Caraway is a very easy and fascinating herb to grow.  Its been used since the Stone Age and its best to grow it in soil that is not too rich and certainly soil that doesn’t get waterlogged, it is actually a hardy biennial from the carrot family which means

that we sow it one year and it flowers and set seeds in the second and for most of us the main reason we grow caraway is actually for the seeds and the seeds can be used in Asian and Indian dishes.  We tend to add them to cakes and some breads, but they are  a really good accompaniment to richer meats like pork or goose at Christmas is a fantastic herb to add. You can pop them into soups or stews but you can even eat the roots like vegetable and the tops can be added to Casseroles and salad.

Growing
Growing caraway really couldn’t be easier, you need to turn over the soil to a fine tilth, it likes a sheltered sunny position and it really does prefer quite well-drained but fertile soil.  You can grow it in pot but again try and add some grit to multipurpose compost so that the pot is much more free draining.   It’ll eventually reach about 60 cm or 2 feet in its second year but in its first year it very rarely gets above 20 cm.  It can be directly sown any time from the spring till summer and the drills need to be about 15 cm apart.  The caraway seeds should be sown so they are about 15 to 20 cm apart in the drills.

Sowing
Make a drill put some water along the drill, very very gently sow the seeds along the drill and of put the soil back on top.  Give a gentle watering and leave it to germinate.

Once you have Caraway  established you’ll find that it will self seed quite happily so you will only need put into your garden once. Because it’s a biennial and because it’s quite a pretty flower, it looks very much like an Amie major  when it’s flowering it is perfect to grow in your flower garden or in the herb garden, just allow it to sort of sit there, the gentle white fronds adding a real delicateness, but as soon as the seeds start to form and change colour to brown, you need to cut off the flower head, put it upside down in a brown paper bag leave a couple of days to really dry, then you shake it and the seeds are collected in the bag.

Last but not least one of the really interesting uses of caraway is that it is used to flavour a liquor Kummel, like a lot of these herbal liquors it probably originated from monks, they seem to the people who converted most herbs or plants into alcohol originally.
It’s easy to grow, there is much more flavour in fresh caraway seeds than the one’s you buy, try and make a small space for it your flower garden, its a lovely plant to have.