• Fresh sage is a rather minor crop grown in the Yuma area with less than 10 acres in production. However, the impact of this crop in fine restaurants and grocery stores across the U.S. is vast with increasing popularity.
• Whether you have acres of land to plant, or you are a small-space gardener who lives in an apartment overlooking the Yuma Valley, it’s rather simple to grow an amazing variety of fresh herbs that will add pizzazz to all cooking.
• Slightly bitter in flavor and highly aromatic, sage is one of the main ingredients in poultry seasoning. It enhances meats and poultry as well as most vegetables.
• Common sage also makes a good ornamental. Purple sage, tricolored sage and golden sage all work well as ornamentals. The leaves of pineapple sage smell just like pineapple, and the plant also produces beautiful red, tubular flowers that hummingbirds adore. There’s also a honeydew sage whose leaves smell just like its namesake fruit.
• Sage can be grown from seed, stem cuttings or crown division. A woody plant with oblong leaves that have a woolly, gray-green covering that is lighter on the bottom, sage may grow 2 feet high and tends to sprawl. It needs a sunny location and well-drained soil.
• Remember the lyrics of a popular 1960s Simon and Garfunkel tune: “Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme”? According to the Chattahoochee Unit of the Herb Society of America, these four herbs are included in a list of the top 10 culinary herbs grown and used by American chefs.
• Technically, all plants with soft stems are called herbs, or herbaceous ornamentals. To narrow it down a bit, the plants commonly referred to as herbs are plants with leaves or stems used for their medicinal, flavorful or fragrant attributes. Plants prized for their roots, bark, seed and fruits are considered spices.
• The name sage is derived from the Latin word meaning health or healing powers. Sage has been used as a medicinal herb far longer than it has been a culinary herb and was indispensable during the Dark Ages. The ancient Greeks and Romans administered sage for everything from snakebite to promoting longevity.
Source: Kurt Nolte is an agriculture agent and Yuma County Cooperative Extension director. He can be reached at knolte@cals.arizona.edu or 726-3904.
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