Ingenious tips for growing and cooking with Cicely

Did you know that there are various ingenious ways of using Cicely? Here are eight culinary properties of Cicely and how to grow it in your own garden.

Here are eight ideas for using Cicely in the kitchen.

• The leaves and green seeds are very rich in anethole, which gives them their aniseed flavour.
• Boil the roots as vegetables.
• You can also crystallize them like angelica and use them to decorate your desserts.
• The crisp stalks with a celery flavour and delicate leaves are delicious in salads.
• Add the chopped leaves to acrid fruits such as rhubarb or gooseberries, as their natural sweetness will balance the acidity.
• It is a sweetener, which is suitable for diabetics; its green seeds can also be used as a sugar substitute.
• Cicely leaves give a pleasant flavour to cream, yogurt, rice pudding, white wine fruit salads, light soups and salad dressings.
• You can also add them to omelettes instead of chervil, and they make pretty garnishes.

Originally from the cold and wet mountainous regions of Europe, Cicely is the only species of its kind.

• It is a hardy herbaceous perennial of 1 to 1.20 metres (thre feet), which forms a clump of aromatic leaves that resemble a fern, with a sweet taste.
• The umbels of white flowers are followed by long seeds of 2.5 centimetres (one inch). Raw and green, they have a nutty flavour. They mature into a shiny dark brown colour.
• The Cicely is a useful plant in gardens in humid wooded areas, shaded borders or around water points.
• If picking Cicely in nature, take care not to confuse it with the poison hemlock or hemlock (Con), which is highly toxic and has mottled purple red stems.

• Varieties: Chevron Forncett has white angular spots on each leaf. When cooked, the young roots were thought to have benefits for cowardly and boring people.
• Where to plant: the Cicely needs a moist, humus-rich soil, a cool climate and shade.
• Propagation: let the seeds fall to the base of the mother plants, where they will germinate in the spring. Alternatively, stratify the seeds in sterile moist sand or vermiculite, sealed in a plastic bag and keep in the fridge for eight weeks before planting in the spring. In good conditions, the Cicely will reseed naturally and can be invasive.
• Care: remove excessive shoots before they grow large taproots.
• Harvest and storage: pick the young leaves to be used fresh. They lose most of their fragrance when dried. Prepare the green seeds in brine. Preserve the young roots, once cleaned, in brandy or eau-de-vie.

As you can see, there are lots of ways to include Cicely in your dishes and growing it isn't all that complicated! Bon appétit!

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