“Les Vint-I-Cinc Herbes”. The Twenty-Five Herbs. Well… Almost.

Sunday was a lovely day. Pep’s mum Elena, his sister Anna, her partner Toni, Pep and I went on our search for the twenty-five herbs in Pinos. As long as we remembered them all we’d be ok!

Last year Elena and Anna invited me on their yearly outing to search for the so called 25 herbs, all legal I think! Accompanying us was one of Elena’s friends, an expert in the “field”. She knows every single herb, weed and flower, what they can be used for and which ones should be avoided. A bit like going wild mushroom picking. Mmmmm, wild mushrooms, roll on October. Oops, sorry, I got sidetracked! More on that in a a few months time. Let’s enjoy the summer for now.

As you can imagine I find it all rather interesting. I love learning about natural remedies and going on this excursion piqued my curiosity even more. These herbs are picked in the surrounding areas of Benissa and are used for all sorts of respiratory ailments including the common cold and bronchitis. When Elena and Anna said they were going again this year I jumped at the chance to tag along. As it was a Sunday Pep and Toni joined us too. Pep is also very interested and because he works the land and is used to seeing a lot of these herbs, he wanted to find out a bit more about them.

Thankfully it was slightly overcast and a bit cooler than it has been recently. The past few days Pep and I had spent too much time outside in the sun and had suffered a slight touch of heat stroke. It has been rather hot lately and we tend to forget that the sun is pretty strong this time of year, there’s so much to do in the “huerta” that we stay out there for longer than we should. We’ll never learn! Even though we both cover ourselves in suntan lotion, wear hats and drink gallons of water, once 12pm rolls around we should really call it a day. Well, at least until about 5:30pm when the sun isn’t quite as fierce and we’ve had the obligatory siesta (Pep, not me!)

Anyway, back to the herbs. Off we all trot around 11ish towards the Sierra Bernia. The lady that came with us last year has some land very close to Bernia, she mentioned that we should go there to see what we could find. We’d left it a bit late this year, May is the preferred month because the herbs’ medicinal properties are at their peak, some of the herbs would probably be past their best but no doubt we’d manage to find something.

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We managed to find 6 of the herbs here, wild thyme (tomillo, friula in Valenciano), St John’s Wort (hipérico), “rapallengua” (no doubt you’ve seen it in your garden if you live in this area, it’s sort of sticky and winds itself round everything it comes into contact with), “herba cinc costelles” (another one you’ve no doubt seen, so called because of the 5 “ribs” in each leaf, we used to play with it when we were kids), rosemary (romero) and “brotónica” (I think, I did get rather confused with them all in the end).

In the meantime we were all racking our brains to recall the 25 herbs that are required for this remedy. Every time we remembered one we wrote it down but once we’d got to 17 we were stuck. We’d been very clever and left last year’s list at home, it was Sunday so the brain wasn’t quite as switched on as it should have been. We had to bite the bullet and ring the expert.

Once she’d informed us of the remaining herbs we went on our way to the next stop: the roadside. I find it strange how some herbs are only in certain spots, possibly in no more than a ten metre radius and then nothing. This is why we came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road, we weren’t sure if we’d see these herbs anywhere else.

It was time to move on to the last spot, we were getting rather hungry and the paella still had to be made. It was only a few metres down the road so we parked up and went on the hunt for a few more herbs. There was one in particular which last year was quite plentiful that we just couldn’t find, “rabo de gato”. It seems like it could be in danger of extinction, although Pep’s mum had managed to find some a few days earlier close to their casita and had it drying already. Just a quick note so you don’t think that what we’re doing is bad for these plants. The herbs we pick actually thrive from being lightly “pruned”, they will grow stronger that way and continue to grow. Frequent harvesting promotes tender shoots and is very beneficial for the plant.

Some of the herbs we were missing can be found at Pep’s casita and also on our land at home, fennel and lemon balm to name a few. Also leaves from the “níspero” tree (supposedly only 9), wild mint, lemon verbena (hierba luisa), and a few more. We’d pick these later. Depending on who you talk to, the list of herbs can sometimes reach 29 or 30 different varieties. On the list we have, 25 appears twice. At least that way it’s still twenty-five herbs, don’t want to break the tradition!!

So it was back to the casita for lunch, we were famished. I’m sure the smell of all these aromatic herbs opens the appetite. I think it was the quickest paella they’ve ever made, but it was delicious all the same.

After the usual “sobremesa”, the time after lunch where you all sit round the table talking and letting the food go down (and trying not to fall asleep in some cases) we took the dogs for a walk along one of our usual routes. Before Pep and I bought the house where we live now, we rented a little casita in Pinos for a couple of years. It’s so peaceful up there, a really lovely place to live and walking around this area brings back wonderful memories of when we used to live there.

Thankfully we managed to make it back to the casita literally seconds before it chucked it down. Funny weather! Before we left for home we had to arrange all the herbs on “cañizos”. Pep’s dad used to make these and they use them for all sorts of things, from drying grapes to storing veg and drying herbs. Whatever you put on them gets properly ventilated and you don’t run the risk of things rotting.

And that was our day. A rather splendid way to spend a Sunday, don’t you think? Once the herbs have dried we’ll divide them between all of us and crush them up ready to have as infusions. We’re just getting to the end of last year’s supply. They get used throughout the year, not just when we have colds. With all those different herbs it’ll probably cure anything!!

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back soon with another instalment. As always, any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Hasta pronto. Love Georgie and Pep xxx

UPDATE

1. A friend has informed me that “herba cinc costelles” is a member of the plantain family, specifically Ribwort Plantain or Plantago Lanceolata in Latin. It’s very good for asthma, bronchitis and the common cold and it’s leaves are also used for nettle and insect stings. Interesting
2. My mother-in-law has recently told me that, although there are more than 25 herbs that can be used for this remedy, once they’ve picked 25 different varieties they stop collecting more, using the ones they have harvested.