As you know, a beautiful vegetable garden is just as important to me as a productive vegetable garden. And one of the key plants is coriander. In cooler months, this herb keeps its head down in the vegetable patch, good for cooking and deterring pests such as carrot fly. But come hotter weather and the plants push up strong stems of 1-2ft high. And their flowers are exquisite. Beautiful little helipads, rather like a summer cow parsley, which hoverflies and bees adore. For two months we had a beautiful white froth at the edge of the carrot patch, which was alive with happy insects.
But now the flowers have faded and the seeds are ripe. So it is time to harvest the plants, and hang them upside down in a paper bag to dry out. Leave until the coriander seeds are brown and dry.
Coriander as an ornamental plant is wonderful, but fresh coriander seeds are amazing. Crushed in a pestle and mortar, they give off an incredible, rich taste of caramelised orange. Stir them into carrot and coriander soup, tagines and stir-fries.
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