Southernwood herb is a perennial sub-shrub that was very popular with the herbalists of medieval times.

Southernwood herb burnt to ashes and mixed with oil will promote the growth of hair in persons affected by baldness’ and Hortus sanitatis (meaning Garden of Health) further states that ‘smoke from this plant has a pleasant scent and drives snakes out of the house’.

Southernwood herb is also used as a medicine as well as in cooking ingredients. Southernwood herb is used to this day as a home remedy to aid digestion and as an intestinal antiseptic.

Grated horseradish with cranberries and cream is very good served with game. Pure grated horseradish is excellent with hot sausages and boiled meats in place of mustard. Grated horseradish mixed with whipped cream and grated nuts is delicious with hot or cold ham. It is also used mixed with mustard. Cut in rounds the root is used for pickling gherkins and beetroots to make a tasty relish. Grated horseradish and prepared sauces may be kept in closed containers in the refrigerator for as long as 14 days without spoiling or losing their flavour because of the phytoncidic substances contained in the root.

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The elderberry is a shrub up to 7 m (23 ft high distributed throughout Europe, western Asia and North America. The white flowers, appearing in late spring – early summer, are followed by black fruits (nigra in Latin means black) – three-seeded berries, or rather drupes.

The Romans made a savory sauce rather like we now make mint sauce. Savory is native to the Mediterranean region; in the 9th century A.D. it was introduced to central Europe, where it rapidly became established. It was widely used for seasoning in the days when costly spices imported from the tropics were rare.

In the Middle Ages it was called `Oculus Christi’, meaning the eye of Christ, and was added to vegetables and to meat dishes to give them a subtler taste. The famous French book Le menagier de Paris includes it among the herbs for flavouring vegetable omelettes and in a recipe for a green marinade for preserving fish. The seeds of clary were believed to counter ‘eye weakness’.

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If we were given a choice of growing only one species from the large genus Alliurn the decision would be very difficult, but many persons would doubtless choose chives. Chives can be easily grown, not only in the garden but also in a windowbox or in a pot on the window sill.

In the year 812 Charlemagne, aware of its culinary and medicinal properties (the essential oil it contains is still used to relieve flatulence), ordered that it be grown on his estates. It was believed to silence rumblings in the stomach, stop hiccups, and prevent the formation of intestinal gas; burnt seeds if placed on a wound were said to promote rapid healing. Nowadays dill is naturalized and grown not only throughout Europe but also in America and the West Indies.

Nowadays garlic is widely used as seasoning throughout the world, but it is used most by the peoples of southern Europe, north Africa and South America. It plays an important role in lands noted for their excellent cuisine, from France to China. Its uses are many: crushed together with salt in green salads; as seasoning for sauces, vegetables and meat dishes (beef and mutton), sausages and salamis, and fish. Besides being a seasoning it also has many important medicinal properties; it prevents flatulence and destroys intestinal parasites, checks the growth of bacteria, and is used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis. The chief exporting countries are USA (California), Egypt, Bulgaria, Hungary and Taiwan.

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The existence of olives as food is the result of sheer chance combined with a stroke of genius. Present-day olive trees are apparently descended from a wild tree of Greek origin. The first such individual must have been the result of a chance mutation, some time as far back as 3000 B.C., and all the olive trees raised nowadays are its offspring, multiplied by man.

Most aromatic, however, are the plants that grow on the sunny limestone hillsides of southern Italy. No doubt this is the result not only of suitable soil and climate but also of natural selection which came up with the right variety, for this species includes a great many forms.

Its delicate aroma and flavour have made parsley the most widely-used culinary herb which can be added to practically all dishes that are not sweet. The finely chopped leaves are used either fresh or dried. It can be combined well with other kitchen herbs.

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Even the smallest herb garden should include at least a few marjoram plants. The one difficulty is that, being a native of the warm Mediterranean region, it is damaged by frost in colder winters and must be sown afresh every spring.

However, it is well worth it, for the dried herb from the shop cannot begin to compare with freshly chopped leaves sprinkled on soup or on a potato pancake.

The fresh or dried leaves, roots and fruits are used for flavouring. The aroma and flavour are similar to that of commercial meat extract and the leaves are therefore added to soups, mainly beef soup. However, they are equally good added to sauces, vegetables, salads and roast meats. The fruits (double achenes) are used in pickling mixed vegetables and gherkins, as well as in bread and on cheese sticks.

The rhizomes and roots are used to make commercial soup flavourings. The hollow stem may be cut crosswise into ring-like pieces and candied in the same way as the stem of angelica. All parts of lovage may be used fresh as well as dried, whole, crushed or ground.

