March 26, 2024 • 30 mins
This popular and ancient herb is associated with a strange range of myths and legends, from scorpions and basilisks to star-crossed lovers. In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren explore the many stories of basil.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to save your prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm
Annie and I'm more.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In Vogelbaum, and today we have a classic episode for
you about.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Basil or basil.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Uh huh yep. So this is one of the episodes
that really cemented our mythology that Annie is a sleeper
agent for the British Empire, and you know that's what's
going on with her.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, that's what's just going on. I have to say,
because there's been several instances after that. Paprika Paprika was
another one. I have now started to say basil and
basil because I think I've gotten really in my head.
But I feel like I'm in a strange state. I'm
(01:00):
gonna I don't know, like something in my brain will awaken,
but I do say both alternately. Now, was there any
particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Lord now? No, The episode originally aired in June of
twenty eighteen, and I was just kind of going through
our older archive and I was thinking about the basil
plant that I killed over the winter, and it was like,
that sounds like a good topic. I wonder if it's
still pleasant to listen to, and it was, this is
(01:34):
a super fun one.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It was a really fun one. My basil plant. See
this is the issues I always pause before it. Now,
I'm like, which one are you going to say? It died?
I oh, oh, I'm sorry. Tragedy.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Ants came in out of nowhere and they killed the
plant and then they left. I thought I thought I
was gonna have a big ant problem, you know, And
I'm glad that I didn't. It seemed that they just
came in to kill this plant, and.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
They just marked the plant and then left. Yeah okay, all.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Right, sure vacated. This episode does remind me of one
of the funniest, in my opinion, complain to listener mails
we ever got, which was why didn't you talk about pesto?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That was sort of the heart of the message. And
I was like, oh, yeah, okay, but we could just
talk about pestal later.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, we could do a whole episode
about pasto. I mean we probably should.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
We probably should.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It was just lutest Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
This person was very seemed very passionate about pasto.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, we appreciate passion around here.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
We do. I'm not mad about this message. I just
remember kind of being taken back.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, just just like, oh, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know.
I didn't know that this was so dear to you.
I would have, I didn't. I meant to no pesto offense,
you know, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Never, never any pesto. She's just funny because at the
time I don't think i'd had pasto. I either hadn't
had it or I just didn't know i'd had it.
I definitely did had not knowingly had it. But I
had a friend who had a lot of basil plants
(03:21):
and she made some homemade pesto from them, and then
after that I was sold, and I was really mad.
I hadn't been.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Joining eaten more of it, but previously Yeah, sure, share, yes.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, well, I guess we should let past Annie and
Lauren take it away. Hello, and welcome to food Stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm Annie Reeve and I'm more in volba bam and
today we're talking about one of my favorite herbs.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Oh we too.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Oh yeah, well, I think it's basically like everyone's favorite
herb worldwide.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Basically we're talking about basil. Basil. I really hesitated because
I almost said basil.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Uh a bit. Basil is according to BabyCenter Dot com
the twenty six hundred and sixtieth most popular name for
babies this year. Moving on up, I guess it's actually
moving on down. It was more popular last year.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But ah, that's too bad. I wonder where herb or
herb is on that list.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh, research for another day, yes, but no, today we
are talking about basil.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And what is it? Well.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Basil is a tender flowering plant with oblong leaves that
are highly aromatic. The species Acamum basilicum is in the
same family as mintce and lots of other culinary herbs
like sage or regano lavender.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
In time. There are over sixty types of basil. Oh
my gosh, I am saying basil and I.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Don't know why or hell okay, I mean, just roll with.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It, okay. I you know, some days you say basil,
some days just say basil, Some days you probably say
a completely different pronunciation. Anyway, there are over sixty types
shades of green to purple to.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Red, depending on the variety. Basil plants may grow about
one to three feet tall that's up to a meter and.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Taste wise, basil can have notes of lemon, annis, cinnamon, clove, licorice, citrus, jazzmine,
and thyme. Most basil grown in Asia typically has a
stronger clove flavor. I feel like I need to go
into a room and like have some kind of speech therapy.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I genuinely can't tell if you're doing this on prime.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I'm not doing it on purpose. I don't know what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
This is a terrific like Madonna moment.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
It really is, it really is. Here we go. According
to what I I read, it's best to pick basil
leaves before the plant flowers, which means I'm sool because
mine has beautiful, bright white buds. To prevent this, growers
are advised to pinch it back. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
For optimal herb leaf growth, you're gonna want to trim
off flowers as they start to grow. However, basil flowers
are also edible. Lots of herb flowers are edible. Google
to be sure before you eat something. But yeah, basil
buds and flowers are a little bit more peppery than
the leaves and are a pretty delightful addition to like
salads and cocktails stuff like that. Bees and other pollinators
(06:34):
also do like them, so leaving flowers on your outdoor
plants can help out some of those local pollinator populations.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And all is not lost for me because I also
read that apparently basil keeps away cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's a plant, thinking that can grow pretty well without pesticides,
because yeah, a lot of a lot of bugs don't
like it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Mine grows pretty well in general, because I'm bad with plants,
and I had I had eleven like herbs last year
and now I have only two, the basil and the parsley,
and they like I've forgotten to water them for weeks.
