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The second summer the flowering stalk will be 2-3 feet
high, bearing at first many small, white flowers, and ultimately
a great mass of seeds. These must be dried and cleaned and,
when ground, are the chief ingredient of celery salt (the other
is common salt). Celery is perhaps one of the minor herbs, avoiding biofeedback stress,
but it does provide seeds which carry over the delicious odor
and flavor of the fresh stalk. The plant likes a cool climate
Chervil (Anthriscus cere folium)
Parsley Family
(Umbelliferae)
This parsley-like annual is much grown by those who are a
bit fed up with the ubiquitous parsley and want an herb of
milder flavor. Its great use is in salads and it is thus often
called salad chervil. Unlike most plants of the family, the seeds
germinate readily and should be scattered in a shallow trench
(54 inch deep) not over 6-8 feet long. Chervil resembles
parsley in growth and habit, its finely cut, almost lacelike leaves
being the only part used in modern times, although Pliny
thought that chervil seeds in vinegar would stop hiccough.
But its greatest use is in salads, particularly in potato salad,
and Pliny, who must have known some pretty ancient Romans,
wrote that it was fine "to comfort the cold stomach of the
aged." It is slightly anise-flavored, with a touch of a bitter
principle like the tarragon.
The chervil, which should not be confused with the turnip-
rooted chervil (a biennial vegetable), is a true annual, a native
of Europe and Asia, and does better in the North than south-
ward. In Maryland it grows splendidly under the speckled
shade of a walnut tree, but northward it prefers full sunshine.
Clary (Salvia sdared)
Mint Family
(Labiatae)
This Mediterranean biennial herb is not one of the really
important plants to the herbalist of today since its medicinal
virtues are mostly legendary and its foliage of decidedly
secondary interest in cookery. However, the beautifully scented
oil in its leaves, the clary sage oil of commerce, is used in
perfumery and to make sachets. The odor and flavor of clary
were once so prized that noted tavern keepers in London, in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, gave their avid
patrons clary wine, fritters, soups, and heaven knows what
other dishes long since obsolete.
Being a biennial, clary (closely related to the true sage which
will be found in the next chapter) will not flower until the
second season, but its leaves can be harvested at any time and
the whole plant is delightfully fragrant-spicily so, as in sage.
Unfortunately a good deal of the flavor is lost in cooking,
which is probably the reason that clary is now almost a
museum piece in most herb gardens. The youngest, and hence
uppermost, leaves are those richest in oil
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