Herbarium – this book has everything you need to know about herbs

This book is important as much for its fantastic illustrations as its information about herbs. As with Caz Hildebrand’s other book, The Geometry of Pasta (2010), Herbarium (2016) doesn’t give recipes, but that should not mean it can’t have a place on your cookbook shelves.

In the introduction, Hildebrand writes, “We’re missing out on herbs if we don’t appreciate their multidimensional personalities; their varying medicinal, culinary, spiritual, cultural and magical qualities and histories. They are fascinating, each with their own stories to tell; I’ve very much wanted to listen to each herb, to let it speak for itself. Where flowers bring beauty to the garden, herbs bring that but also usefulness, morality, wisdom.

“What is a herb? Definitions vary, of course, but the simplest could go something like this: herbs are plants that are useful to humans for flavouring, food, medicine or perfume. It is helpful, perhaps, to distinguish herbs from spices: we might think of the herb as the fresh, leafier part of a plant, whereas the spice is the dried seed, berry or root – although that is by no means a rule [...] In many cases, herbs are simply weeds in the right place at the right time.”