And now, the history of Rosemary. Rosemary is yet another illustrious member of the Lamy A.C. family, which includes Mint, Basil, Marjoram, and Time. However, it's most closely related to Oregano. Hey, hey, hey! You are just going to long 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, Patuti, Quti, and Moody. 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 Chucky soil or rocky limestone that is characteristic of the Mediterranean coastline. Rosemary has been with us since the dawn of civilization. Around 5,000 BC references the Rosemary were found written in Quneiform 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 enough 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 to your skull, I ain't gonna help unless you're done your homework. Now get back to those books kiddos. Plenty of the elder mentions Rosemary in the natural history, as does Pandanius Discurridious. In his famous Dimateria 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. Then for a long while, I kind of just 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 180 AD. At which time, the caves 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 Hainolt, toward daughter Queen Phillipa, 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 Elizabeth, 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 Odech loan took over. Any Shakespeare fans out there are probably familiar with Rosemary's most famous literary reference in plays like Hamlet. It draws me, but that's for the members. Now Shakespeare also mentions it in his play The Winter's Tale, and twice in Romeo and Julia. 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 Teatro Botanicum, John Parkinson, butnist to chose the first, mentioned 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 sang about it a lot. Rosemary... And apparently a lot of people still do. Plague! Plague! A plague! A plague! A plague! A plague! A plague! A 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 Rue. 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 bad some prime time grade A Rosemary. This stuff's primo man only 6 shieldings are 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 priceless that was found from 1625 said that 18 gallons of good ale with delivery could be had for only 3 shieldings. That brings me up to Ampere's Josephine and her hubby Napoleon both of her more 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 perfumeier, Shardan, make up a couple of bottles. In fact, they recorded Napoleon as using 162 bottles of Rosemary water in just the first 3 months of 1806. But does it stop there? No. Definitely no. Oh, it's coming off. It's coming off. Napoleon was such a fan of Rosemary that as he lay dying, two pastels of Rosemary were burned. 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 spuse up your day with a little bit of Rosemary. Bye!