History of Herbs

By Lisa Allison

The efforts of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, met with greater success when he sailed from Europe round the Cape of Good Hope to the Malabar Coast in 1498, returning to Lisbon with a rich cargo of herbs and spices. On a second voyage in 1502 he reached Ceylon.

Spices thus indirectly led to a flourishing trade with the Orient and a heightened interest in the exotic, which was one of the most marked elements of European culture in the 17th and 18th century. An important role was played by the East India Companies which had a monopoly on trade with southern and southeast Asia. This laid the foundation for English colonial rule in India and Dutch rule in Indonesia.

Portugal's influence was extended later as far as Madagascar, Sumatra and Java, and above all to Malacca, famed spice port in the south Malay Peninsula. The island of Ternate became the centre of the spice trade and despite the persistent and often bloody defense of the native Muslims the Portuguese gradually gained a monopoly on the world spice trade.

Exotic herbs and spices also became fashionable at the courts of Europe in the 17th and 18th century (particularly at the court of Louis XIV) and the new class of wealthy merchants in Holland and in the free towns of the Hanseatic League made liberal use of herbs and spices at their lavish feasts. This is reflected in the still-lifes by the Dutch painters of that period.

In 1521 he discovered the Philippine Islands where he was killed in a skirmish with the natives. Only a single ship from the entire flotilla reached the Moluccan island of Tidor to return home after three years with the surviving 18 members of the crew and a cargo of cloves. Their commander. Juan Sebastian del Cano, was raised to the ranks of the nobility and assigned 12 cloves, 3 nutmegs and 2 cinnamon sticks to his coat-of-arms. The imminent competitive struggle between the Spaniards and Portuguese Dutch expedition reached the spice islands in 1595.

Fully ripe mushrooms with leading caps are the most flavoursome, as It rule. As fresh meadow mushrooms are available in shops throughout the year there is no need to dry them for use in the kitchen.

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It is garden herbs and spices that give these the flavour and piquancy that distinguishes the fare of the various nations historically, culturally and geographically.

Mugwort Herb

By Ace Sydney

Sweet woodruff has whorled, rough-edged leaves, which give it its generic name Asperula - meaning rough. It has a pleasant fragrance, due to the presence of coumarin, when dried (hence the specific name odorata, meaning fragrant). It is a perennial herb with a creeping rhizome and tiny white flowers. Its range of distribution includes practically the whole of Europe, where it often forms dense undergrowth in deciduous woodlands.

Mugwort is used as seasoning for roast meat, especially pork and mutton, as well as roast goose and duck. It is sprinkled on the meat before cooking, but sparingly. In Spain it is used to flavour onion and vegetable soups as well as fish and fish soups. It is also good in salads. Mugwort is easily grown from the seeds (achenes) even in poor soil. As a rule, however, this is unnecessary for it may be found growing wild on waste ground and by the wayside.

If it is to be used as seasoning then the tips of the young shoots must be harvested before the small flower-heads open. The reason for this is that the amount of bitter principles rapidly increases during flowering, thus making the plant unsuitable for use as a culinary herb. The shoots are best dried tied into bunches and hung up in a well-ventilated place. The dried herb retains its pleasant aroma for a long time if stored in air-tight containers.

Wormwood is indigenous to the temperate regions of Europe and Asia. Often it becomes naturalized and may be found on unfilled land, waysides, waste ground and rocky slopes. It is a woody perennial herb up to 130 cm (4 ft 6 in) high with leafy stems terminated by loose panicles of yellow flowers (I). The pinnate leaves are felted silvery-grey.

Nowadays it is a relatively rare shrub in the wild because it is a host plant of one stage of the life cycle of grain rust (Puccinia graminis) and thus not welcomed by farmers in the vicinity of grain fields, where it is systematically eradicated. This will doubtless soon lead to the disappearance of its sour, pleasantly astringent berries, which are used, the same as rowanberries, to flavour compotes and tarts, as well as piquant sauces for game and roast beef.

