Love That Lovage

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Oh my gosh!” gasps a friend. “I have never tasted anything like it.”

Lovage — it’s bright green, out, and proud. It’s also in my every salad this spring. With flavor like celery on steroids, this perennial herb-like plant grows close to 5 feet tall with little or no care, returning annually on its own. (Can you ask for more?) To appreciate lovage fully, I suggest eating it in small quantities or developing a taste for it over time.

Last year, I skipped the lettuce and just ate salad from my perennial lovage, feral fennel, and wild mustard. When our lovage returned this year, my heart fluttered. Perhaps I adore it all the more for being almost-too-much. We can learn to love intensity. Even our own. :)

See below for how to cook lovage if you are lucky enough to know someone who cultivates it or in fact are that lucky person, yourself.

When in your life acquire a taste for intensity by loving another being? Did you treasure them all the more because you knew the adoration and giving and receiving there was a pleasure enjoyed by few?