Oh sure, and they are still kicking. Yeah, And they're
(07:16):
both lovely and delightful and probably about the only thing
I can grow.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I've done that with mint.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Oh yeah, mint is tough.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Oh yes, it's It's gonna outlast all of.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Us, Yes it will. An African legend asserts that basil
keeps away scorpions, on the other hand, because something we
learned during the research for this is that basil is
full of contradictions throughout history. In the sixteen hundreds, English
(07:48):
botanist Nicholas Culpeper, referring to a French physician, suggested that
it was understood that smelling too much basil would turn
your brain into a breeding ground for sus.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So it either keeps scorpions away or merely smelling it
will make scorpions appear in your brain cavity one or
the other.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Basil has a surprising amount of connections throughout history to scorpions.
Another superstition of the time was that if you left
a leaf of basil underneath the pot, it would transform
into a scorpion after enough time had passed. A sixteenth
century Flemish doctor warned that if you crushed a basil
leaf between two bricks, you'd have a scorpion on your hands.
(08:37):
Were people doing this on mass leaving basil between bricks?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And I think it just gets left there and sometimes
scorpions show up later. I'm you and your logic, Lauren, sorry,
speaking of logic.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Basil nutrition, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, in it, okay, in the amounts that you would
eat basil, it's essential nutritionally, moot okay. I mean you know,
I guess it's it's got some fiber mm hmm. If
you eat about two chopped tablespoons of basil, you're giving
yourself about five percent of your daily recommended in take
of vitamin A.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Two chopped tablespoons. Okay, that might.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Be yeah, depending on how much you're eating.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Herbs in general are a wonderful addition to foods because
they pack a lot of flavor without adding sugar or fats.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I have been known to just I guess it's not
like I'm not frying them, but I'll make them crispy,
like I'll just oh, yeah, a pan, I'll just eat
the leaves. Oh sure. Chemically, basil has a lot of
interesting stuff going on. That hint of clove comes from eugenol,
the same chemical that gives clove it's clobiness. There's higher
(09:49):
levels of citral or lemonol along with the terpeen chemical lemonine,
and this is the same thing that's behind lemon peel scent.
Those chemicals are present in high levels and lemon and
lime basil. The same is true for the chemicals behind
liquorice for liquorice basil, cinnamon for cinnamon basil, so on.
There are so many types that have kind of similar.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, flavor profiles to something else exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Throughout history, basil has been used for a plethora of
medicinal purposes. Bronchitis insect bites, cold muscle pains, aeruvetic medicine
employed basil seeds. Current studies are looking into basil's potential
anti cancer, antimicrobial, anti accident, and anti viral properties as
well as well. It also has a known carcinogen called estragol,
(10:36):
but studies and rodents show that you need to take
in about one thousand times what's considered a normal amount
of basil before it'd give you cancer. An entry I
found on the supernatural uses of basil included love, wealth, cheerfulness, flying, production,
and extracism. Oh yeah, so let's talk about some production,
(10:57):
shall we Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
If you want to get all of those all those benefits.
Although basil plants will survive year to year, as you
have found ani in warm climates or kept indoors, they
are generally treated as an annual crop for production. Replanted
every year, they will not survive a frost. Farmers can
harvest up to five crops from the same plants in
(11:18):
a single growing season. Once harvested, basil has to be
treated pretty carefully to avoid damage. It's usually refrigerated immediately
like in the field if possible, after harvest. Even when
it's dried, it is treated very gently heated to no
higher than about ninety degrees fahrenheit about thirty two degrees
celsius to preserve the oils in it for growing at home.
