Fennel

Foeniculum vulgare Fennel is now a very common escape on roadsides, especially near the sea, and the leaves can be collected from May until November.

The Romans cultivated fennel for its aromatic seeds and edible shoots, eaten as a vegetable. Roman bakers are said to have put the herb under their loaves to improve the flavour. The Anglo-Saxons also frequently used fennel in both cookery and medicine. Traditionally, fennel was grown to eat with fish, in particular with salt fish, during Lent. Matthew Robinson, in The New Family Herbal and Botanic Physician, suggests: ‘One good old custom is not yet left off, viz. to boil Fennel with fish, for it consumes that phlegmatic humour, which fish copiously produces, though few know why they use it.’