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Sumach herb is a shrub up to 3 in (10 ft) high growing wild in the Mediterranean region and southeast Asia on stony banks high up above the seashore. It is grown for its sour fruits in southern Italy and Sicily.

The wild species are native to that land and the number of Chinese varieties is enormous. Even older, by a thousand years, are the inscriptions on a tablet of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, where the radish (surmaia) is listed together with various other vegetables. Either is was introduced from here to China or else the Chinese began cultivating it on their own, independent of the Egyptians. Radish is also mentioned by Dioscorides in connection with its use in medicine.

The fruits of sumach herb were used by the ancient Romans, who called the plant Syrian sumach, for the same purpose as lemons before the latter were introduced into cultivation. From Mattioli we know that the eastern peoples used the dried fruits of sumach herb in place of salt.

They are used sliced on bread and butter, chopped or grated in salads and as an accompaniment to cheeses and salamis. They arc best eaten raw. Radishes are wholesome, for besides mustard oil they contain Vitamins B and C and many mineral substances.

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Anise is an annual herb native to the eastern Mediterranean region (Egypt, Asia Minor, the Greek islands). In ancient times it was used mostly as a medicine to treat snake bites, nightmares and the like. The ancient Greeks introduced it to the Romans who also began using it in cookery. It was not until the 14th century, however, that it reached Europe as a flavouring for bread – aniseed bread is popular to this day, particularly in Austria and southern Germany. Nowadays anise is grown commercially on a large scale in Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, France, the former USSR, Turkey, Mexico and elsewhere.

It is used to this clay as a medicinal plant for its diuretic as well as digestive and expectorant properties. In the Middle Ages it was believed to ward off the plague.

The delicately-scented, mildly pungent leaves with a cucumber-like flavour are used for flavouring. These are eaten as a salad by southern Europeans, the same as the leaves of Burnet (Sanguisorba minor). The young basal leaves are the tastiest if picked before the flower stem begins to grow.

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Everyone knows this ornamental tree whose masses of white blooms decorate the countryside in early spring, followed in autumn by bright red berries which children string into beads.

Its occurrence in the wild as well as its cultivation is restricted to the inland tropics with their heavy rainfall and rich soil. Over the years growers have bred and developed a great variety of cultivated forms and we no longer know what the original wild trees were like.

Rowanberries are subtly piquant fruits reminiscent of cranberries with their slightly bitter, aromatic flavour and bright colouring. Forms with sweet fruits are ideal not only for making compotes, jams and wines, but above all for flavouring roast beef, roast game and cream sauces, to which, besides taste and aroma, they also give a lovely colour.

Cocoa, as well as the chocolate made from it, are surprisingly enough used to flavour certain meat and fish dishes (mainly octopus). It is used in combination with onion, garlic and tomatoes, principally in Italy and Spain.

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Hop is native to Europe and western Asia. It was used originally as a medicinal herb by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The first to use it in brewing beer were probably the people living in Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in olden days.

We learn about the first hop-fields in Europe from a deed of donation issued by the Frankish king Pepin III ‘the Short’ in the year 768 A.D. when hops began to be cultivated by monks in the monasteries, where beer was brewed. From that time on the cultivation of hops spread not only in Europe but also in North America, Australia and New Zealand as the consumption of beer grew throughout the world.

The relatively large flowers, growing from the leaf axils, are followed by a compound fruit (a follicle), fleshy at first, later becoming woody and forming an attractive star with anise-like fragrance (hence the common name star anise).

The ripe follicles burst on the ventral side to release the single seed contained in each. They are harvested when ripe and then dried. The seeds have a pungent, spicy flavour.’

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Savory and potent herbs make Italian cuisine both tasty and famous. Nothing can compare to the fine seasonings found in Italian herb gardens. Open up the soul of the chef within you by growing Italian herbs.

Basil is a well know Italian herb and useful in many Italian recipes. Basil will not only add flavour to many Italian cuisines, it is useful in the garden to other plants. Planting basil next to your peppers and tomatoes will actually improve their flavour. Plus, basil will also repel flies and mosquitoes.

Parsley is a relatively hard herb plant to grow but it is useful in not only Italian dishes but many other types of cuisines. Many generations ago before there was breath mints it was found that eating fresh, raw parsley after a meal eradicated the bad breath left over from enjoying a flavourful cuisine. The tradition arose to serve parsley on a small dish after the meal. The tradition lives today by using parsley as a garnish on a variety of meals. Oregano is as decorative as it is flavourful. When it is fully mature it will sprout pretty little purple flowers. Oregano should not be harvested until it has flowered because this is when the plant is most flavourful.

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