16/09/2022
No, it’s not like I thought (and maybe you too, but did not admit it), it’s not after the nice girl Rosemary, or the neighbourhood sisters Rose and Mary it was named. The herb growing at the Mediteranean, and now with the climate changes even more and more north, has his name earned by the dew coming from the sea, the same the sheep on the small island en face are licking when the rain becomes rare, the one condensed on its needles we never see because we get up to late on vacations or because the needles are too thin to keep the drops of the dew for a very long time….or just because the etymology of mediteranean herbs, around since the beginning of the world (so to say), is so old that it belongs to mythology.
Even if it’s not about the girl Rosemary, there is some love story connected to each herb: first it was dedicated to Aphrodite, then, in the middle ages, they believed it was enough to cut a branch of rosemary to make somebody fall in love with you. Since then, the humans changed (to avoid saying progressed), it does not work that way anymore, who wants to be disturbed while watching the smart phone with whirling branches of rosemary?
The custom at marriage celebration wants all the invitees have a small sprig of rosemary on their lapel or brides a rosemary headpiece: as a symbol for love, or for the evergreen effect or just to stay awake this memorable night of their life (like the Greek students who kept rosemary on their head to stay alert while studying).
Anyway, since then – since the middle ages, the sayings and the customs - science had a word to add. Nothing specially new, just confirmed how good it was for circulation, against fatigue, headache, tired feet, muscles… Oh yes, and different bacteria. That was indeed handy when, again in the middle ages (or later, because oral mythology is never very accurate with centuries), they used it during the epidemies of plague. The use of rosemary is transmitted by a story from the south of France, Marseille or some uncertain place, where still today the recipe of the “vinaigre de quatre voleurs” keeps in memory some versions of the four thieves who survived the plague, mostly robbing the deaths, thanks to a vinegar with herbs, containing rosemary.
I almost forgot another legend about this unescapable magic herb. A Hungarian queen, Isabel or Elisabeth, who lived in not a certainly remembered century, being already in an advanced age, in her seventies if the legend does not lie, had many health problems and heavy rheumatism. Luckily, someone smart and knowledgeable about herbs prepared a special tonic, a remedy with rosemary and other maravillas, which magically cured her illnesses, brought the queen back on feet, so much that she was asked into marriage by the much younger Polish king. I know, I know, the ones not believing in herbal medicine will say it was for the kingdom and not for the rosemary, but…nevertheless, the medicine known under the French name “L’eau d’Hongrie” continued to be extremely popular...and is still produced because good stories always sell and was indeed praised by Mme the Sevigne, another rheumatic history figure.
Well, there is nothing compared to a rosemary bath: already the preparation, cooking the dried herbs in the big old casserole filling the kitchen with its fragrance, passed through the drain into the bath tube with some sea salt…hmmm…you can add a spoon of olive oil to make your skin soft …. relieves the tired muscles, refresh …whatever the result, the time you take for yourself is always a good time invested.