Nowadays it is used to make tarragon Vinegar (a'fresh sprig of tarragon put in a bottle of white or wine vinegar), tarragon mustard and pickled gherkins. It is widely used in Chinese and French dishes, especially with poultry, rice and poached fish, and in Barnaise and Tartare sauces.

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The herbs as well as being of culinary use provide a satisfying composition of shapes and color in the garden and fill the air variety of scents.

Leek Herb

By Mary Washington

Onion cooked in salt water was the chief food of the poorest peoples of central Asia, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean region in days of old. It was also the mainstay of the diet of Egyptian labourers, who built the ancient pyramids in the third millennium B.C.

The outermost skin gives the bulb its colour, which varies, depending on the variety, from silvery white, white to dark brown, red and violet. It also protects the bulb from drying out and therefore should not be removed during storage.

The leek is a biennial herb, but is treated as an annual, because in the second year it flowers and dies. It need not be dug up in autumn for, as a rule, it is not damaged by frost and so can be taken fresh from the garden any time of the year. This is a great advantage, for although fresh leek tastes like the mildest of onions, it acquires an unpleasant strong taste when stored.

The onion's metamorphosis from a vegetable into a seasoning is also apparent in recent years by its being available at shops in dried, finely-sliced form. This is used in the same way as fresh onion and is suitable for frying.

Onion is a biennial that stores food in a bulb the first year and flowers the following year. The leaves and flowering stem are hollow. The large globose flower head - an umbel - is composed of numerous, greenish-white flowers on long stalks.

Onions always caused an irritant reaction when you look at it. As in other onions, the irritant action is produced by an essential oil containing organically bound sulphur.

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It is garden herbs and spices that give food flavour, aroma and often also colour.

Cheap Hotel Rates in London under $100 USD

By Jamie Yip Fox

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Herbs

By Laura Pearson

The plant kingdom is divided by botanists into categories called taxons. On the basis of their mutual relationship plants are divided into phyla, classes, orders and families in that order (these basic taxons are often divided further into subgroups). The family to which a plant belongs is a very important category in the classification of plants.

Among the latter also belong various aromatic, flavouring or colouring substances which make the spices what they are. These secondary metabolites are very diverse, and often distinguished by a pronounced aroma and flavour as well as important pharmacological properties. That is why many herbs used in cooking are also used in medicine. Typical substances found in herbs are first and foremost essential oils, bitter principles and tannins.

It is planted to form hedges, prevent erosion on steep banks and for its foliage and in non-fertile areas is valued because of its moderate requirements on soil fertility and moisture. It sprouts prolifically from stumps and also produces root suckers freely so that in parks it sometimes spreads to such an extent that it becomes a weed difficult to eradicate. It is readily propagated by means of cuttings and root suckers.

Besides essential oils, many herbs contain so-called garlic oils. These are the seasoning element of all members of the genus Allium and tb-ir characteristics are similar to those of essential oils. However, an additional distinctive trait is that they occur in the plant in bound form releasing neither flavour nor aroma. That is why onion and garlic can be stored in the pantry together with other foods without any danger of their being contaminated by the characteristic pungent odour. This is emitted by the plant only when its tissues are bruised (when they are sliced, diced or crushed), which releases an enzyme that causes the decomposition of the garlic oils accompanied by a pungent odour. The same is true of the so-called mustard oils present in herbs of the Brassicaceae family, e. g. in the seeds of mustard, leaves of garden cress, and roots of horseradish.

Shortly after, the botanist Clusius cultivated the first rhizomes at the Vienna botanical garden which he propagated and sent to many other botanical gardens. From then on calamus spread rapidly and nowadays it grows wild throughout Europe, including the British Isles, as well as in the Atlantic region of North America. It grows by the edges of ponds, slow-moving water courses, in moist ditches and marshes.

The pleasant astringent taste of other herbs (nettle, rose hip) is caused by the presence of tannins. Unlike essential oils, bitter principles and tannins are soluble in water and do not vaporize when heated.

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Cookery is an art whereby raw materials from your garden, including animal, vegetable, and herbs are transformed into tasty dishes.

