Salad Bernnet, anyone?
Anyone?
Nope, I've never heard of it either. But I'm growing it in my window box.
Why you might ask? Well, apparently nothing much can grow in my window box, except for partial-shade loving plants. These include mint, spearmint, chocolate mint, mojito mint, maybe parsley, and.... salad bernnet. I discovered it at Gethsemane when a co-worker pointed it out when I asked about partial-shade herbs. As there were not many options and I was dying to fill my window box with edibles, I took the plant home with me. Now that it is growing in my box, I am inspired to learn more about what to do with it!
One great feature of salad bernnet or burnet, known in latin as Poterium sanguisorba, is that it is a perennial and will come back year after year. It is also a lover of dry soils and is drought tolerant, so there is little chance of killing it. It also has a light cucumber flavor, making it both a great addition to salads and also a good substitute for mint... as if I needed one because the only other herb I am growing right now is mint!
Its flavor lends it to making lovely salad dressings, herbal vinegars, a garnish for fish, and I recently used it as a substitution for parsley in a recipe. It seemed to taste alright to me! Just make sure that you chop it well as the stems are a bit tougher than parsley.
According to Davesgarden.com,
"Burnet has an interesting history. On the night before a battle, soldiers fighting in the American Revolution dosed themselves with a tea made from burnet on the theory that if they suffered a wound on the following day, the burnet in their systems would keep them from bleeding to death. It had other uses years ago as well. It was used as a treatment for digestive disorders and in the sixteenth century in England, it served as a remedy for rheumatism and gout. In the 17th century it was recommended as a protection against the plague and other infectious diseases."
Apparently, everything back in the day was a protection against the plague. I'm wary to say that it actually did this, but the leaves do contain vitamin C. Scientists have not found any uses for salad bernnet, but it can't be entirely bad as an immunity booster.
Here's a recipe for an herbal vinegar. Use it on your salad or to marinade something for the grill. Or, just take a sprig of salad burnet and place it in your next Bloody Mary!
Herb Vingear for Dressings
Combine two sprigs each of oregano, salad burnet, thyme, and parsley. Add five to six stems of chives (the blooms are nice too if it's that time of year). Place these in a quart jar and pour the vinegar over the herbs until almost full. Place the lid on and allow to sit for 3-4 weeks. Strain and use on fish and in salad dressings. Enjoy!
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