A to Z of Herbs and Spices

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Spices have been traded for over 7,000 years and played a major role in the development of Western Civilization. Today, spices are quite common and easily come by. In ancient times though, they were a rare and costly commodity. Peppercorns, the most costly of the traded spices, would be sold individually and a bag was said to be worth a man's life.

Wars were fought and lands explored and colonised in an attempt to find new ways of obtaining spices from the Orient and gaining control of established routes.

As spices became more and more plentiful and available for culinary uses, people combined them to create new flavours. These mixes are still used today.

The first documented account of the use of herbs appears in 2000BC Babylon. It included reference to the medicinal uses of several herbs, many of which we still in use today such as bay and thyme.

Herbs have been used for thousands of years, since the dawn of time. They have been used for food, medicine, clothing, smoking, smelling, and cleaning among other uses. Empires may not have been fought over because of herbs as with spices, but their impotance in the formation of the modern world cannot be denied.

The Scents of Eden:
A History of the Spice Trade:

The Cinnamon Stick:
Tales of the Spice Trade

Herb:

any leafy part of a plant that is used in cooking for flavouring.

Spice:

any other part of a plant used in cooking for flavouring: bark, stem, shoot, root, nut, seed, or rhizome

Use generously:

Chervil, Chives, Lemon Balm, Borage, Mints, Parsley,Salad Burnet, Sweet Cicely

Use carefully:

Bay, Dill, Lovage, Sweet Marjoram, Peppermint, Savoury, Tarragon

Use sparingly:

Basil, Fennel, Oregano, Rosemary, Sorrel, Sage, Thyme

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. ~ Proverbs 15:17

A weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it to grow. ~ NanLT

Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I'm taking with me when I go. ~ Erma Bombeck

No herb can remedy the anguish of love. ~ Ovid

An luigh nach fhaighear cha'n ì a chobhras.
[The herb that cannot be found will not give relief.] ~ Gaelic Proverb