Giant Blue Hyssop AND THE FUTURE OF FOOD BY MORRIS LEMIRE
T
his year’s unusual, late-may cold snap had me thinking about that one category in our gardens that we never worry about – native perennials. Stalwart children of the prairies and the foothills, they just keep on giving to the bees and butterflies, to the eye and the larder. They are hardy, resilient, low maintenance, aesthetic, pollinators, and on top of all that - many of them are edible. As our climate changes and once-familiar habitats are altered, we will need a bank of food plants capable of adapting to new growing conditions. Farmers have known for well over a generation that once-reliable environments are in flux, causing uncertainty in agriculture from seed procurement to insurance rates. Tea and coffee growers are planting at higher altitudes, seeking cooler growing conditions. It’s high time we got to work on a future plan that will replace the madness of flying cucumbers in from Mexico. It makes sense to start growing plants that are multi-use,
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providing us with more than one purpose. Native perennials fit the bill; they possess what I call call the power of three: beautiful, delicious, and bee magnets, all in one plant. Giant blue hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is native to the prairies, and but one example. Support for native pollinators, on its own, justifies our growing of Giant Blue Hyssop.* Giant Blue Hyssop was used by indigenous people across western North America as medicine, in ceremonies and for food. The Cree people call it Ka-wīkīpăkahk. But except for its occasional use as a garden ornamental, it was not adopted by European settlers, and has not become a staple of our present day cuisine. If you are one of the lucky few that has it in your flowerbed, by all means keep it there. It is beautiful, if not as showy as some of those ‘look-at-me darlings’ from other continents that our local bees never land on. But to maximize its gifts, you may want to also think of it as a culinary herb. For several years, I have been growing Giant Blue Hyssop
