Cottage Garden Plants, 1580-1660: Volume 2 Culinary and Aromatic Plants

Historical rabbit holes, for those who are inclined.

These slender booklets from Historical Management Associates are the work of an organization dedicated to historical re-enactment in the UK. They are written with a stickler’s attention to historical precision and a conviction that nothing is too arcane to investigate. Some of the books are simple transcriptions of period manuscripts; others represent significant original research, as in Cattle Farming and Grazing Management, which is 52 pages long but cites 36 sources, many of them published in the 17th century.

Entries include

• modern plant names
• period plant names
• period descriptions
• period illustrations
• propagation and cultivation information from period sources
• harvesting
• evidence of frequency of use and in which social strata

Volume 2 contains onion types, squashes, mints and other culinary herbs, soft fruit, bushes, and aromatic herbs.

Staplebound pamphlet. 57 pages