7-21-2024 5:05am

Philosophizing About Food With Francine: Magic of Rosemary

Lesley Misko Editor

by Francine Black

The herb pots are flourishing on the back deck in what seems a rather disorganized grouping: I plant them with companiable scents.

I just love the combination of rosemary and basil especially paired with cheese focaccia. The basil scents the ricotta filling and the rosemary infused olive oil bathes the hot bread.

Rosemary, ros marinus or dew of the sea, has been beloved by inhabitants of Rome and Greece for millennia. Legend has it that the Virgin Mary threw her blue cloak over rosemary shrubs and turned the white flowers to blue.

Our good friend, the ancient Roman scholar Pliny in his De Materia Medica, attested to the incredibly salubrious effects of rosemary: a garland of rosemary worn about the head increased intelligence and stimulated memory; a sprig placed under a spouse’s pillow ensured fidelity; a liberal application to rotting meat disguised the unpleasant odor; it stimulated “marital bliss”; it repelled moths, cured baldness, dandruff and skin ailments; it was used between the sheets to repel moths and bed bugs; it treated the plague, gout, melancholy, paralysis, arthritis, epilepsy, colds and bad breath!!!!!!!!

Whew, who knew!

Today we enjoy it as a culinary herb, an essential oil, a food preservative and as an additive to plastic food packaging.

(Don’t believe all that medical stuff - you’ll smell good but it probably won’t cure a thing!)

High in the mountains above Bally, where the dense groves of treetops seem to touch the sky, is Francine Black, Boyertown’s own version of chef Julia Child. Her daily activities reflect the things she most values: family and friends, music, and lovingly prepared food.