Pot Marigold Herb

By Lynn Zane

This is the well-known old-fashioned marigold of cottage gardens. It is a favourite garden flower because the flowering period is spread over summer and well into autumn, as indicated by the generic name derived from the Latin `Kalendae', which in the ancient Roman calendar always marked the first day of the month.

In the Middle Ages it was used together with mint, savory, parsley, garlic, fennel and rosemary to flavour salads and the flowers were used to garnish whipped cream, salads and soups. In those days it was believed to have a stimulating and exhilarating effect, hence the English saying `borage brings courage'.

The fresh young leaves and entire top parts of the plant are harvested during the flowering period to be used as seasoning. Borage must always be finely chopped so the delicate hairs are not annoying. Borage is delicious by itself either cooked in butter or raw as a salad with lemon juice.

As seasoning it is added to pickled gherkins and vegetables, to spinach and cabbage, mayonnaise, cold sauces and salads. It is also used to make herb butter, herb cream, cheeses and yogurt. It gives a refreshing cucumber flavour to iced fruit cups. It is also good with braised meat and fish dishes to which it is added just before serving. In Liguria (northern Italy) it is used as a filling for ravioli. The flowers are used to add aroma to vinegars.

Borage may be readily grown from seed, either in the garden or in a windowbox. Sow in spring after all danger of frost is past. Growth is rapid, its only requirement being a light soil with lime.

Dried borage is not suitable for culinary purposes but is used as a home remedy to prepare a decoction believed to cleanse the blood and strengthen the nerves and heart

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A well planned herb garden combines utility and beauty.

The History of Small Garden

By Isabel Kendra

The Moorish garden in Spain generally consisted of several courtyards, known as patios, with water as the connecting link. The central courtyard within a colonnaded peristyle (known as an atrium) became a major feature of the house and was, in effect, the main living area; it still survives today in the cathedral court and cloister. The garden layouts were much on the Greek pattern, architectural and formal and made up of flower beds and paths, pergolas and statuary with fountains and pools for irrigation. Flowers such as the violet, poppy, iris, lily and pansy were popular and, in particular, the rose. Climbing plants were trained up the supporting columns of covered walks and pergolas.

In its earliest form the garden was basically an enclosure, made of thorn or scrub, to keep out marauding animals and keep in domestic ones. The enclosures later took the form of a mud wall, and were a defence against other humans as much as animals or were intended to shield off the heat of the sun. When nomadic communities settled, the enclosures became places for growing both food and plants. This creation of a small private sanctuary characterized early enclosed gardens all over the world, though their function of course varied according to climate and way of life.

When nomadic communities settled, the enclosures became places for growing both food and plants. This creation of a small private sanctuary characterized early enclosed gardens all over the world, though their function of course varied according to climate and way of life.

The earliest recorded gardens, seen in Egypt about 3000 BC, were surrounded by a mud wall to absorb some of the sun's heat. The house was also within this square or rectangular enclosure. The formal layout of early gardens was necessitated by the need for irrigation channels to provide water in a hot, dry climate. These divided the garden into geometric areas and, in the grander gardens, the irrigation channels became formal pools with lish and there were arbours to sit under, overhung with vines, and shade-giving palms. The Egyptians grew onions, which were their staple diet, and other vegetables and herbs for their medicinal value. This basically formal style of garden characterized the whole Islamic world during the next few thousand years. The enclosed paradise gardens of Persia were often walled and the walls hung with grape vines and climbers.

Fruit trees were cultivated, including peach, apple, cherry, banana, date, fig and olive. The Persians also grew flowers such as poppies, lilies, chrysanthemums, narcissi and roses in formal beds between the stylized cruciform shape of the water canals. The idea of a flowering paradise within a formal setting is captured in Persian writings, painted miniatures and woven into carpet patterns.

The style and form of the garden remained much the same, enclosed by buildings and high walls to provide shade and privacy. They were designed for outdoor living while remaining within the confines of the house.

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You must know about the tips on herbs gardening to grow a thriving herb garden.