herb - any plant (usually flowering) tasting sweet, bitter, aromatic or pungent, used in cookery, medicine, or perfumery.
How do you describe in a dictionary, in a few short words, the history and breadth of uses for this range of plants, simply known as “herbs”?
Herbs have been grown and cultivated since Roman times for medicinal purposes and flavourings. They were responsible for introducing many of the herbs found in the Mediterranean into this country.
Following the fall of the Roman Empire many herb varieties survived in Monastic Gardens where they were left undisturbed during times of war. It was often left to the monasteries to treat the sick, which set aside areas within their gardens to grow herbs known to have medicinal properties. Other parts of the garden were set aside for “bitter” herbs used in ale making, manufacture of dyes and inks, or simply as food or flavourings.
Many of the monasteries started recording their observations in their common Latin language, and making illustrations that were copied from manuscript to manuscript providing us with some recorded history of herbs today.
During the Medieval period of 12th & 13th C small garden walks were created within fortified walls of castles and palaces. During these times early navigators returned from far away shores with new varieties of herbs to Europe. Slowly herbs were introduced into gardens that had decorative and scented properties.
Eventually the Renaissance reached the UK in the 16th & 17th C leading to the very formal “knot gardens”, the best example being created by Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court. These English gardens often used lavender or rosemary hedges to form symmetrical segregated areas rather than yew and box as used on the continent. The planting was also less regimental, a mix of scented, ornamental, medicinal and culinary herbs grown together in one area, often to the design of a brooch or initials of the lord and lady of the house. During this period many thousand new varieties were introduced and people started the process of cataloguing them.
During the 19th & 20th C we’ve seen improvements in medicines, our ability to preserve foods by canning or freezing, and changes in dietary taste that have seen the demise of many of the herbs once used. But in recent years people have started to wake up to the benefits of growing and incorporating these herbs into their gardens for culinary or therapeutically purposes.
My own favourites are those used for culinary purposes. I have fond memories of helping my grandmother make mint sauce as a boy, walking on Mediterranean islands filled with the aroma of rosemary (my personal favourite), or just popping out of my back door to pinch something to add flavouring when cooking.
All of our herb plant collections and individual herb pots use 7cm square pots with carry trays (minimum 15 pots to cover postage) & come labelled with basic growing instructions.
Orders taken now will be despatched during Spring 2008.
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