So I decided on what the herb of the month for February was going to be, way back in January but it’s taken till now for me to get the blog post up. There are reasons for that, including the long anticipated birth of my latest step-granddaughter but as today is Valentines day, and half way through the month already (where did it go?) I really couldn’t delay any longer.
So, February is a special month, one that people associate with love, and lets face it, we need a boost between Christmas and Easter (yeah, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, O.M. (Third Class) may have had a point) so Valentines has become the celebration we all either love or dread. Roses are traditionally the plant that we think of when it comes to Valentines and I do agree that it makes a magnificent tea but I’m going a little left field with my choice this year with the stunning Guelder Rose aka Crampbark instead.
I came across this beautiful herb way back in 2015 when I was contracted to work at what was then, the Food and Environment Research Agency in York. As York was too far from home to commute, I found myself living Monday to Friday in a little two berth caravan on a campsite that harboured a course fishing lake. This beautiful little site was well landscaped and during that Autumn, some of the bushes had the most glorious bunches of almost luminous red berries. I now know these were Crampbark and I will be growing this marvellous shrub to plant as hedging on my own property this year so I can cook up those little red globes of deliciousness into sauces to rival the traditional cranberry that we all have at Christmas.
The tea however, is made from the bark. It has a soft, slightly tannin flavour that I find very comforting, especially when I’m stuck with something or feeling bogged down. So maybe the Guelder Rose can be as much a plant of valentines as ordinary roses this year!
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