Is this culinary sage?
My roommate brought home a bushel of herbs from a friend. She was told it was rosemary but even though the leaves kind of have the shape and growth pattern of rosemary they are white and fuzzy, hence my conclusion that it's sage (it also smells like sage, especially when I burn it). However I don't know if there are any sages that cannot be used culinarily. This sage has strangely small leaves (as I said, they are as small as rosemary leaves except maybe a little longer), and I cannot find pictures online of sages with leaves like the one we have.
Is sage ever poisonous? Is the only problem I'd have if I cooked with non-culinary sage that it adds no flavor?
I would really like to use it for cooking, though I don't want to poison my roommates and I.
Is it Clary Sage? That's the one that comes to mind from your description-- nice picture on this site.
http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weed_info/Salvia_sclarea.html
If so, I find the fragrance to be distinct from the sage I more usually associate with being a culinary herb, but it's edible anyway. :)
Nice picture, but that's not really it. :-\ My sage's leaves are round-ish and thin. Like rosemary: http://www.blacklabelempire.com/rosemary/images/index_03.gif (this is a picture of rosemary but looks almost exactly like the sage I have minus the flowers).
Here is a picture of it: http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1462/sagetoriposing0184fg.jpg
This is a very very old post but I needed to share that I just figured out on Sunday what this was.
It was LAVENDER!
Never would have thought it. Apparently you can use the leaves in cooking or herbal remedies. But now I know that they even smell good burned.
Lavendar is said to be calming when burned like incense, so hey, it's good to have around. As with sage, there are may different kinds; what they have here native doesn't smell at all like the English lavendar I remember.
Lavender is my favorite herb. I love the way it smells. Almost everything that has a smell in my house is lavender--my bubble bath, bath oil, soap, pillow scents, lotion, etc. It really does have a calming, cozy scent. I have lots of lavender growing in my garden, originally planted by the previous owners of my house. It's been on my task list to figure out how to transform it into potpourri, bath scents, lotions, etc.--all in good time.
A few weeks ago, I tried some lavender jelly, and it was to die for! I've planted some lavender in my garden, and I will eventually try to make it myself.
This is a very very old post but I needed to share that I just figured out on Sunday what this was.
It was LAVENDER!
Never would have thought it. Apparently you can use the leaves in cooking or herbal remedies. But now I know that they even smell good burned.
I would have guessed sage, too. Thanks for the update!