The perfect ‘green’ straw!
Hanna, our gardener and second distiller, came in today with sweet cicely stems for us to try out as ‘straws’. Naturally at tea-break we were all clamouring to give it a try!
As it is Craig, our tour guide’s, first week with us he was nominated to be in the obligatory photograph!
The stems were delicious used as a straw and imparted real anise notes to our G&T. Definitely worth trying and and even better that the straws aren’t contributing to plastic landfill!!
Please see our guide to identifying sweet cicely below.
Identifying Sweet Cicely
Be sure to identify the correct umbellifer though – if you are not convinced it is sweet cicely, please don’t try it. Some similar umbelliferae are poisonous. In general sweet cicely has the beautiful smell of aniseed when crushed. This is our rough guide to sweet cicely….
Flowers: In May and June with white umbrels of flowers.
Leaves: Are fern like and some have pale splashes at base of the leave. Not all leaves but some will do. You will see this on our picture of sweet cicely.
Stems: Have light hairs and smell deliciously of aniseed.
Habitat: It likes moist ground and may be found close to burns, grassy places, at the sides of roads or fields.
Location: Scotland and the northern parts of England.
If you are not sure, please don’t eat and research first!
