Gadenin日本語Get the appLeaf: pick young, pick outward, pick lightly
Leaf is the main crop and the flavor is startlingly strong. A single mature leaf seasons a pot of soup for four people; three leaves overwhelm it. Judge quantity by weight rather than by the handful you would use of parsley, and start with less than you think. That intensity is also why one plant is plenty.
Take the outer, older stems at the base rather than shearing across the top of the clump. The center of the crown is where the new growth comes from, and cutting into it slows everything down. Cutting individual stems at ground level also keeps the plant looking like a plant rather than a hedge that has been attacked.
The best leaf comes in two windows: the spring growth before it coarsens, and the second flush three to four weeks after the early summer cut. In between, and after flowering has begun, the leaf turns tough and the flavor goes from savoury to bitter. On a plant of three years or more you can take up to a third of the standing leaf at any one time without setting it back.
| Harvest | When to take it | How much is safe | Keeping it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young leaf | Spring growth, and the second flush after the summer cut | Up to a third of standing leaf at once | A week in a bag in the fridge; freezes better than it dries |
| Whole-plant cut | Early summer, as the flower stem starts | Everything above 2 inches (5 cm), once a year | Process the same day; the volume is large |
| Hollow stem | Spring, while stems are still soft and pale | A few stems from the outside of the clump | Blanch and freeze, or use fresh as a straw or in stock |
| Seed | When umbels turn from green to gray-brown | Whole umbels, cut with a foot (30 cm) of stem | Dry two weeks under cover, then store airtight |
| Root | Autumn of year three or later, or when dividing | One outer section only, never the whole crown | Scrub, slice and dry, or use fresh within days |
Stems and the hollow-stalk harvest
Lovage stems are hollow, ribbed and thick, more like a small celery than a herb stalk. Taken young in spring, while they are still pale at the base and snap cleanly, they are worth harvesting in their own right. Older stems are fibrous enough to be unpleasant to chew, though they still give up plenty of flavor to a stock and can be pulled out before serving.
Cut stems as low as you can reach without tearing the crown. A clean cut at ground level heals over; a stem snapped off halfway leaves a hollow tube standing in the clump that fills with rain and rots downward. If you do break one, cut the remaining stub off flush.
The classic use is as a drinking straw for a savoury drink, which works only with the thicker stems from a mature plant, cut fresh and used within a few hours before they soften. Beyond novelty, the stems are the part to reach for when you want lovage flavor without the leaf turning a dish dark green.
Lovage is potent enough that it is normally used as a seasoning rather than a vegetable. Treat a large harvest as something to portion and freeze, not something to work through in a week.
Seed: catch it before it scatters
If you let a plant flower, the seed is a genuine spice, warm and celery-like, useful in bread, on roast potatoes and in pickles. It ripens over midsummer into early autumn, and it does not wait for you. The umbels go from green to gray-brown, and once the individual seeds separate from the stalk with a light touch they are ready.
Cut whole umbels with a foot (30 cm) of stem attached, put them head-down into a paper bag and hang the bag somewhere dry and airy. Over about two weeks the seed drops into the bottom of the bag on its own. Rub the remainder off by hand, winnow out the chaff, and store airtight away from light.
Keep a portion aside as sowing seed and label it with the year. Lovage seed loses viability fast, so seed kept for a second season is worth much less. The seed you intend to sow should be the freshest and fullest, not the sweepings from the bottom of the bag.
- Watch the umbels turn color Ripeness is a color change from green through fawn to gray-brown, plus seed that comes away with a light rub. Cutting at full green gives seed that shrivels rather than ripens.
- Cut into a bag in the morning Slip a paper bag over the umbel before cutting, so anything that drops during handling is caught. Morning, while there is still dew, is when the seed is least likely to shatter off.
- Dry for two weeks under cover Hang the bags head-down somewhere dry with moving air, out of the sun. Seed that goes into a jar before it is properly dry molds within a month.
- Clean, label and store cool Rub off the last seed, blow away the chaff, and store in an airtight jar in a cool dark place with the year written on the label.
Root, and what to log for next year
The taproot is edible, strongly aromatic, and traditionally lifted in autumn to be dried and used like a root spice. It is also the plant's entire capital, so only take root from a plant of at least three years, and only ever an outer section lifted while dividing. Digging the whole crown for root ends the plant.
Lift in autumn once the top growth has died back, wash the section thoroughly, slice it thin and dry it hard. The flavor is more intense than the leaf and closer to a spice than a vegetable, so store it separately and use it in small quantities.
Record the date of your first worthwhile leaf pick each spring, the date of the whole-plant cut, and the date the seed was ready. Those three dates repeat closely from year to year in the same garden, and once you have two seasons of them you can plan the whole lovage year in advance. Note the harvest weight too if you can; a plant whose yield is falling year on year is usually telling you that the crown is congested and due for division.