Ravenhill Herb Farm

Culinary Herb Seeds

Our new stock for the 2013 planting season is now ready for purchase online! Check our Calendar to find out what Seedy Saturdays & Sundays we will be at this year.

Fresh, open-pollinated seed for the 2013 season. All seeds are organically grown at Ravenhill Herb Farm, harvested processed lovingly by hand, germination tested to ensure quality.

All varieties are open-pollinated. 50 to 100+ seeds per package depending on variety. The average seed life is three years.

To purchase our seeds online simply click the add to cart button under the description of each of the seeds you would like to purchase. A view of your cart will open in a new tab where you can review your order and checkout through a secure connection. Please allow one or two weeks for shipping.

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Arugula (Eruca sativa) $3/pkg
Annual. 35 days. Tender & peppery salad green. Very popular in its native Mediterranean, where it is commonly used in pizza and pasta dishes. Edible flowers & seed-pods. Germinates and grows rapidly. Sow every 2-3 weeks from Spring through Fall for continuous harvest. High in Vitamin A & potassium. Notably, arugula is one of the oldest known aphrodisiacs.

Borage (Borago officinalis) $3/pkg
Annual. Self-seeding. Pretty blue, occasionally pink, star-shaped flowers are great in salads and for decorating cakes or other desserts. Leaves, covered in bristly white hairs, and flowers have a pleasant cucumber-like flavour. High in calcium and potassium, a diuretic with mild anti-depressant and sedative action.

SOLD OUT

Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) $3/pkg
Perennial. To 6ft tall. Full sun. Beautiful thistle-like flower heads and large silver-green deeply-cut foliage. The young leaf stalks when steamed or braised are a delicacy. The wild form of our domesticated artichoke. Tinctures and decoctions of the leaves are a bitter stimulant and act as a liver protectant. Used as a coagulent in place of rennet for cheese making.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) $3/pkg
Perennial. Full sun. 1ft. One of the easiest herbs to grow and great for container plantings. Late to die down in the fall and up early in the spring, the tender greens of chives are a reliable fresh herb in the kitchen garden. The bright pink chive flowers brighten the herb patch and are a treat, adding lovely color and flavour to salads too!

Cilantro/Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) $3/pkg
Annual. Full sun/part shade. 2ft. Cilantro does best when direct seeded and given deep fertile soil. A short lived annual, producing a nice leafy crop that can be cut two or three times before the plants begin to flower. Easy to grow from seed, repeat sowings to maintain an abundance of leaves. Once the plants do go to flower leave the seeds to ripen and harvest your own delightfully fragrant coriander spice.

Continuity Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) $3/pkg
55 days. ‘Marvel of the Four Seasons’. By far our favorite lettuce, Continuity has been adapted to Ravenhill for well over a decade. Vigorous growth, disease resistance, great hardiness. Ruffles of bronze-red tinted leaves encase large light green heads, measuring 8 – 12” across. Tender and crisp! This French Heirloom has been available since the 1880’s.

Lavender, English (Lavendula angustifolia) $3/pkg
Perennial. ‘True Lavender’ used in teas & as a culinary herb. Very potent flowers are easily rubbed off stems when dry. Tea is used medicinally as a mild sedative, carminative, and antispasmodic. Used in aromatherapy for the treatment of anxiety, nervousness, mental stress, insomnia and fatigue. This Mediterranean native is very tolerant of poor soil and drought.

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) $3/pkg
Perennial. Very aromatic lemon scented leaves are delightful in tea & in cooking and baking. The small flowers are very attractive to bees, hence the latin name ‘Melissa’ which is Greek for honey-bee. Used medicinally as a mood enhancer, as a mild sedative and for anxiety. Used internally and externally for its anti-viral & anti-bacterial properties. Learn more about lemon balm.

Poppyseed Poppy (Papaver somniferum) $3/pkg
Annual. Showy flowers in combos of white, red, purple, and pink. Seed heads are very lovely and decorative when dry. Grows 1 1/2ft wide and up to 5ft tall. Very striking in the garden planted in groups. Seeds are abundant and easily harvested as a grain crop for use in baking. Plant throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall. Fall sowings will overwinter.

Red Russian Kale (Brassica napus) $3/pkg
50 days. A year-round staple on the farm. Tolerates temps down to -12C and gets sweeter with frost. We enjoy this highly nutritious vegetable fresh in salads, steamed, added to curries and casseroles & even juiced! The delectable young flower shoots have the texture of broccoli or asparagus and are great raw or cooked. Sow seeds in Spring, and again in Summer for a Fall/Winter crop.

Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) $3/pkg
Perennial. Traditional variety used for medicinal and culinary use. Modern studies have confirmed rosemary’s effectiveness at improving memory. Rosemary has a natural low germination rate so we have included an extra large number of seeds per package. It is said that the finest, and the most hardy, plants are raised from seed.

Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor) $3/pkg
Perennial. Young leaves have a light cucumber flavour and can be added to salads, soups, dips and dressings. Salad burnet has the same medicinal properties as Great Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), and so is astringent and tonic. A member of the Rose family, the plants grow a nice tidy and dense basal rosette of leaves. Plants hold up in heat well but grow more succulent leaves with a little moisture.

Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) $3/pkg
Biennial. ‘Oyster root’. Full sun. The root is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable, it is high in inulin, helping to keep blood sugar levels stable. The young shoots with flower buds are cooked and eaten like asparagus. The striking purple flowers can be added to salads. Salsify has beneficial medicinal properties aiding the liver and gall bladder, acts as a diuretic, appetite stimulant and digestive aid.

Savory, Summer (Satureja hortensis) $3/pkg
Annual. Full sun. 2ft. Slender lance-shaped leaves with tubular lilac-coloured flowers. Popular cooking spice used in much of the same way as sage. Commonly added to flavour meats and beans, summer savory imparts a lovely spicy flavour and also acts as a digestive aid. Harvest fresh during the summer, then pull up the plants just before flowering and dry for winter use.

Savory, Winter (Satureja montana) $3/pkg
Perennial. Full sun. Tp 3ft tall. Aromatic semi-evergreen shrub with white flowers, native to temperate regions of southern Europe. Stronger spicier flavour than summer savory. A great herb for companion planting, helping to keep away a variety of pests and attract beneficial insects, and when planted next to beans it is said to repel the bean weevil.

Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) $3/pkg
Perennial. Part-sun. Lovely lemony, tart leaves are wonderful fresh in salads or added to soups or sauces. Plants begin producing tender new leaves in early spring and continue until they bloom in midsummer. Once cut back the plants will re-grow for a fall/winter crop. Sorrel is very high in carotenoids, magnesium, iron, and vitamins C & A.

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) $3/pkg
Perennial. A well known and much loved native plant, prized for its amazing tonic properties. Nettle is used to treat arthritis and allergies, and is a galactagogue. Highly nutritious (and delicious!), the leaves and new shoots contain up to 25% protein, are high in iron, vitamin A & C, and many other essential nutrients. Drying, soaking, juicing, or cooking the nettles will remove their sting.

Winter Cress (Barbarea verna) $3/pkg
60 days. The peppery leaves are high in calcium, iron, vitamin A & C, betacarotene & antioxidants. Use in salads & soups, also a fine braising green. The very spicy yellow flowers brighten up summer salads. It is said that bitter tea made from winter cress can improve appetite, cure coughs & purify the blood. Sow in place from March to September. Very hardy, overwinters without protection.

Medicinal Herb Seeds

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