Harvest as large and beautiful leaves as possible from a sage bush, leave on them a stem about 1-2 cm long. Prepare a pan with hot olive oil or butter and any amount of pancake batter (made of flour, egg and cream or milk diluted with water, salt, pepper). Briefly fold the sage leaves through the batter (not too liquid and not too firm) and fry in the pan in the hot fat until golden brown and serve while still warm if possible. Serve with an apricot sauce.
Organic herbs at the Tannenhof in Bebra
.During his agricultural apprenticeship Detlev Zernikow-Kayßer, the son of a teacher and an electrical engineer from the Nuremberg area, got to the Tannenhof near Bebra in 1988. He was able to take it over later and began to deal with the cultivation of herbs in organic quality. "We are here in a location far from the market," the Tannenhof farmer told himself, "and we need to produce something that keeps well and is easy to ship, so dried herbs."
They started very small "on a garden scale," with their four. Those were peppermint, lemon balm, sage and St. John's wort. "What we grow additionally today are nettles, dragon's head, blue fenugreek, sometimes marigolds, hyssop, several varieties of lemon balm or mint; we have already cultivated more than forty species of these."
The main customers are well-known dealers from the rapidly growing organic herb industry. Like "Berglandkräuter aus Hessen" in Bebra or Naturkost Heuschrecke, a wholesaler in Troisdorf near Cologne, and Wurdies, meaning "Wurzelgräbers Blütenparadies" from the Upper Palatinate. As well as, not to be forgotten, Agrimed in Trebur, the Hessian producers' association for medicinal and spice plants. "The herb market is very interesting and constantly on the move, also on an international level." The Tannenhof is one of the founders of the "Berglandkräuter aus Hessen", but, unlike them, also sells to end consumers.
In the meantime, they produce food, not remedies, clarifies the farmer from the Tannenhof. That is why the medicinal effects of the herbs are only mentioned in passing. They are also interesting enough in culinary terms and can be used in a variety of ways. Incidentally, a distinction is made between grain drugs, such as fennel, caraway, coriander and aniseed; then leaf drugs, such as sage, lemon balm and mint, and flower drugs, such as marigolds; root drugs, such as rhubarb, arnica and ginger, are also included. "We don't grow those here because our soils are too heavy for them," Kayßer says.
The leafy herbs are used mostly for teas, including blends. One of the big sellers is called "A Summer's Day." This blend of many different leaves and flowers includes dragonhead, lemon balm, marigold, hyssop, thyme, peppermint, apple mint, cornflower, among others. If you brew this tea in a glass pot, you can see the flowers and leaves unfold again in their different colours. So the eye gets a lot out of it, too.
Speaking of hyssop, it's considered a natural flavor enhancer. Incidentally, it was a hyssop stalk that was used to give Jesus the vinegar sponge on the cross.
On the other hand, Gottfried Keller's purring novella "Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten" (The Little Thread of the Seven Uprights) speaks of "little sage mice" that are as delicious as they are beautiful. "The tinsmith took a good handful of sage leaves, dipped them in an egg batter, and baked them in hot butter into what were called little mice, for the stems of the leaves looked like mouse tails. They rose splendidly, that there was a piled bowlful, the fragrance of which rose with that of pure coffee. Hermione returned this favour by asserting that a plateful of mice must also be kept for Charles, as he had not much good in the barracks after all. She took her plate and with her dainty fingers pulled the most beautiful little mice out of the bowl by their tails, and so many that the mother herself called out at last that it was enough. But she put the plate beside her, looked at it with pleasure from time to time, took a piece from it again and ate it, saying that she was now a guest at Karl's, and conscientiously replaced the robbery from the bowl."
Tannenhof (Bioland)
Detlev Zernikow-Kayßer
<x>.N</x>Fichtenweg 5
36179 Bebra-Solz
Tel: 06627-8702, Fax: 919014
Email: <link>betrieb@tannenhof-imshausen.de
Homepage: <link http: www.tannenhof-imshausen.de _blank>
Sale by tel. Agreement
from Waldemar Thomas