Pineapple Sage and Lemon Balm

Pineapple Sage

    Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans has a wonderful fruity fragrance.  The flowers are red and tubular,
which is appealing to hummingbirds, a prime pollinator.  Both the flowers and leaves can be used to make a mild, fragrant tea.  This plant comes from the mountains of southern Mexico.  In my garden this perennial plant gets up to about 3 feet tall and overwinters without any problems, although it is not a very hardy sage, surviving down into USDA zone 8.

Pineapple sage has been traditionally used to treat anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure, and to help with digestion issues like heartburn.  Some herbalists even believe that it has adaptogenic properties, much like ginseng and ashwagandha.  It certainly promotes a sense of well being, and being a salvia it no doubt benefits the immune system too.  I have found that this herb combines well with Lemon Balm, for both it's culinary and medicinal effects.

Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm, or Melissa officinalis has a longer documented history of use, as well as more scientific scrutiny.  This perennial herb has a wonderful lemon like smell.  It can be a little aggressive in some gardens, but with constant use this shouldn't be a problem.

Melissa is also used to treat anxiety, stress, and possibly depression.  It has a calming affect on the nerves.  There has been also been some positive research into using Lemon balm to help in the treatment of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, as well as improving memory.  The antiviral properties of lemon balm can also help to ease cold sores, which are caused by the herpes virus, and aid recovery from chicken pox.  A tea made from this herb can also help with dyspepsia, also known as heartburn.

Why not sit down to a relaxing cup of lemon balm and pineapple sage tea after a long, hard day?

The Sunflowers

While Sunflowers can now be found all over the world they are originally from North and South America.  Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower is the most popular and well known of the sunflowers.  Artists Anthony van Dyck and Vincent van Gogh used features sunflowers in their paintings.  While these flowers are grown as a specimen of beauty they were originally cultivated for their food and value.

The most famous food use of sunflowers are their seeds.  They have a caloric profile of about 74% fat, 12% protein, and 14% carbohydrates.  They are also high in vitamin E, selenium, magnesium, and manganese.  Sunflower seeds also contain antioxidants chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, and caffeic acid, which help to lower blood pressure, blood sugar levels and are anti inflammatory. The flower petals and stems can also be eaten raw or cooked.

Wild Helianthus annuus

Maximilian Sunflower

Another popular sunflower, Helianthus tuberosus, known as Jerusalem artichoke (which is a misnomer) or Sunchoke has edible tubers.  These tubers are great raw, on their own or added to a salad.  They are crunchy and somewhat sweet. When cooked they have a texture and flavor somewhat like potatoes.   Because of it's high inulin content is can cause flatulence.  Inulin is not broken down by the human body, but by bacteria in our intestines.  It seems some Native Americans appreciated this as a regular food, while others only ate it in times of famine.

Sunchokes can grow to be very tall, up to ten feet tall.  Unlike their annual cousin these plants can live for many years.  They can be propagated by seed or by dividing the roots.

And lastly, Helianthus maximiliani, or Maximilian Sunflower.  This sunflower is also a perennial.  While the tubers can also be eaten they are produced at a much lower yield than the sunchoke.  Instead, you can eat the young shoots, raw or cooked in stir fry or soup.

Because of the prickly tough nature of the Maximilian sunflower they make a great barrier.  These too can grow tall once established.  It makes a great habitat and food source for seed eating birds.

May Fruits

One of my goals with my garden is to have a continuous harvest year round.  This is possibly where I live, but the type of harvest changes throughout the year.  Here are my first fruits, White Mulberry (Morus alba) and Goumi (Elaeagnus multiflora).  The mulberries are sweet, with a slight fig flavor.  The goumi fruit also sweet with a little tartness.  Neither plants produce ripe fruits all at once, so the harvest really only amounts to a small daily treat.

California White Sage

White Sage (Salvia apiana) is found naturally in the far south of California, growing in chaparral and sage scrub communities.   It has long been used by Native Californians for its medicinal and edible uses.

Salvia apiana, White sage

The seeds of White sage are edible, much like its cousin chia, with about 8% protein and 7% oil.  When wet they swell up with musiclage as well.  The leaves were used to flavor game and the stem tops could be peeled and eaten like a vegetable.  The leaves are similar yet much stronger in flavor and odor to culinary sage.

Where ever this plant grew the native peoples would take advantage of its medicinal qualities.  The Cahuilla and Diegueno would make a cold remedy from the plant by making a decoction out of the leaves, which is essentially a more strongly brewed tea.  The leaves were also used as a deodorant when rubbed on the body.  Much like mugwort this herb is burned or made into a tea to help cleanse the body or air.  This is a powerful medicinal plant and should be used conservatively and respectfully.  

Sources: Native American Ethnobotany, Survival Skills of Native California, Root Simple

Mulberries: Two foods, one tree.

    The Mulberry is a great addition to the permaculture garden or food forest, it's fast growing and provides two edible foods.  The fruits, being the first edible, can vary in flavor from species to species and cultivar to cultivar.  Because Mulberries can either be dioecious (plants are either male or female) or monoecious (male and female flowers on same tree) it may be a gamble to grow a mulberry from seed.

    Out of the more common mulberries Morus nigra is considered superior to Morus alba in regards to the flavor and size of the fruit.  The fruit contains anthocyanins, resveratrol, vitamin C, vitamin K, B vitamin complex, zea-xathin, beta-carotene, iron, potassium, manganese, and magnesium.  Resveratrol has a wide range of benefits, from reducing inflammation and LDL cholesterol to helping to prevent Alzheimer's disease and insulin resistance.

    The second edible crop from this tree are the leaves.  They can be used to make a tea, or cooked and eaten like many other greens.  They are great protein source, about 15% to 28%, with 15 amino acids.  The leaves contain calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin C, beta carotene, chlorophyll, fiber, and quercetin.  The leaves also contain Gamma Amino Butyric Acid, which can help to lower blood pressure, as well as 1-Deoxynojirimycin, which may help to control blood sugar levels.

  Mulberries are not picky plants, they seem to do well on minimal care.  My white mulberry puts out fruit in April and May, whereas the black mulberry fruits in the summer to early fall.  By planting both you can have a nice long harvesting season.

'Illinois everbearing' Fruit