Heart, body and soul
CREATE AND COOK WITH A SIMPLE INGREDIENT TO FEED YOU, GIVE TO OTHERS AND TO LIFT YOUR SPIRITS
For the heart, a joy-filled make that’s as much a pleasure to create as it is to give away to loved ones. For the body, capture the organic benefits of plants in handmade, homegrown skincare. And finally, food for the soul that pairs flowers and herbs with complementary flavours. This is potion making for grown-ups.
ROSEMARY Plant, grow and eat
Robust in form and flavour, rosemary is a staple of both garden and kitchen. It’s one of those herbs, always lurking in the cupboard, that can feel so familiar we forget to experiment with it.
As a rule of thumb, in the kitchen rosemary is a winter herb, at its best during the centralheating months and its pairings reflect that. Surprisingly adaptable, rosemary brings heartiness to a stew or casserole, a fragrant touch to breads, and takes roast veg to new heights of flavour.
The ritual of brushing your fingers through its waxy green needles is impossible to resist, thanks to the herb’s terpenoids (those medicinal, almost eucalyptus-like notes) that stay on your hands for hours. Rosemary is pungent, but if you’d like a bit more fragrance alongside your punch then choose one of the particularly flavourful varieties, such as Tuscan Blue,
Spice Island and Sissinghurst Blue. Evergreen, rosemary flowers in early spring and the flowers are edible – just leave some for the bees.
As you’d expect with a Mediterranean herb, rosemary needs well-drained soil that gets full sun. Autumn and spring are the best times to get a rosemary plant going. Start them off in pots to avoid any tantrums over wet soil, then plant into the garden after a couple of years. Avoid that woody legginess by cutting back each year after flowering, and mulch in autumn. »