I still remember that two years ago, my best friend met a strange plant in Suzhou and sent photos to consult me. She thought it was lavender, and the flowers were purple, like lavender, and the flowers were strung together, which was really similar.

Especially when sage, lavender and verbena are planted on a large scale, they are all soft long branches with strings of flowers hanging on them, which looks very confusing.

I went to a lavender town two days ago, which is said to be a lavender planting base. Lavender is rare, but large areas of sage grow everywhere. Ornamental varieties are planted in the base, which bloom in blue, and the finely divided petals are layered, elegant and beautiful, emitting a faint fragrance from time to time, but the fragrance is not as strong as sage used as spice, and the faint fragrance is mixed with a little camphor, and the fragrance is not as sweet and pleasant as lavender.

But seeing tourists taking pictures and playing in sage fields, they almost always talk about lavender.

But it's obviously the same as the plants my best friend is looking for. They are all sage. It can be seen how difficult it is to distinguish sage from lavender.

Although they are all cymbals of Labiatae, the petals of sage have obvious lips and obvious bracts, while the flowers of lavender are bulging packets. In addition, it is easy to distinguish from the taste.

Salvia is a kind of plant that has gradually become popular in China in recent years. It is an exotic species, native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean coast. Sage can be used as a horticultural species, a flowering plant, or a new condiment on the table of China people.

Salvia officinalis is an annual or perennial aromatic plant of Labiatae, an evergreen subshrub, woody stems, with grayish green leaves and blue to purplish flowers.

There are many varieties of sage, some are used to extract essential oil, some are used as spices, and some can be hallucinogenic. It should not be used easily before the variety is determined.

There are three kinds of well-known sage, namely, happy sage, ornamental sage and my favorite sage as spice.

High-quality happy sage, with complex molecules, delicate smell and rich layers, is better than thyme grape grass. Because of its remarkable maintenance effect on the skin, it is often used to extract essential oil, maintain the skin and relieve the mood.

Fresh sage mosaic is also a good choice for people who like vanilla bubble bath.

Ornamental sage, with beautiful flowers and evergreen leaves, is a pleasant flower viewing plant like lavender, and then it is closely related to people's daily life and used as a spice.

Sage is my favorite herb, and it is the most indispensable herb for curing poultry meat and baking in my daily diet. Because of its bitter taste of grass, rich fragrance and slightly astringent taste, it is a good product for curing poultry meat with heavy smell. It's amazing to remove the fishy smell, increase the freshness and enhance the fragrance.

Sage is a new spice on the oriental table. People use its fresh evergreen leaves as decorations or as auxiliary spices for pork, fish, vegetables or broth.

Sage and poultry meat are well matched, and fresh tender leaves play a magical role in the process of roasting poultry meat. When we roast poultry meat, we often put fresh sage leaves under the meat, which has both color and fragrance. This is a very unique herb.

Sage is also a good companion for dairy products and greasy food. Sometimes it can be added to wine, beer, tea and vinegar. Secondly, it is also excellent in western stew and pizza. However, the taste of sage is relatively heavy, and the dosage should not be too much, so as not to cover up the taste of other ingredients.

Salvia used as a spice can suddenly sharpen the taste of food. It can not only help digestion, but also calm down and relieve fever, and has the effect of health care.

Many labiatae plants are as fragrant as sage and are used as human spices. Basil, rosemary, thyme and motherwort are all indispensable herbs.

As a large plant category, Labiatae contains many common vanilla plants. Labiatae herb is an ancient existence, and its history of entering literature, art and diet as a herb probably began in ancient Greece. In ancient Greece, people used fresh herbs and seasoned beef and mutton to stew vegetable soup for barbecue.

The reason why Labiatae belongs to Labiatae is that its flowers are unusually obvious, radial, but symmetrical. The front end of the corolla protrudes like a lip. The stem has four edges, the whole plant is densely covered with glands, and the whole body exudes an unforgettable strong aroma.

If you carefully observe and open the flowers of sage, you can see its obvious lever structure of two strong male flowers. This is the result of highly coevolution with insects, and it is easier for insects to get pollen when they fly in to collect honey. Greatly improve the pollination rate and make the sage family last forever.

The spices of Labiatae are widely used not only in the West, but also in the East, but more often used elsewhere.

Prunella vulgaris and mint are still the formulas of various herbal teas. Basil is still an indispensable herb for frying conch and clam and making three cups of chicken with traditional dishes. Perilla frutescens is often used to cook fish and steamed with hairy crabs, which can remove fishy smell, dryness, flavor and freshness. I believe that people who have eaten it must be impressed.

Sage and its close relatives, labiatae herbs, are eternal friends of mankind, which not only enrich people's dining tables, but also enrich people's lives.

Vanilla injects freshness and romance into complicated life with its own fragrance and sacred vitality and energy. Like a trickle of clear water, it flows through people's body and mind and has the power of gentle purification.

I think it is a good life to be with vanilla every day.

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