Rosemary

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is now properly known as Salvia rosmarinus but look at it, it’s not a sage!! Another important Mediterranean herb with blue/mauve flowers and narrow pine needle-like leaves. Very aromatic, it has numerous uses, including easing digestion (particularly of fats), improving blood flow to the head which aids memory and concentration and strengthening the body’s vital energy – useful in convalescence, grief and depression. It also heals and repairs nerve damage, reducing pain (including migraines and headaches), warms and stimulates the circulation and liver, relieves fainting and symptoms of low blood pressure. It can be used topically for muscle pain and sciatica as well as improving skin healing and as a hair rinse for stimulating hair growth. It is a low dose herb due to its thujone content – make a tea with ½ teaspoon dried herb per cup or include in gravies, rich stews, as sprigs in roast lamb or focaccia. Avoid in pregnancy.

Rosemary broad bean pate

2 cups cooked broad beans (out case removed if preferred); 2 minced cloves garlic; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 dessertspoon lemon juice; 1-3 dessertspoons chopped fresh rosemary (to taste); salt and pepper to taste. Puree all ingredients together into a smooth paste. This is tasty on bread, with baked potatoes or as a garnish with salad.

Lavender

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is the complementary partner to Rosemary – calming and bringing energy down into the body where Rosemary lifts energy to the head. The grey-green foliage and violet-blue flowers are well known – the flowers are most used due to their scent. Lavender is used to help the body and mind to relax, to clear looping anxious thought patterns and soothe the digestion and nerves. Excellent for tension headaches, irritability and over-excitement, sleeplessness and depressive states associated with digestive dysfunction. It is an excellent anti-microbial and skin healer – good for burns and sun burns, insect bites and other wounds.

Night time tea

Mix 2 teaspoons each of lavender flowers, chamomile flowers, lime blossom and lemon balm flowering tops with 1 teaspoon rose petals. Use 1-2 teaspoons of the herb mix per cup and infuse covered for 5-10 minutes before drinking, to relax gently into sleep.

Lemon and Orange Balms

Lemon and Orange Balms (Melissa officinalis, Melissa officinalis ‘Mandarina’) are beautifully scented mint plants with the minty tendency to spread via rhizomes so best planted in a pot. Mel refers to honey and this plant is beloved of bees and other pollinators. It has been used since mediaeval times to soothe tension, dress wounds and ease digestion. The lemon smell lifts the moods and it is used for anxiety and depression, insomnia and nervous headaches. It is also anti-viral against the viruses causing cold sores and chickenpox and can reduce thyroid function and associated heart palpitations. Avoid using more than occasionally if you have an underactive thyroid.

Iced Lemon Balm infusion

Fill a large jug with sprigs of lemon balm (ideally picked just before flowering when the fragrance it at its strongest) – fill with spring water and leave to infuse for 8-12 hours. When about to serve, add ice for a delicious, cooling summer drink.

Hyssop

Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) has beautiful blue flowers and forms small semi-evergreen shrubs, flowering from summer to early autumn. There are white and pink variants too. The flowers are delicious in green salads but the leaves are very pungent, so use them sparingly with meats and other fatty foods to aid digestion. It is one of the herbs in bouquet garni. Medicinally it is used mainly for coughs, whooping cough, bronchitis sinusitis, asthma and respiratory catarrh, as it is strongly anti-bacterial and anti-viral. It also reduces inflammation in the urinary tract. It can be used topically for burns, bruises and rheumatism. Avoid in pregnancy and do not use continuously for long periods.

Catmint

Catmint (Nepeta cataria) is so called because cats adore the smell and will roll in it to enjoy its mild euphoric effects. There are other garden herbs called catmint – Nepeta x faassenii and N. racemosa – but these don’t have the same culinary and medicinal qualities. True catmint has white/pink flowers from early summer to early autumn with pungent aromatic leaves. A hot infusion will promote sweating to treat fevers, cold and flus as well as childhood illnesses such as measles. It is calming and soothing for the nervous system, helping restless children to get off to sleep. It also calms upset stomachs and counters colic, flatulence and diarrhoea. Freshly picked young shoots can be added to salads or rubbed onto meat to release their aroma.

Lemon Bergamot

Lemon bergamot (Monarda citriodora) is one of the bee balms, native to the southern USA and northern Mexico. When crushed, the aroma is lemony and resembles that of the Italian Bergamot orange. It is a wonderful carminative to settle digestion, release trapped wind, relieving nausea and vomiting. It is also useful for menstrual cramps (as is Peppermint and Oregano) and will lift the spirits. Dried bergamot flowers keep their fragrance well and are used in potpourri.

Red Dead Nettle

Red Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum) is a small downy annual with heart-shaped leaves and pinkish-purple flowers, a common native plant of farmland and waste places. It is an excellent styptic (to stop bleeding) and bruise-herb as well as being useful as a tea in the early stages of ‘a chill’. The young shoots are delicious cooked with chives and a little butter. Its close relative white dead-nettle (L. album) looks much like a flowering nettle with no sting and is a useful menstrual regulator as well as treating cystitis, enlarged prostates and upper respiratory catarrh.

Motherwort

Motherwort (Leonorus cardiaca) is a tall and elegant mint with dense whorls of pink/white flowers all the way up the square stem and leaves ending in 3-7 finger-like lobes. It is an excellent bitter sedative, calming the nerves, settling a nervous stomach and reducing heart palpitations and high blood pressure. It’s an excellent women’s herb, as the name suggests, used for painful periods, for anxiety in late pregnancy and labour. Best taken as a tea, too bitter for culinary use.

Basil

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) does not just belong in the kitchen, where it has an affinity for tomatoes and pasta al pesto. Its essential oil is important in aromatherapy, being effective against melancholy and fear. This can be discovered on eating Basil leaves – never take the essential oil internally. Native to India and the near East, it has been cultivated in the Mediterranean for thousands of years. There are cinnamon, Lemon and purple variants. Sacred basil aka Tulsi (O. tenuiflorum) originating in Thailand is revered in India as a sacred medicinal herb.

Pesto Genovese

Blend (or grind in a mortar and pestle) 1 tablespoon pine nuts, 4 tablespoons fresh basil leaves and 2 cloves garlic until smooth. Drizzle in up to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (a sweet, not peppery variety) until the mixture is a smooth paste. Season with salt to taste. Will keep in the fridge for 1 week or can be frozen. Add 75g parmesan cheese (if desired) before serving and loosen with a little pasta cooking water before tossing into pasta.