 And now, the history of Rosemary. Rosemary is yet another illustrious member of the Lamy A.C.E. family, which includes Mint, Basil, Marjoram, and Time. However, it's most closely related to oregano. Hey, hey, hey, hey! You are to get along right now while I will harvest you both! That's better. The name Rosemary comes from the Latin root Ross, meaning dew, and Marinas, meaning sea. And this makes a lot of sense because it's often called the dew of the sea or sea dew because of the shimmering blue flowers that cover the rosemary bush during winter. It actually has several other nicknames, but my favorite of which is Ruti, Potuti, Cuti, and Muti. Rosemary originates from all over the Mediterranean Sea region. In fact, it is one of the most common plants of the Mediterranean Sea area because it loves to grow in the chalky soil or rocky limestone that is characteristic of the Mediterranean coastline. Rosemary has been with us since the dawn of civilization. Around 5000 BC, references to rosemary were found written in cuneiform on stone tablets. Rosemary is known as the herb of remembrance, which is funny because scholars sure didn't remember to write anything down about it after scrolling on a bunch of stone tablets. Sure, we know that the pharaohs were buried with rosemary in Egypt, but really, we have little to no evidence about it until about 500 BC when the ancient Greeks and Romans fell in love with it. The ancient Greek scholars would use rosemary to aid their studies and students would bind wreaths of it to their heads to aid their memories. I'm sorry, kids, but bind a little bit of rosemary till your skull ain't gonna help unless you done your homework. Now get back to those books, kiddos. Pliny the Elder mentions rosemary in the natural history, as does Pandanius discuritis in his famous Demeteria Medica, which was the primary go-to herbal text for almost 1400 years. Wow, talk about cornering the market. Rosemary was introduced to China in 220 AD. And then for a long while it kind of just, you know, hung around and did its thing, you know, being cool, wearing dark shades, hanging out parties, weddings, and funerals. At ancient Greek and Roman weddings, rosemary was used in the head wreaths worn by brides. And that carried on until that fashion became like, oh, so 100 AD. At which time, bouquets became more of the fashion and rosemary was integrated into those. During the 8th century, it was the Romans who brought rosemary to England. Now this is most likely thanks to Charlemagne, who, in addition to running the Roman Empire, was an avid herb-growing nut and mandated that rosemary be grown in gardens alongside other awesome herbs. However, it's unclear as to whether rosemary stayed in England over the next couple centuries and was cultivated and grown. That is until 1338, when rosemary gets officially naturalized in Britain, when cuttings were sent by the Countess of Haynult to her daughter, Queen Philippa, the wife of Edward III. The Countess convinced the king and queen that it was so fabulous. They went ahead and planted it at the old palace at Westminster. After that, man, rosemary had it easy, and you could find it in every single herbal text in England. Rosemary gained even more popularity in 14th century Europe thanks to Queen Elizabeth. Nope, not that Queen Lizzie. Queen Elizabeth of Hungary. Now she reportedly cured herself of her semi-paralysis because she drank a concoction of rosemary that helped ease the pain in her joints. This formula became famously known as Hungary Water and was later turned into a popular perfume. That was all the rage until the 18th century when Oda Cologne took over. Any Shakespeare fans out there are probably familiar with rosemary's most famous literary reference in plays like Hamlet. It's Rosemary. Now Shakespeare also mentions it in his play The Winter's Tale and twice in Romeo and Juliet. As was often the case with many of the other Mediterranean herbs, rosemary made its way over to the Americas thanks to the settlers of the 1600s. In the Teatrum Botanicum, John Parkinson, the buttoness to chose the first, mentions how rosemary was often used to make lutes and other instruments, which brings me to another odd fact. Rosemary was often a musical inspiration for the troubadours of the Middle Ages, or they just sung about it a lot. And apparently a lot of people still do. Plague! Plague! During the Black Plague, rosemary was huge because people believed that it helped stop the plague. People would place rosemary branches on the floors of their homes to help combat the plague. There was also a very popular concoction called the Four Thieves' Vinegar. This concoction was primarily composed of rosemary, sage, lavender and roux. And because of these factors, rosemary's price skyrocketed. I mean it was worse than drugs. Hey man, you want some sage? Maybe some lavender? How about some Primetime Grade A rosemary? This stuff's primo, man. Only six shillings a handful. And this was the actual price of rosemary in 1603 when the plague killed 38,000 people in London. Let's give you an idea of just how expensive that is. One price list that was found from 1625 said that 18 gallons of good ale with delivery could be had for only three shillings. That brings me up to Empress Josephine and her hubby, Napoleon, both of whom are obsessed with rosemary. In particular, rosemary water and perfume. Supposedly, Josephine would always wash herself in rosemary water before going to bed. And I guess he must have dug her smell quite a bit because he had the Royal Perfumier Chardin make up a couple of bottles. In fact, they recorded Napoleon as using 162 bottles of rosemary water in just the first three months of 1806. But does it stop there? No. Definitely no. Oh, definitely no. Decidedly no. Napoleon was such a fan of rosemary that as he lay dying, two pastels of rosemary were burning. Thanks to high-profile rosemary lovers like Napoleon, rosemary water became so popular that it was the first herbal product to be mass-marketed and produced. My question for today is, do you drink rosemary water or maybe some rosemary tea? Maybe? Please let me know in the comments down below. Until next time, be kind to each other and be sure to spruce up your day with a little bit of rosemary.