As far back as we can remember the success of a birthday party depended on the egg sandwiches and whether or not they contained little green snippets of chives. Our mother had always made them with chives; the chives in question came from the garden of a family, friend an Armenian tailor - Mr. Tackver...
These chives travelled from one end of the country and back several times. We first received them in Winnipeg, and when the family moved to Montreal they came with us. Across to Victoria and back again east to Ottawa, it never seemed to affect their vigour. When we first started growing herbs in the Kitchen Garden they grew as a border around the raised beds, always first greenery up in the spring.
Chive vinegar was made with their purple blossoms, they were added to cream cheese, used in salads and always in egg sandwiches.
Their Latin name Allium schoenoprasum reflects the family connection Alliaceae, in French they're known as Ciboulette.
Learn more about their habit from the Green Pages of the Montreal Botanical Garden* a lovely online website.
Once again the chives moved up to our cottage along with Angelica, Lovage, Ginger Mint, Apple Mint, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Thyme, Sweet Woodruff, a perennial Oregano and another member of the chive family Garlic or Chinese Chives in French Ciboulette chinoise in Latin Allium tuberosum- these bloom in late summer with a lovely white cluster of flowers
Our interest in herbs [other than chives] developed from an old family copy of Culpeper's Herbal - the inscription reads John Harrop, his book Glossop 1815. as our curiosity grew we discovered Betty Jacobs Growing & Using Herbs and Sal Gilbertie's Herb Gardening at Its Best - we were hooked. Somehow the library seemed to grow almost as fast as the garden, until there were too many books to fill our bookcase and so Argosy Books came into being.
Last summer for the first time the Rosemary bloomed. In Victoria we remembered a hedge of Rosemary but Ottawa winters are too cold - however last week our little plant that we had brought indoors set out new shoots, light levels encouraging growth
* Montreal Botanical Garden - was a favourite place for a family visit on a Sunday afternoon [hours by streetcar] as kids we found it BORING until one Sunday in the Lily Pool we discovered a mouse had fallen in and drowned, the goldfish were feasting on it - such is the interest of the young...
