Elderberry 'Herb of the Year 2013'

Back in 1994 when I first opened my herb shop, Sweet Posie Herbary, the herb of the year was Fennel.  It was very exciting handing out copies of recipes, tips on use and making recipes to serve in the shop or during open houses   I also created a Fennel and Herb tea with spearmint, thyme, sage, rosemary, chamomile and fennel seeds that I also blended with a good quality rich in flavor black loose tea to serve to customers and visitors as they entered my home, toured the 12 herb gardens then visited the tiny shop.  I also had a pretty good selection of herbs and scented geraniums that you could not find anywhere locally which is ultimately why I decided to open an herbary ;)

When a good friend, Pat, still had her gallery in Mt. Jewett we planned this sign out to mimic the four square English style garden I had with the shop.  A culinary or kitchen garden, tea, edible flower, physics garden and then a Victorian tussie mussie garden in the center or language of flowers with each flower/herb having a meaning such as lavender for devotion or roses for love.  

I still have a love of herbs and pay attention to such things as the necessary kitchen herbs on the counter and window sill, how the aromatic herbs and spices knit together to create an adventure on my family and friend's palettes or what herb the Herb Society of America has chosen for said year.  Well, like I said at the beginning of this post, Elderberry is 2013's Herb of the Year!

I remember this robust berry bush very well from my childhood with Grandmother Stump making elderberry jelly, later as a young adult my friend Kay making elder-flower fritters or later on my experimenting with Elder-flower wine and then making the concoction into Elder-flower jelly.  

To read more on this very versatile herb The Herb Society of America has created a PDF here that you may read at your leisure.

A quick note:  an herb is a plant, shrub, vegetable, fruit, fungi, fern, moss  algae or vine that can be used for culinary, medicinal, aromatic, industrial or a dye plant.   This leaves a very wide spectrum of possibilities open to all sorts of adventures.  I closed up shop in 1999 with the birth of my 3rd child for my true love was creating artisan jewelry and that needed to be my focus.  I guess you could say jewelry making is my major while herbs, cooking and gardening  are my minor :) :)  For every single day is a day for teaching yourself something new.

enjoy, 

xoxo