Cilantro leaves can be snipped and used in soups and meat sauces, sprinkled onto the dish after cooking is complete. The seeds can also be used in sauces, stews, pies, and cakes, but don’t use immature seeds, since they are bitter. Plant the seeds indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost, or outdoors immediately after the last expected frost date, and enjoy the best this lemony plant has to offer before the heat of summer puts too much stress on it. The edible leaves can be added to salads, soups, sauces, and vegetables. The leaves can also be used to flavor teas, and dried leaves are often added to potpourri. Borage leaves are used in salads, the flowers are always edible, and once the sun starts to scorch the earth in the latter part of summer, this cool-loving herb will try to go to seed and die back. Be sure to peek under the large mother plant for small seedlings to add to your salads all summer long.