(11:40):
If you ever buy fresh basil that you really like,
try trimming like a centimeter or so of the stalk
off of a sprig and then just putting it in
water in a sunny spot. Basil is pretty good at
growing from cuttings. Once a couple of centimeters worth of
roots grow, you can just plant it in soil, but
it also does grow pretty well without soil. It's one
of the plants being experimented with in hydroponic and aquaponic
(12:02):
studies investigating alternatives to traditional farming, which could become more
important as climate change affects our farmlands. Indeed, one study
I found was testing out basil's growth in water inhabited
by crawfish, and it did really well.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Aw food stuff, food stuff past and present into twine
mm hm.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And speaking of hydroponics, one of the best ways to
keep basil fresh once it's been cut off of a
plant is to place the stems in water and keep
the vase of basil that you've got at that point
in the fridge. Just change out the water every day.
You might want to cover the whole thing in plastic.
Your results may vary. Separate leaves, once they're d stemmed,
can be layered with paper towels to keep them fresh
(12:46):
a little bit longer. Some guides say that the paper
towels should be damp again. Your results may vary by
the numbers. Basil numbers are difficult to track because a
lot of it is fresh and that's generally used locally,
like pretty quickly after the harvest. But France, Italy, India, Thailand,
(13:08):
and Egypt grow a lot, producing just amongst themselves thousands
of tons per year. Hundreds of tons of dried basil
are imported to the United States and various European countries
every year, and basil oil is also a major production.
As of the mid nineteen nineties, about forty three tons
that's two point eight million dollars worth of basil oil
(13:30):
were in production every year.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Basil is used in various delicious ways and cuisines all
around the world. Thai Laoshan, Vietnamese, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Indonesian,
Indian basil chicken pestoke, praise all my favorite pizza, the
margarita deep fried basil alongside fruits and desserts and cocktails.
That dessert we had at Food and Wine it had basil.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah. Yeah, the key limeon watermelon wind.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah. And it's an ingredient in shaw.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
True, it's one of the things that makes it green.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I did not know that. I have no idea what
I thought chartreuse was, but I never would have guessed
that add basil in it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Basil seeds are also eaten. If you soak them in
water for like a couple minutes up to thirty minutes,
they'll they'll plump up with a gelatinous coating, the same
way that the chia seeds do. What's happening here is
that the outer layer, the outer skin of the seed,
contains mucilage or muselage, perhaps the sticky stuff that expands
and becomes sort of jelly like when it absorbs water.
(14:33):
And this is helpful to seeds because it means that
when they encounter moist soil that that mucilage grabs up
water for the seed to use and also kind of
sticks it in to the soil. It's also rad for
eating because it's texturally interesting. You get a little bit
of chew and like this burst of mild floral flavor
and then a crunch from the seed within. Bloomed basil
(14:55):
seeds are incorporated into cold drinks and chilled and frozen
desserts in and Southeast Asia.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Oh I bet that's good. Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's sort of like a like tapioca, yeah, bubble tea. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I have a friend. This reminds me because I was
thinking about this like two days ago. I have a
friend who is a She used to have a pretty
substantial fear of eating anything with seeds. Oh yeah, in
it like she won't eat strawberries. Oh wow, okay because
the little tiny sure, because she thought she knew it
(15:29):
was ridiculous, but she said she couldn't shake the idea
that would like sprout her stomach and kill her. And
I've been made to follow up because I was eating
pumpkin seeds the other day and I was like, I
wonder if this counts or if it's a specific type
of seed. I like to know more about people's fears
of things. I'm one of those weird people, So I'm
glad I have this reminder to follow up. To follow up, Yeah,
(15:50):
to follow up. I just want to understand.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
If it's only whole seeds or yeah, if you crunch
the seed, then clearly you're killing it, I think, right,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, how how far does this seed phobia go? That's
all I need to know. But that's a project, that's
a side project I'll do on my own time, absolutely
for now. Yeah, we're talking about Basil, which has been
a symbol of love in Italy and on certain Portuguese
holidays it makes up a part of a gift to
(16:19):
a loved one. Please, if there's any listeners in Portugal,
I'd love to hear more about that. Yeah. But throughout
its history, as we sort of alluded to, Basil has
represented everything from hatred to royalty to satan, sometimes all
at once. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So we're going to get into that confusing mash of
legend and history. But first we're going to get into
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you. All right,
(17:02):
So Basil history is tough to track down, it is,
but we have tried to make sense of the confusing
history that we have uncovered, and we will present it
to you as unconfusingly as possible that that is what
(17:23):
we promise, that is the foodstuff guarantee we do our best.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
So basil has been cultivated for about five thousand years
or so and most likely originated in India or around there.
It was found in the tombs of mummies, and historians
think it was used in embalming and preserving an ancient Egypt.
Some of the first records written records of basil came
out of Hunan, China in eight hundred and seven CE,
(17:51):
so that's pretty newish relatively, Yeah, relatively, I'm used to like.
