Herb Garden Plants

Archive for the ‘using herbs from a home herb garden’ Category

And now for something completely different. But still a herbal connection.

Cavalier, inmate of courts, controversialist, man of science, occultist, privateer, conspirator, lover and wit, all describe Sir Kenelm Digby, born July 11, 1603,  elder son of  Sir Kenelm Digby. He was barely three years old when his father, the most guileless and the most obstinate of the Gunpowder Plotters, died on the scaffold. Sir Kenelm Digby, however, did not follow in his late and somewhat unlamented father’s footsteps.

The following extract is from a book kept in Edinburgh Castle, The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened,  which gives us a look into just one of many a story steeped in intrigue, treachery and British tradition. For our purposes, we simply report on one of Sir Digby’s recipes. (Thats the younger Sir Digby) Imagine the extent of his home herb garden.

MY LORD LUMLEY’S PEASE-PORAGE:

Take two quarts of Pease, and put them into an Ordinary quantity of Water, and when they are almost boiled, take out a pint of the Pease whole, and strain all the rest.

A little before you take out the pint of Pease, when they are all boiling together, put in almost an Ounce of Coriander-seed beaten very small, one Onion, some Mint, Parsley, Winter-savoury, Sweet-Marjoram from your home herb garden, all minced very small; when you have strained the Pease, put in the whole Pease and the strained again into the pot, and let them boil again, and a little before you take them up, put in half a pound of Sweet-butter.

You must season them in due time, and in the ordinary proportion with Pepper and Salt. This is a proportion to make about a Gallon of Pease-porage. The quantities are set down by guess. The Coriander-seeds are as much as you can conveniently take in the hollow of your hand. You may put in a great good Onion or two.

A pretty deal of Parsley, and if you will, and the season afford them, you may add what you like of other Porage herbs, such as they use for their Porages in France.

But if you take the savoury herbs dry, you must crumble or beat them to small Powder (as you do the Coriander-seed) and if any part of them be too big to pass through the strainer, after they have given their taste to the quantity, in boiling a sufficient while therein, you put them away with the husks of the Pease.

The Pint of Pease that you reserve whole, is only to show that it is Pease-porage. They must be of the thickness of ordinary Pease-porage. For which these proportions will make about a Gallon.

Now don’t all go rushing about finding ingredients in your own home herb garden and serving the dish at your next dinner party. I  wonder how accurately we could reproduce the recipe today. You would probably need to be a psychic and a very good guesser.

But ennit fascinating! Imagine talking like that all the time.

If you want more in the same vein, but with real duplicatable recipes,  register for our blogcast – you will get a weekly update of blog posts and access to several really interesting old time herb books including the one featured here – The Closet Of Sir Digby Knight Opened.

Next time a normal article – I promise. Let me know if you enjoyed this please.

The doctrine of signatures has been written about and discussed for centuries. but is less well known than one would think after all this time. Although it is not strictly speaking a herb subject, it does involve many herbs and is very interesting.

The Doctrine Of Signatures (Note Capital Letters) refers to the long held belief from the days of Dioscurides and Galen that a plant, or part of a plant, resembling a component of the human body has the power to heal that body part. There is much evidence of this and it is an incredibly interesting story; the older I get, the more I see legends I scoffed at previously take on substance.

Please pursue your own researches if you are interested, but I would like to give you a few glimpses of the reasoning behind this “Doctrine Of Signatures.” (Drum roll!) When shapes and even colours reminded herb collectors of human body parts they would attempt to use them to heal these parts; thus we have liverwort, bloodroot, toothwort, lungwort and wormwood. neither should we forget hedge woundwort – its dark red flowers have antiseptic qualities

Celery and rhubarb stems resemble bones in appearance: they consist of about 25% sodium, the same as bones and they replenish sodium lost from your bones to your body.

No-one needs to be told where the name kidney beans comes from, but did you know that they are supposed to both heal and assist kidney functioning in humans.

