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Colonial Herbs and the Herb Garden

© Kathern Welsh

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, a tradition here in the United States, we reflect back to where it all started, with the colonists and the American Indians. Thanks was given to God for His abundance and a meal was shared among peoples of different races, where each was able to sample the foods of the other.

From the sharing of this first Thanksgiving meal, American colonial cuisine became a blend of Native American foods and traditional English cooking. As stated in Mother Nature's Herbal by Judy Griffin, Ph.D., variety in cooking styles quickly became regional as each colony developed its own specialty. Corn and apple dishes dominated the simple meals from the time the Native Americans shared their corn seeds and taught the settlers how to grow abundant crops. Europeans brought seeds of their favorite vegetables and herbs to plant alongside the American corn, beans and squash.

By 1780 every food crop known to the western world was being grown here and every settler had a vegetable garden laced with herbs. The most popular herbs were garlic, onion, sage, rosemary, thyme and parsley. Herbs were used for food, medicine, seasoning and for decorative purposes.

The colonial garden was planted outside the back door and produced a variety of seasonal herbs. Besides the herbs grown to use as seasoning, tansy was grown close to the door to repel ants. Many used the tansy blooms, hung upside down in the doorway, to repel flies. Many herbs were hung upside down from the kitchen rafters to be dried and saved for winter cooking.

Here is a list of some of the favorite herbs and remedies grown and enjoyed by the colonists, many of which are still in use today.

BASIL: Grown for commercial culinary use in Virginia before the Revolutionary War. It is an annual that flourishes in full sun.

CARAWAY: The roots were cooked and eaten like carrots, and the seeds were chewed or added to cheese, fruit and baked goods as a carminative digestant. Caraway grows well in moist soil and partial sun.

CATNIP: Women used catnip in a sitz bath to make them fruitful. It was also steeped in wine or mead for contusions, head colds and stomachaches. Catnip grows best in shade.

CHAMOMILE: The flowers were cooked in a "posset to provoke sweat and expel colds and aches." Jaundice and dropsy were treated with a syrup made with sugar and the flowers and leaves were often made into decorations for the bath and house.

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