Flowers & aromatics
Herbal teas & 3 garden herbs
Salvia officinalis · Aloysia citriodora · Salvia rosmarinus
Sage, lemon verbena, rosemary — gathered from the garden, infused in barely-simmering, never-boiling water: summer's teas of light.
Traditional use
Aromatic herbs are the oldest friends of the Mediterranean garden. Sage takes its name from the Latin salvare, 'to save': it was called the guardian of the home and of digestion. Rosemary, shrub of sun and scrubland, accompanied vigour and memory — crowns of it were woven for students. Lemon verbena, brought from South America in the 17th century, settled into our gardens to become the evening tisane par excellence. Three plants of high summer, gathered at the kitchen door.
What science observes
What gives these herbs their fragrance — their essential oils, terpenes and polyphenols such as rosmarinic acid — is fragile: boiling water carries it off as steam. This is why we infuse covered, in hot but not boiling water, for just a few minutes: the lid holds in the aromas that would otherwise escape. Sage and rosemary are rich in tonic aromatic compounds; lemon verbena in citral, that lemony molecule that soothes. Nothing spectacular to promise — simply living plants, received fresh, in all their finesse.
In the kitchen
I gather them from the garden all summer long, a handful at a time. In the morning or through the day, an infusion of rosemary with a little fresh ginger, for clarity and drive. In the evening, lemon verbena alone — a pure tisane of light, lemony and calm, that prepares for sleep. Sage readily joins the cooking: a few leaves with vegetables, a hot water after the meal for digestion. We rinse the sprigs, slip them into the teapot, cover, and let steep for three to five minutes. Fresh, they give twice the fragrance; dried in the shade, they carry summer into winter.
Resonance
These three herbs are the garden made tisane — summer's light kept in a cup. Rosemary wakes and clears, sage cleanses and reassures, verbena soothes and unknots. Together they hold the day from morning to evening: drive, then calm. Their vibration is that of the simple, right gesture — to step out and gather a few paces away, and receive in return all the fragrance of a patch of earth.