Anise organic seeds - Pimpinella anisum

Organic Green Aniseed (Pimpinella anisum) is an aromatic plant that is both decorative and highly useful in the kitchen. This light annual offers, in just a few months, finely cut foliage, melliferous white umbels and, above all, small grey-green seeds with a powerful aroma, tasting of sweet liquorice. In the vegetable garden, you can harvest the young leaves to enhance salads, raw vegetables and soups, then the seeds to flavour breads, cakes, biscuits, compotes or homemade liqueurs. Green aniseed can be sown directly in place. It fits easily among rows of vegetables, along the edges of beds or in square vegetable plots.

Green aniseed belongs to the Apiaceae family. It is also known as aniseed, cultivated anise or official anise. Native to southeastern Turkey, Cyprus and the Near East, it has spread throughout the Mediterranean basin and then into gardens in temperate regions.
It is an annual herbaceous plant with a taproot, forming a clump 40 to 60cm tall and 25 to 35cm wide. The stems are hollow, erect and branched. It is the finely cut upper leaves that give the plant its light appearance. In summer, umbels of small white flowers attract bees and beneficial insects, before giving way to grey-green dry seeds.
All parts of the plant are aromatic, but it is these seeds that concentrate most of the essential oil. It contains molecules such as sesquiterpenes, phenolic acids, and essential oil based on anethole. It can be used to help with digestive disorders; it is an antibacterial, expectorant, antispasmodic, and carminative stimulant. For external use, the essential oil has antifungal properties.

The seeds can be used in salads, with cooked vegetables, in pastries, confectionery, liqueurs and digestive herbal teas.

Green aniseed can be grown with carrots, salads or beetroots without shading them and attracts pollinators. It can also be sown near tomatoes for a very flavourful corner: its aniseed notes enhance the taste of tomato 'Green Zebra'. For a very productive aromatic square, combine green aniseed with companion herbs such as Coriander and Lemon Basil.

Harvesting: In season, harvest the leaves as needed and the seeds at the end of summer, beginning of autumn.

Storage: You can store the leaves and seeds of aniseed in airtight containers after drying in the shade and grinding into powder.

The gardener's little tip: aniseed likes the sun and heat and can be placed in very sunny spots in the vegetable garden. If your soil is too compact, add some sand, potting compost and compost. It is often used to repel aphids, caterpillars and worms.