As a gardener, you never stop learning. Books, magazines, and gardens usually. However, a recent gem of information, came to me via the most unusual source – the supermarket!
Browsing the shelves, I noticed this bottle of vodka – a new one on me! I must confess my eye was drawn to it in the first place, because I did misread it! Bison vodka? No, obviously not, once I looked closer. But bison grass flavoured vodka. Novel!
Now, I’m not a lover of vodka, but I am a lover of finding things out.
Move on a few days, and Lo and behold! I’m sitting comfortably, watching cookery programmes on telly (another favourite topic) wondering where The Hairy Bikers are in this episode. Of course,( for this story to pan out!) they turn up in Poland. They visited a family who gather (you’ve guessed it!) bison grass to flavour vodka. Found in nearby woodlands, on a World Heritage site, they gather and dry the leaves in their attic. And so the programme followed them on their quest to track some down. They found a clump, which the bikers tasted, and claimed it tasted of vanilla and coconut! But it did look familiar to me. I just had to find out what it was!
Where would we be without Google?! It turns out its botanical name is Hierochloe odorata and no wonder it looked familiar. I’ve been growing it in the garden for several years! I was tempted to try growing it from seed, when the seed catalogue described a scented grass! Well, how could I resist! It turned out to be a rather disappointing grass, with no interesting form, being very floppy and prostrate, and with no scent that I could detect. I hate to say, but in the ground, it could easily be taken for a clump of weeds! The only way I could give it any kind of appearance, was to grow three plants, flowing out of three identical blue glazed pots. At least that way, they looked like they were meant be there!
All that time, and I never knew their secret! I can look at them now in a new light!
If only I liked vodka!
The Long Garden Path 