As The Growers Exchange has evolved, herb plants have become our main focus. The wonder of the internet has allowed us to understand what plants people are searching for, so we have tailored our crop to match this demand. Having an “ Herb Plants for Sale” sign on the internet means we get all kinds of requests… Each is a story unto itself so I have to focus on one at a time! This is the story of how we discovered Rue…
Rue is an herb that now has a large presence in our nursery. One day we received a call from a man looking for fresh cut Rue. We sell Rue plants in four inch pots, but we did not have anywhere near enough plants for cutting. After a discussion, he visited the farm while in the area, and we quickly bought a large pack of Rue seed soon after he left. That spring we planted two thousand plants in our orchard, and by late summer we were shipping twenty-five pounds a week to New York City. Our customer is co-owner if the largest botanica on the East Coast. What’s a “botanica” you may ask? We didn’t know either, so I better explain that a botanica caters to people with beliefs that require many natural products not easy to find in a city. People come from near and far to fill their wish list.
Rue is in high demand and we now have thousands of plants in our field, and we ship Cut Rue in lots of one hundred pounds to NYC. I have told the story of how Rue’s phyto-photo toxicity caused second degree burns on several of our workers that mistakenly touched the plant in sunlight, without protective gloves, in our previous blogs. (For a refresher course on how to use Rue, read our latest blogs in Briscoe’s Seeds For Thought.) Jason Mizrahi, co-owner of Original Products buys most of our Cut Rue. I asked him what all the Rue was used for and he explained Rue is used in several ethnic dishes and was used for many medicinal and spiritual purposes. The herb is also thought to bring good luck and prosperity to those that ingest it.
This is good news for us! Though none of us here at The Growers Exchange plan to ever eat or even touch Rue without gloves; we do like growing Rue as a crop. Our Rue field has to be one of the largest anywhere. We find the challenge of growing many different plants fun; we have other unusually large quantities of various other herbs for other special use customers, but none in the quantity we grow Rue. Who knew about Rue?
Thanks much for ‘who knew’? So some more of the skinny on rue. In churchly tradition it was “the herb of grace” and also used for repentance, sprigs of it used as aspergers (and still are by hispanic and black practitioners). Pliny thought it was good against contagious diseases, not as ingested but as “strewing” herb. Modern-day herbalist Steven Foster has some good info on it which is worth looking at, as it may protect against radiation, EMF’s etc. If you’re really getting bad vibes, boughs of it under the bed are the prescription. All cautions about handle with care, including photosensitivity gratefully observed. CT
I would like to add my expertise regarding Rue…growing up in the south of France, rue was a part of our every day salads, soaps, honeys etc…we dried it when the seed pods came in mid to late summer and we ate it all winter dried in soups,and stews.
Also good with lentils, balsamic and a good red onion . I am amazed that Americans are so afraid of blessed herbs….