Loving my Lovage!

I often cite lovage as one of my favourite herbs - though I'm ashamed to admit I only use it in a very small handful of recipes, I adore the smell and it's such a pleasure to grow. But it seems to have a rather short season - before you know it it's flowering and the leaves are getting tough and stringy (probably something I could delay with some pruning, but we all know I'm not the best at keeping up with these things...)

However, as I was cutting the 8ft flower stalks down earlier this week, and lamenting the passing of the lovage until next spring, I was struck by how deliciously fragrant even the dried-out stems were, and noticed what an abundance of seeds I was just discarding into the compost...

Home they came, and now they're spread out to dry a bit more before going into a jar and onto the spice rack. A bit of internet research shows they can be used much like celery seeds (apparently, celery salt is actually made with lovage seeds, not celery!) and go well with bacon, game, pork, lamb, smoked fish and chicken, with egg dishes, cheese dishes, lentils and a whole range of veggies.

I crushed some seeds and added them to (homegrown) onion and red wine gravy last night, which we had with sausages, (homegrown) mash and (homegrown) runner beans with (homegrown!) garlic, and it was lovely!

I'm gonna have to find me some more lovage recipes...