Sage

Sage is an aromatic herb from the mint family with soft, silvery-green leaves and a warm, slightly peppery flavour. It has a strong, distinctive taste that pairs particularly well with rich and fatty foods.

In cooking, sage is a classic companion to pork, poultry, and butter-based sauces. It’s essential in Italian saltimbocca, British sage-and-onion stuffing, and works beautifully fried in brown butter as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi. A little goes a long way — its robust flavour can overpower more delicate ingredients.

Fresh sage is widely available in Australian supermarkets and grows easily in home gardens, thriving in warm, dry conditions. It’s one of the few herbs that actually intensifies in flavour when dried, making both forms useful in the kitchen.

Farmed
photograph to come — from twenty years of markets, farms and kitchens

How it's made

Sage is a perennial shrub cultivated in herb gardens and commercial farms. The leaves are harvested by hand or machine once the plant is established, typically from the second year onward. Fresh sage is picked, bundled, and sold as-is, while dried sage undergoes a dehydration process before being crumbled or ground for packaging.

Nutrition (per 100g)

Energy 95kcal
Protein 3.3g
Carbs 0.6g
Fat 5.9g
Fibre 14.1g Sugar 0.4g
Mass Distribution

What it costs the planet (per kilo)

Carbon ≈0.5kg
Freshwater ≈130L
Land ≈0.4

≈ Estimated — worked out from a category-typical value further up its supply chain. Where this comes from →

Where it comes from

Made from

In the kitchen

Used as

aromatic culinary herb

Goes well with
Classic dishes
  • Saltimbocca
  • Brown Butter Sage Pasta
  • Sage and Onion Stuffing

Keeping one at home? Track yours in your cubud →

Where this data comes from

Nutrition data from

FSANZ

How it was calculated

Borrowed

Full credits, licences, and methods: the sources page →

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