’s world of fast and overly processed food, it has historically enabled us to distinguish whether something is nutritious and will provide our bodies with the sustenance it requires to thrive.

This taste trough is good for pollinators and also for discovering taste through strong scented plants like lavender (Lavender Grosso) that can be used for culinary purposes in dishes such as lavender sugars, ice creams, shortbread and if you give it a little rub of the leaves, the scent is perfumy and heavenly. Next we have variegated lemon scented thyme (Thymus Citriodorus ‘Silver Queen’) that can be used for so many recipes including sprinkling the edible flowers into salads.

There are two planted ‘salad burnets’ (Sanguisorba off pink Tanna) which need to be well pruned in winter or they can become invasive. The leaves have a cucumber scent and when added to salads they have a spicy flavour. We also have some violas and pansies that can both be used as decorations on cakes or salads as they are edible flowers. An old English tradition was to dip either of these flowers into egg whites and then roll in caster sugar which gives them a frosted look that people used on top of christening and wedding cakes.

We have four different kinds of tulips underplanted (Green Land, Menton, Apricot Delight and Apricot Beauty) that will be great for pollinators in spring and have strong scent as well as taste! The Dutch fed themselves during WW2 with tulip bulbs and flowers and today bulbs are used in fancy restaurants – the flowers are stuffed with a sweet ricotta cheese and deep fat fried similar to what we do with a courgette flower.

Next we have purple sage (Salvia off Purpascens) which is a bit more unusual than the green one and can be used for making stuffings for many dishes including chicken and stuffed peppers. We also have a multiple use plant here called fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). It is used traditionally in a lot of Italian cooking for things like pork sausage, and the fronds are good for salads and fish whilst the bulbous bottom parts are generally used in fresh salads.

Carnassi (Camassia leichtlinii caerulea) is a sensational looking flower that was found in North America by the pilgrims who were shown by the natives how to safely use it as food, but it requires special washing first and not safe to eat prior! It is a great plant for early year pollinators, too. The scented Rosemary in the trough is a trailing evergreen that is used for ‘Remembrance’ wreaths and bouquets and if you give it a little rub and sniff, you won’t be sorry! It is used in a lot of Mediterranean dishes. 

The mint (Mentha spicata English Lamb) we have planted within the Old Quarry Gardens, not in the trough, as we already have a very large, prolific patch of it growing which is great for mint sauce and mint teas. If you can find your Sixth Sense, then maybe you will find the patch of mint inside during your Treasure Hunt!

There are also lovely chives (Allium schoenoprasum) growing here with tubular leaves you can crush that will smell like onions. Next we have the tall upright rosemary (Rosmarinus off Prostratus) that flowers late winter into spring and is great for the Royal bumblebees and our queens that are laying nests and bringing up little bees during this time.

And last we have oregano (Origanum laevigatum ‘Herrensen’) which is used on many dishes you might like such as pizza and other Italian dishes that use tomato.  

 All video content is provided by Ann Evans of Barters Farm Nurseries Ltd.