Plants aromatics are fragrant plants used in cooking as condiments, aromatics or spices. They are sometimes combined in mixtures or used in herbal medicine thanks to their essential oils. These plants have been cultivated by monks since the VIIe century in medieval gardens for primarily medicinal purposes. The oldest and best known is theherbularius, or square of the singles. This type of garden made it possible to use plants to treat everyday ailments: the worry was used for its healing powers, thyme and matricaria chamomile to soothe coughs or respiratory problems, mint and wormwood for stomach aches, little chamomile, the officinal verbena or the benoîte to fight the fever, sage to heal wounds.
Some plants were intended exclusively for women’s problems such asmugwort, the lemon balm or the street. We also found in this garden a square of magic plants as beautiful as poisonous as the digitalis, the datura or the belladonna in the witch squares. In the vegetable garden, we mainly cultivated root vegetables intended for stews or soups: spinach, leeks, garlic and some condiments intended to spice up dishes such as horseradish, fennel or lovage.
Nowadays, the range of aromatic plants, spices, condiments and herbs has widened. One finds in almost all the gardens of individuals or market gardeners, parsley, chives, pepper mint, from basil, of the’tarragon, caraway,shallot, of the’oregano, of the savory, of the’hyssop, mustard, lemongrass and many more. Herbs can be used fresh, dried, or even roasted to enhance the taste of certain dishes.
Other plants (flowers, stems or roots) enter into the composition of herbal teas, syrups or even liqueurs, the oldest of which were concocted by monks. This is the case, for example, of theelixir from the Grande Chartreuse, lemon balm water or Benedictine. Some of these plants, like theangelic, myrtle or citron, are served confit or are used to create liqueurs. Our slideshow invites you to enter a wonderful world of tastes, shapes and colors dazzling. All that will be missing is the smells …
NB: the therapeutic uses mentioned should not be practiced without the advice of a pharmacist or a doctor.
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