SAGE

was always grown in traditional herb gardens for its antiseptic qualities as well as its distinctive — and I think delicious — flavour. When the cupboard is bare and time is short, an excellent meal can be made by swirling fresh sage leaves in hot butter and adding this to cooked pasta with plenty of freshly ground black pepper. There are several varieties, from the wide-leafed common sage, salvia officionalis, to variegated, purple and narrow-leafed types. I like the narrowleafed sage salvia lavandulifolia best for cooking but other varieties are more decorative. Like rosemary (see left), sage can be grown from seed or takes very easily from cuttings taken in late summer.