Herb of the Week: Angelica!

By Barbara Smith

This week, we’re visiting the BBG’s Display Herb Garden, located alongside the Center House. (Previous reports dealt more closely with the Production Herb Garden, located behind the Center House.) Both gardens are planted and cared for by the Herb Associates, a group of BBG volunteers.

In the beautiful Display Herb Garden, you’ll find scores of herbs growing with other herbs having similar uses. For example, there is a large culinary section, as well as plots with medicinal herbs and another with fragrant herbs; there is a bee and butterfly bed, a potpourri border, a bug repellent bed, a tea garden and a bed for plants used in dying fabric or fibers.

The visual star of the late spring Display Herb Garden is this week’s herb of the week: “Angelica archangelica.” This majestic herb may be grown in the garden for both ornamental and culinary purposes.  Full-grown, it reaches a height of 6 feet, bearing lovely flower umbels. Angelica is known for attracting bees and other pollinators, and birds enjoy the seeds. Consider sowing seeds of this biennial in late summer, or adding a few Angelica plants to your garden, where there is moist soil and partial shade. The best-known culinary use is to candy the stems to decorate cakes, tarts or puddings. Stem pieces also can be stewed with rhubarb or apples or minced in preserves or marmalades for a faint licorice flavor note. Angelica roots and seeds are used to flavor herb liqueurs such as Benedictine and Chartreuse and as a flavoring ingredient in gin and vermouth.

Turning to the kitchen activities, the Herb Associates were busy producing Lemon Chive Vinaigrette, Jean Wilson’s Tarragon Dressing and Clara’s Rhubarb Jam. In addition, seven “Catnip Mice” have been added to the inventory. These popular handknit toys for our feline friends are a customer favorite in the Garden’s Gift Shop and at festivals. Come to the Garden — visit the Herb Display Garden and pick up some treats at the Gift Shop.

The Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Herb Associates began in 1957 and have been making and selling products for the benefit of BBG ever since. At BBG, the Herb Associates oversee a display garden and production garden, both located near the Center House. Members/volunteers meet every Tuesday morning during the late spring through mid-autumn each year, coinciding when the gardens themselves are open to the public. Members plant, weed and tend the gardens, as well as harvest and process the variety of herbs.