the.com/borage
the herb that tastes like cucumber and dares you to eat its fuzzy blue stars
means A bristly-leaved herb with star-shaped blue flowers and a cool, cucumber-like flavor, used in salads, drinks, and traditionally as a tonic.
from From Medieval Latin 'borrago,' which traveled into Old French as 'bourrache' before reaching English. The deeper root is uncertain: one popular guess ties it to Latin 'burra,' meaning rough hair or shaggy wool — a fitting nod to the plant's fuzzy leaves — while another traces it to Arabic 'abu araq,' roughly 'father of sweat,' from its old reputation as a sweat-inducing remedy. Both are plausible, neither is settled, so the herb keeps its origins as bristly as its foliage.
- flavor
- Leaves and flowers taste startlingly of fresh cucumber
- old nickname
- Called the herb of courage by Romans
- bee magnet
- Refills its nectar within minutes of being emptied
- oil prize
- Seeds yield rare gamma-linolenic acid for skincare
- edible blue
- Star flowers get frozen into fancy ice cubes
borage starflower — blue-flowered herb native to syria, cultivated worldwide for culinary and medicinal use since ancient times
borage oil supplements — commercial extract from borago officinalis seeds, sold for gamma-linolenic acid (gla) content to treat rheumatoid arthritis