Herbs add flavour in our foods. Enough herbs used can often cut down on your salt requirements and intake, as it often tastes better without salt but spiced up with herbs. Anise is one of those herbs that we all should explore for its many uses.

ANISE

is annual and theleaves and seeds are used to flavour meats with a liquorice flavour. It can be used in salads, baked goods. Try it cooked with chicken. If you steep and distill some anise oil from the seeds, you can add this oil to the making of hard candies that taste delicous combined with cinnamon flavour.Anise is probably best known for flavouring liqueurs such as 'Anisette'. Fresh leaves can be chopped into soups, stews or sauces.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg as to all the uses that anise has. It's unique liquorice flavour comes from the oil content and has flavoured cooking for centuries. It has also found uses to flavour medicines as children and adult alike could not resist its taste and aroma. It was added in cough syrups to help prevent coughs. In ancient times the Romans cultivated anise and used it to make a desert cake for after dinner. It is thought that the modern wedding cake tradition may have stemmed from this old Roman custom of anise cake after meals. Crush some seeds and add them to your steak marinades and then Barbeque up a steak that has delightful flavours. The crushed seeds mixed with some marinade and brushed on barbeque chicken is also fabulous when it comes to the eating.

Several hundred years ago, anise was used as a bait in mouse traps as they found anise to be irresistible to rodents too.

I do not have a picture of anise, which grows wild under my evergreen trees, so I have introduced you to "Maggie". Maggie is one herb I will not be without. It is perennial and I have it growing in full sun in my flower bed to return each year to 'wow your taste buds' with flavour in my fresh from the garden tomato soup. My research into anise tells me I should try chicken next year using my anise from out back by the evergreen trees.

Anise remains irresistible anise today and is used , not only as an aeromatic herb, but also aids in digestion eaten in a cake or by making a tea by steeping crushed anise seed for several minutes in hot water and then sipping it. Your digestion is aided and flatulence is prevented.Joking here "apparently controls both burps and toots".

In cough syrups and lozenges, the delightful taste masks any other bitter ingredient taste in the lozenge or syrup.

Anise is used in cooking for consistent flavour in cooked fruits, spinach, carrots, cheeses, or egg dishes. It tastes fantastic in cakes and pastries, candies and cookies. Water fowl, fish, pork , and wild game meats flavoured with cinnamon and bay and anise in the cooking are delightful.

It's unique liquorice flavour comes from the oil content and has flavoured cooking for years. It also found uses to flavour medicines as children and adult alike could not resist its delightful taste and aroma. It was found in cough syrups to help prevent coughs. In ancient times the Romans cultivated anise and used it to make a desert cake for after dinner. It is thought that the modern wedding cake tradition may have stemmed from this old Roman custom of anise cake after meals.

Several hundred years ago, anise was used as a bait in mouse traps as they found anise to be irresistible to rodents too. Cats go crazy around catnip and roll in it and appear near drunk. Anise works the same way with dogs. Dogs love the aroma of anise and will roll in it and act peculiar too.

The leaves of anise can be added to salads cut up or left whole.

You may also dry the leaves spread out on paper in a dark dry place out of the light. You dry out of the light to keep good color in the leaves. Store in air tight container when dry for making tea.

The seed heads are gathered just as they ripen by cutting off and taken to a place out of the sun and spread out on paper to dry. Once dry put seeds in a dry air tight container. If left too long the heads shatter and seeds fall to the ground.The seeds can be used in pastries or the seeds can be crushed, steeped and distilled to collect the anise oil for storage. Anise oil can be used in cakes, candies, cookies, pastries and home remedy cough syrups.

What did I tell you? Anise is an annual herb that we should explore its many uses.

From the gardener Happy Gardening. When you visit you may not find Harold home but go around behind to the garden, his is likely there with his daylilies.