Steve, great blog. I think lovage isn't used nearly enough. Nor the common garden sage. I love sage. I grow about 300 herbs and our gardens are a certified botanical sanctuary. Everything from culinary to medicinal to fragrance herbs are grown. Chickweed pesto is good. Dandelion can be used in a great number of ways. Rose scented geranium is really good in a number of dishes. Roses are great in cooking too. There's so much goodness out there.

I'm with you on the sage Betty. I've always been amazed that rosemary has historically been used more in the mainstream then sage. Can you beat a brown butter sage on anything, I don't think so.

Lovage I grew last year and didn't really get a chance to play with it to the extent I would have like. Any variety you'd recommend?

There's only one lovage variety that I know of, Levisticum officinale. I have an apple lovage chutney recipe somewhere. Sage pesto is WAY better than basil pesto, in my opinion. I know I will get flogged for that, but I've said it! And next time you do bacon-wrapped shrimp, put a sage leaf in where you deveined the shrimp before wrapping the bacon around. Drool.