Harvesting sage: when and how? You should pay attention to that

With its characteristic aroma and healing properties, sage is one of the classics in the home kitchen. The herb with purple flowers has been known since ancient times and actually comes from the Mediterranean area, but can be found as a culinary guest in the gardens, greenhouses and living rooms of the Germans. The sage leaves are harvested from the plant, which are used in a variety of ways and, unlike other herbs, are not removed at random.

Benefits of harvest

Sage, like many other Mediterranean herbs, is a woody shrub if you don't cut it off thoroughly. Since regular harvesting of the sage leaves does not require pruning, the harvest acts as a pruning, benefiting Here you can tell about the long growing season of the mint family, which provides you with fresh leaves that you harvest for several months should. Harvesting regularly brings many benefits that will also affect the health of your sage:

• regular harvest does not lignify it
• harvesting animates the shoot tips to branch out
• possible diseases become recognizable

The big advantage for you: the large amount of sage leaves that you get from the continuous harvest. You can easily do this over the entire growth phase and store, dry or prepare the fresh sage. Because the herb is not lignified by harvesting and thus can form essential oils more effectively, you get extremely aromatic Salvia leaves that beat the finished spice from the supermarket in terms of aroma by a long way.

Tip: Even a single sage plant can provide an abundant supply of leaves, which are an asset to the medicine cabinet, especially in winter. Sage works wonders against colds and gastrointestinal complaints, which has made it such a popular plant for centuries.

When is the best time

You can harvest sage for almost the entire growing season, from May to the end of August at the latest. The middle of August is recommended here, as the mint will prepare for winter from this time onwards. Therefore, you should not expose the plant too much to the cold and therefore not harvest until autumn. Sage sprouts again and again over these months and does not stop its growth, which makes it a veritable gold mine of sage leaves. Another point in time is important: flowering in June, before the leaves reach their aromatic peak.

Harvest before flowering

In June the aroma of the sage leaves begin to intensify as flowering is now imminent. In the days before flowering, the aroma reaches unimagined heights. You should definitely harvest the saliva during this time. That makes this harvest not only productive, but also tastier than any other time of the year. After flowering, which lasts about four to six weeks, the leaves are only weak in taste and fragrance because the plant uses all of its energy to form flowers. There's not much left for essential oils.

Tip: If you want to pick strongly aromatic sage leaves throughout August, you should remove the inflorescences as soon as they appear. If the plant has no reason to produce flowers, it can put all of its energy into producing the aromatic ingredients.

Harvest after flowering

The post-flowering harvest is of course not lost and you shouldn't leave it out for about six weeks. It is true that the leaves of the sage lose their aroma afterwards, but the effective ingredients are retained. These include tannins, coloring flavonoids and thujones, all of which have a positive effect on the human body and help with many ailments. If you can do without some aroma and want a purple bloom over the summer, you should let the flowers stand. You can also harvest the flowers.

Note: When do you ask? Late June is recommended here.

To harvest

In contrast to other herbs, from which you can simply pluck off a pair of stems or leaves, you must be more careful with the sage so that the sage leaves are not torn from the shoots. Since the main shoots are quite sensitive to possible damage, the plant must first be prepared for harvest. This is so that it can absorb enough moisture to be able to sprout again after the harvest.

Of course, you can always pluck individual leaves from the sage every now and then, as long as you don't try to pull off the shoot tips by hand. The fresh leaves are extremely suitable as a tea for in between.

Tip: Mix together six flowers and two leaves of the sage and pour the mixture into a jug with about a liter of boiling water. This sage tea has an absolutely beguiling aroma and an intense color that inspires to enjoy.

How is harvested

1. As soon as the first shoot tips can be seen, you can prepare for the harvest. Only use clean scissors for this, which are sharp enough so that nothing is crushed during harvest. You can also work efficiently and quickly.
2. Pick a day for harvest when it won't rain. The plant tolerates the harvest best when the area is dry.
3. Gently shower the sage with water the afternoon before harvest. You don't have to worry about lime with sage, it can take it very well. Be careful when doing this. This means that you should not choose the highest level of the shower so that the water is distributed over the plant like a gentle rain shower. Just wet the plant, don't drown it!
4. The following day the harvest is carried out in the early morning. But you should wait until the last rope has disappeared. This preparation helps the sage to form shoot tips again immediately after the harvest. Since it would dry out too quickly over midday, the morning hours are used to enable fresh sage leaves to be harvested.
5. Now cut off the herbaceous shoot tips generously. These are held in a rich green and smell wonderful. Make sure you never cut into the previously lignified shoots of the sage. Otherwise you run the risk of the plant perishing and not surviving the winter.
6. Always leave enough shoots to prevent the plant from looking exposed. This enables it to provide effective winter protection, which is then subjected to the first maintenance cut in spring.
7. Now you can do as you like with the sage leaves and shoot tips.