Author: Marilyn Medina

Fennel vs. Anise. Anise is an annual and fennel is a perennial. They both are used for their licorice flavor, which comes from the essential oil called anethole found in their seeds. Is fennel used in black licorice? Licorice also contains anethole, which is aromatic and plays on our olfactory sense. Anethole also occurs in […]

Fennel can be started from seed, but it’s also one of those vegetables that regrows very well from the stub that’s left over after you finish cooking with it. Can you propagate fennel from cuttings? Yes, you can grow fennel from cuttings, although the correct term would be their “fronds.” Keep in mind that propagating […]

Cut the stalks off at the soil level if you are leaving the bulbs in the ground. Otherwise, dig up the entire bulb and bring the whole plant inside. All parts of fennel plants are used in cooking. The bulb and stalks are sliced and added to soups or other recipes as a vegetable, while […]

Fennel. If you have issues with slugs or snails, fennel is your herb. As a natural insect repellent, it will also repel aphids. What scent keeps most bugs away? Those most closely associated with repellency are citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, and catnip oil, but others include clove oil, patchouli, peppermint, and geranium. What herb is […]

Keep the seeds moist. Once the seedlings emerge, it’s important to keep them uniformly moist but not waterlogged. If the soil dries out, the plant will likely bolt and affect the bulb. As the bulb begins to grow, it tends to push up out of the soil. Can you eat fennel that has bolted? Slugs […]

Although fennel bulbs may look similar in shape there are two differently shaped bulbs and each is identified by its sex (or so the Sicilians and southern Italians say) – the round are known as the maschi (the male fennel) and the slightly flattened shapes are the femminefemmineFemme (/fɛm/; French: [fam], ‘woman’) is a term […]

Common F. vulgare blooms near the end of its growing season. If you don’t want it to drop seeds, you can cut the flowers off and remove them before they begin to fade. In addition to its value as an edible, it provides an attractive, texturally-rich backdrop in the garden, particularly when it’s a bronze […]

With a taste similar to licorice, fennel flowers are used as flavoring in cooking and for medicinal purposes. There are two types of fennel. One is an herb, and the other is a vegetable. Is fennel the same as fennel flower? Cuisine. The bulb, foliage, and fruits of the fennel plant are used in many […]

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) resembles fennel. Both are originally from Europe, are naturalized in California and grow in similar places. Fennel has a definite licorice scent but no purple spots on the stalks; poison hemlock does not smell of licorice and does have purple blotches. Does hemlock have a smell? The leaves are segmented like […]

Fennel seeds come from a bulbing plant (Florence fennel) that is eaten as a vegetable. In fact, the entirety of the plant, seed, fronds, greens, and bulb are edible. Anise seed comes from a bush that is grown specifically for the seed; no other part of the plant is eaten. Can you use fennel seed […]

Several cultivars of Florence fennel are also known by several other names, notably the Italian name finocchio. In North American supermarkets, it is often mislabeled as “anise”. Cultivation. Country Production (tonnes) India 584,000 China 48,002 Bulgaria 36,500 Iran 32,771 What is the common name of fennel? Noteworthy Characteristics. Foeniculum vulgare, called common fennel, is an […]