Slice a carrot in half and the radiating rings look like a human eye. And didn’t your mother tell you to eat carrots to see better – even in the dark.

Tomato: four chambers, red colour. Tomatoes are saturated with lycopine – good for the blood and the heart. You’re getting the picture?

The brain looks like nothing as much as a walnut. It even has the wrinkles. Open a walnut and we find a mini brain. cerebrum, cerebellum and two hemispheres.A walnut looks like a little brain. Walnuts develop neuro transmitters for the brain.

Grapes resemble blood cells – modern research holds that grapes are blood food.

Avocados assist functions of the female womb and cervix. No prizes for suggesting what they resemble. Four avo’s a month are said to both buffer cervical cancer and balance out the hormones.

Sweet Potatoes: help balance GI in diabetics. Which is the job of the pancreas it resembles.

There are many more examples.

Modern science however, brands these tales as superstitions; others say there are many valid claims concerning the ability of the doctrine of signatures to have presaged the medicinal properties of many species.

You decide.

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Mentha species (Labiatae)

Appearance: Numerous mint species are grown almost everywhere. Wild or cultivated forms all bear various local names. Their tendency to hybridise plus the fact that parochial names and appearance vary according to climate and location leads to some confusion in identification or collation of species information. Scientific analysis of essential oils has largely cleared up the identification and inter-relationship of these popular herbs, but local names both abound and persist. At one stage I grew a dozen different species of various appearance until sanity prevailed.

Spearmint or garden mint enjoys wide usage – it’s narrow pointed leaves, reach 30-90 cms (1-3 ft tall). If left to flower in midsummer, purple spikes appear well above the leaves. Apple mint has large, round, soft leaves and pink spikes growing up to 1 m (3 ft) high. The cream and green variegated form with leaves bordered and overlaid with cream is usually called pineapple mint; a good decorative garden plant retaining its attractive foliage throughout the summer. Ginger mint or scotch mint is another attractively leaved plant, particularly in the variegated form with golden variegation of the pointed leaves and its crisp even appearance and height makes a great herb border.

Usage: Most mints can be used for culinary purposes – one of the biggest – Bowles’s mint – has a reputation as a gourmet’s mint. It is a vigorous grower, easily attaining 1.5 m (5 ft), it’s broad leaves are covered with light coloured down. Peppermint is  widely used in culinary and medical applications; there are two varieties (Black and white) which grow to about 1 m (3% ft), the former with black/purple stems – both produce a sharp crisp oil. In the kitchen peppermint can be used to flavour fruit cups, sweets and puddings. tea is made from fresh or dried leaves.

A range of fragrance is provided by the same oil; the small chemical variations between one species and another are affected by season, soil and weather. Mint may be variously described as peppery, lemon flavoured or ginger flavoured.

History: Spearmint, the classic ingredient in Mint Juleps, was recorded as growing in Plymouth, Mass. in the early 1600’s by Elder William Brewster. It appears in Josselyn’s seed list but is absent from the Winthrop seed order placed in 1631. It was available locally and did not need to be imported.

Cultivation: All mints are vigorous growers given the right growing conditions. Most can be picked year round except in areas experiencing heavy frost or snow.

Mint is propagated by planting pieces of the rooted stem — about 5 cms (2 ins) deep in moist loamy soil, at almost any time during the growing season. Apple mint, sometimes called dryland mint in America, will tolerate less moist soil but all mints like sunlight. The plants need to be confined to their allotted space by enclosing their growing space with bricks, tiles  or  thick plastic strips.

Container growing requires regular watering unless the containers are sunk into the ground. All mints can be grown indoors but have a tendency to becoming leggy when grown like this. The exception is apple mint which can be a very attractive container plant.

A mint bed should be remade and relocated every three or four years to prevent mint rust disease.

Crowns of mint plants can be boxed or potted up in winter and taken to a warm greenhouse to force strong fresh shoots within three to four weeks.