Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

Hysope. Labiate

Appears in

By Richard Olney

Published 1974

  • About
Perennial. Easily grown from seed and may be raised in pots. A small bush whose dark-green leaves resemble those of tarragon, it is one of the sacred herbs of the Ancients, an obligatory element in the monastery gardens of the Middle Ages and much used in medieval cooking. Hyssop today is to most people only a word with vague Biblical associations—a pity, for it is an exquisite thing.
It shares a refreshing light bitterness with many of the labiate herbs but its perfume is apart. Writers mostly claim that it is too strong for the modern palate, but I love it and have never known it to trouble my guests, who regularly insist on eating “hyssop salad” at my table and have returned home to plant it in window boxes, pots, or gardens. The tiny intense blue flowers, scattered over a background of varied greens and sliced hard-boiled eggs, are ravishing but, if the salad has been sprinkled with the chopped leaves as well, one is hardly aware of the more delicate flavor of the flowers.