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Coriander/Cilantro

Coriandrum sativum

The Carrot Family (Umbilliferae): Plants of the Airy Element

Symbolising: Love, Well-Being and Intelligence

Dancing Coriander

In the United States the fresh plant is called cilantro and the tiny dried fruit is called coriander. In many other parts of the world both plant and seed are called coriander.

Random Tidbits (not necessarily factual)

  • One of the longest recorded histories of all the spices-one of the medicinal plants mentioned in the Medical Papyrus of Thebes (written in 1552 BC)
  • According to Pliny: “the best (Coriander) came from Egypt,”and from thence no doubt the Israelites gained their knowledge of its properties.
  • When the Children of Israel were nourished by manna in the wilderness they claimed it was…”as coriander seed.” And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it ; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.”
  • Coriander is an ingredient in absinthe
  • Used to be made into a coriander ale as the volatile oils are extracted more readily by alcohol than water.
  • In 17th century Paris-it was the principal ingredient in Eau de Carnes a concoction used as liqueur or a cologne.
  • The Africans are said to have called this herb by a similar name goid, which Gesenius derives from a verb gadad, signifying ‘to cut,’ in allusion to the furrowed appearance of the fruit.
  • Originally in the northern countries of Europe, the chief consumption of coriander seed was in flavoring certain alcoholic liquors (gin). For which purpose it was largely grown in Essex.
  • Veterinary surgeons employ it as a drug for cattle and horses.
  • The Chinese believed the seeds had the power of conferring immortality.
  • Turner says (1551): “Coriandre layd to wyth breade or barly mele is good for Saynt Antonyes fyre”
  • Fruits and leaves posses totally different flavor and cannot be used as substitute for each other.
  • It’s name (Greek koris) means bug and it has been used planted around gardens to repel bugs (it can also be made into a spray for bug repellent).
  • Re-establishes harmony between the functions of blood and nerves and therefore cheers up and satisfies heart and mind.
  • Was grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
  • If used too freely the seeds become narcotic.
  • The Hungarians called it cig¡nypetrezselyem “gypsies’ parsley”

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1 Comment
June 18, 2007
Food Facts / Our Food

Gotta Grow GARLIC!!!!

Extra Pungent and Powerful…

“It is truth, garlic gives man youth.”

–cry of 5th century Greek garlic street hawkers

Allium sativum has been called many things from bountiful bulb to poor man’s treacle

Liliaceae: Lily Family. The other members of this family-the onion and leek, also contain many of the same compounds that are in garlic to a lesser degree and are therefore used quite similarly in most cases.

History and Mythology:

Garlic is the name given to the leek (herb) with gar (spear) shaped leaves and phallic flowers. Perhaps referring to the belief that garlic imparts warlike properties and raises passion. Its Latin name Allium sativum is derived from al = burning, sativum= harvested. It is uncertain exactly where it originated but it is believed to be from either Central Asia and/or Siberia.

William Harvey who published a revolutionary book The Motion of Blood in 1628, was intrigued by a folk remedy for colds which placed a clove of garlic in the stockings overnight. This generally led to the smell of garlic on the patient’s breath the next morning, and reinforced his ideas of how blood circulated around the body. The other well-known connection between garlic and blood is the herb’s traditional property of repelling vampires.

Garlic was also reported to destroy a magnet’s power of attraction. Galen described it as the rustic’s theriac, (meaning heal-all or antidote to poison). Garlic has been used for thousands of years for both culinary and medicinal purposes all over the world.

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31 Comments
June 17, 2007
Food Facts / Our Food

Garlic

A feast is not a feast unless to begin
Each guest is given ample Toes of Garlic,
That finest aphrodisiac
To whet his appetite for later revelry

Quintus Horace (65-8BC)

Garlic has been used for thousands of years all over the planet for health, strength and protection in man and animal. If this doesn’t prove it’s power what does? It’s antioxidant properties help to keep away cancer of the digestive system, keeping the blood clean and the toxins moving out of our system. Also good for respiratory–detoxifying our lungs and strengthening our mucous lining with beneficial bacteria.

Digesting our food is key to being healthier and happier, bacteria and yeasts help us to do this and garlic helps to keep the balance. The smell is also a part of the key to garlic, as people used to merely hang garlic from their rafters, over their beds, or around their necks for protection from vampires and evil bloodsucking creatures that drain your life force….

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1 Comment
June 15, 2007
Read more about the article Cabbage Unveiled
Food Facts / hellaD / Our Food

Cabbage Unveiled

From Walking Sticks to Cancer Prevention Originally published April 2004 in Healthy Options magazine, New Zealand At first glance the cabbage seems rather unremarkable as it is common and inexpensive. It has proven itself for thousands of years to be one of man's closest friends; providing nourishment, preventing ill health, supporting the ailing body with the strong stalk of the…

5 Comments
May 24, 2007
Read more about the article How to Make Yogurt
Food Facts / Our Food

How to Make Yogurt

The most important concern with yogurt is to maintain a constant incubation temperature of about 110ºF (43ºC). This is the temperature that those friendly bacteria become the most active. There are several ways to do this depending on the season and where you live in the world. Simply use as much milk as you want yogurt. I generally like to…

4 Comments
May 23, 2007
Read more about the article Sesame Seed of Immortality
hellaD / Herbs and Spices / Our Food

Sesame Seed of Immortality

Originally published in Healthy Options, July 2004, New Zealand Perhaps the oldest seed utilized by man, sesame has been used for thousands of years as medicine, food and to light lamps. Although the first written record of sesame is 3,000 BC, Assyrian mythology gives sesame a role in the origins of our world. In this legend, the gods drank sesame…

11 Comments
May 15, 2007
Additives / Food Facts / Our Food

Himalayan Crystal Salt

meilamu

After I contracted typhoid in 2006 at a pagoda in Yangon/Rangoon, Burma/Myanmar I was put on a course of serious antibiotics for ten days which completely wiped out any beneficial flora I had established in my intestines. Not only does it take at least three months to recover from typhoid but it takes at least a year to re-establish the proper balance of micro-organisms within the digestive tract after a course of antibiotics, therefore I have been eating very carefully ever since the experience.

Despite my careful diet I have yet to regain the full digestive abilities I previously had been so proud of. I tried various fasts and dietary regimes to try to help speed recovery, drinking raw goats milk, making yogurt and religiously avoiding processed foods.

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8 Comments
May 14, 2007