The Tasty Herbalist is otherwise known as Cat.
I qualified as a medical herbalist in 2008 after completing a BSc (Hons) Herbal Medicine from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine.
On graduating I moved straight back to the countryside where I grow, gather, experiment, research, cook, eat and constantly learn
I live somewhere in the wilds of Scotland with a dog, two cats and a bloke. It’s a good life.
You can contact me (but please bear in mind that I don't and won't give consultations by email): tastyherbalist(at)gmail(dot)com
About the website
As I contemplated making a herb tea and promptly made a coffee instead this got me thinking. In theory all these herbs, berries, roots and flowers which I have prepared over the years should taste good.
Sipping my coffee (ground, black, no sugar thanks) I idly flicked through ’A Garden of Herbs' written by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde (1926) where she says:
“Why do we never make strawberry wine…? Why are our salads such dull affairs compared with the salads of Tudor and Stewart days? Why do we not flavour vinegar with gillyflowers, rosemary and many other herbs? Why do we never serve syrups made from flower-petals with sweet dishes?”
Quite Eleanour.
Modern herbal medicine has become a drudgery of dried herbs and extracts in ethanol and while they really do have their place it has all become a bit dull in its convenience.
This website is my way of exploring, developing and researching other ways of using herbs and making it accessible to everyone.
I hope to look beyond herbs being specifically medicinal. Many fruits and vegetables are fairly recent additions to Britain and prior to this it was the herbs which took the place of vegetables on the nation’s plates. In these instances they were exploited as a supplier of vitamins and minerals and not relegated to a decorative sprig or sprinkle.
Herbs have been used in wines, ales, spirits, aromatic waters, syrups and pomanders. Good traditional uses which still have value today, but if we extend beyond those uses and look into more modern recipes who’s to say they can’t go into ice-cream, jellies, sauces, ketchups, pickles, chocolates, fudge and lollipops?
So, here we go… both traditional and modern ideas for making herbs tasty.
