ROOTS AND BULBS WITH HERBAL PROPERTIES

Sunday, December 11, 2011

The subject of herbal roots is an area ripe for rediscovery. Among forgotten roots we can find earthy flavors, exotic cosmetics and Biblical aromatics. Like other solid fragrant substances, aromatic roots hold their perfume for years because the odorous molecules evaporate more slowly than in a liquid. This factor made them particularly valuable to ancient civilizations. As meat became more affordable very few of the edible wild roots made their way into the vegetable garden and so herbal roots for the cooking pot lost their popularity. In the seventeenth century, there were theories about the windiness, brain damage, melancholy and various negative states caused by eating roots. In his 1636 herbal, the histories of plants, Gerard writes of turnips which flower in the same year they are sown: they are a degenerate kind… causing frenzied and giddiness of the brain for a season.