Friday, June 21, 2013

Herbal Wisdom: Hyssop

We are thrilled to have partnered with Bailiwick Herbs this year.  Not only are they bringing in some fantastic fresh and dried herbs to the market but they are also bringing their extensive knowledge of both culinary and medicinal herbs.


Personally, I’m fascinated by herbs – as I am with all traditional skills and wisdom.  However, I do not know as much as I would like to know about them.  For that reason, I’m starting a new post series on Herbal Wisdom.  As I learn more from Josh and Becky at Bailiwick Herbs I’ll be passing that knowledge along to you.


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Today’s herb is Hyssop.


Fresh Hyssop has a floral-mint aroma and flavor. Use the fresh flowers or greens in salads, pastas, or summer soups.  You can also use it as a replacement for mint in robust recipes.  It’s a great change up from sage in your browned butter sauces, or anywhere that sage is called for.  On a sweeter note, you can infuse hyssop into a custard for pudding or ice cream, pulverize with sugar for jams or candies, or cook with fruit for syrups or sauces!


 


From Botanical.com







Hyssop is a name of Greek origin. The Hyssopos of Dioscorides was named from azob (a holy herb), because it was used for cleaning sacred places. It is alluded to in the Scriptures: ‘Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean.’—Cultivation—It is an evergreen, bushy herb, growing 1 to 2 feet high, with square stem, linear leaves and flowers in whorls, six- to fifteen-flowered. Is a native of Southern Europe not indigenous to Britain, though stated to be naturalized on the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey in the New Forest.

Hyssop is cultivated for the use of its flower-tops, which are steeped in water to make an infusion, which is sometimes employed as an expectorant. There are three varieties, known respectively by their blue, red and white flowers, which are in bloom from June to October, and are sometimes employed as edging plants. Grown with catmint, it makes a lovely border, backed with Lavender and Rosemary. As a kitchen herb, it is mostly used for broths and decoctions, occasionally for salad. For medicinal use the flower-tops should be cut in August.


It may be propagated by seeds, sown in April, or by dividing the plants in spring and autumn, or by cuttings, made in spring and inserted in a shady situation. Plants raised from seeds or cuttings, should, when large enough, be planted out about 1 foot apart each way, and kept watered till established. They succeed best in a warm aspect and in a light, rather dry soil. The plants require cutting in, occasionally, but do not need much further attention.


—Medicinal Action and Uses—Expectorant, diaphoretic, stimulant, pectoral, carminative. The healing virtues of the plant are due to a particular volatile oil, which is stimulative, carminative and sudorific. It admirably promotes expectoration, and in chronic catarrh its diaphoretic and stimulant properties combine to render it of especial value. It is usually given as a warm infusion, taken frequently and mixed with Horehound. Hyssop Tea is also a grateful drink, well adapted to improve the tone of a feeble stomach, being brewed with the green tops of the herb, which are sometimes boiled in soup to be given for asthma. In America, an infusion of the leaves is used externally for the relief of muscular rheumatism, and also for bruises and discoloured contusions, and the green herb, bruised and applied, will heal cuts promptly.


The infusion has an agreeable flavour and is used by herbalists in pulmonary diseases.


It was once much employed as a carminative in flatulence and hysterical complaints, but is now seldom employed.


A tea made with the fresh green tops, and drunk several times daily, is one of the oldfashioned country remedies for rheumatism that is still employed. Hyssop baths have also been recommended as part of the cure, but the quantity used would need to be considerable.












Herbal Wisdom: Hyssop

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