Back in six thousand BC, whatever, whatever happened, the ancient
Greeks associated basil with mourning, referring to it as the
royal herb, possibly because of the Greek word basilius, meaning king,
(18:11):
and the French still call it the herb royal.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah. The ancient Greek term for basil was basilicon phyton,
a royal plant.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The Oxford English Dictionary entry on basil recounts it might
have been quote some royal ungent bath or medicine, and
that might be where the name came from. Another possible
etymological origin, though less likely, suggests that the Latin basilicus
as the root word for basil, basilicus, meaning dragon, the
(18:43):
same word for basilisk. Yeah, this is less likely, but
anytime we can bring up a basilisk, gonna.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Show Yeah, it's it's probably definitely not the root of
the word basil. But at one point the Latin term
for basil and the Latin term for basilisk were the
same basiliskus. Yes, the French words for basil and basilisk
are still the same basilic And this might be where
(19:14):
the connection to scorpions comes in. Oh okay, So, the
ancient Greek word basiliscus, meaning little king, was the term
for a type of bird that had this golden crust
of feathers on its head. The word could also refer
to a kind of poisonous snake that had a spot
on its head that supposedly resembled a crown. Pliny talked
(19:34):
about this and might have been referring to king cobras.
From these creatures we got the mythological basilisk, the venomous
lizard or serpent type being, and part of the myth
of the basilisk was that basil was a cure for
its venom. Oh herbalists were already using basil oil topically
to treat insect bites. And furthermore, the basilisk and the
(19:58):
scorpion were associated with one another because they were both venomous.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
A Greek legend gives basil its scientific name after a
Greek warrior, Alchemis, was killed by a gladiator, basil grew
where he fell. There's a similar Ish legend that has
basil growing on the spot where Helen and Saint Constantine
found the Holy Cross.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah. Some medieval legends describe Helen following a trail of
basil up to the cross, as the herb had apparently
sprung up wherever Jesus's blood had fallen to the earth,
and one legend in particular says that basil was growing
on the cross itself. This might have come from what
John wrote was inscribed on the cross Jesus of Nazareth,
(20:41):
king of the Jews. The Greek version of that inscription
uses the word Basilius for king.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
And another name for Basil is Saint Joseph's Wart, named
after Mary's husband.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
I didn't know that. I feel like a fool. Saint
joseph Wart Yeah is basil.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, not Saint John's wart, which.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Is totally Okay, that's what I'm to go.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, few, yeah, the one with all the mental properties
is Saint John's wart. The one that's Basil is Saint
Joseph's wart.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
The ones the one that's Basil, Okay, that makes more sense.
From India and through the Middle East, Basil made its
way to Europe in the sixteenth century, although European accounts
of it of it exist before then. Oh yeah. From there,
it made the jump across the Pond to the Americas
in the seventeenth century.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, and I think it was definitely in southern Europe
way before that. Yeah, by northern.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Europe it made its way out too, Yes, yeah, exactly.
Basil shows up in Jewish folklore granting strength during fasting.
European lore took a slightly different track, occasionally using Basil
as a symbol of Satan. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed
that Basil only flourished when abuse was a factor, and
(21:58):
because of that belief, they is so siated it with hate,
bad fortune, poverty, and Satan himself. This connotation with Basil
was so strong that some Greek farmers may have let
cursewords fly when planting basil, and inspired the French to
come up with the phrase similar basilica as a slang
(22:19):
for slander. I can only hope there were farmers.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Just cussing out their basil plants as they were sewing. Yeah,
I can only.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Hope this whole satan thing stuck around to In the
sixteen hundred's Natural History, published by Lord Francis Bacon, he
posited that a basil plant left in the sun for
too long would turn into time courtesy of the devil.
It's time like evil or something.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's a whole other episode. Yeah, I was like, oht
to no them, I must focus my efforts on basil.
I suppose related is the practice of giving young onwed
women a basil leave to carry around if it withered
before the lady got hitched. Well, I don't have to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I think you do.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
What did?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
What did it mean? I met?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
They were unchased, obviously, and you couldn't marry them? Oh okay,
I guess that wasn't very obvious. They had different beliefs
back then about basil than we do now. In Hinduism, Tolsi,
our holy basil, is believed to have a connection to
the gods, Vishnu one of them. Holy basil was used
in the preparation of holy water in the Greek Orthodox Church,
(23:39):
and rumors of history say that it might have been
found near the tomb of Christ post resurrection, so not
satanic like that non holy basil.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah. By the sixteen hundreds, people in England would hang
basil in doorways to ward off flies and perhaps evil spirits.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
M Basil is still used when preparing holy water in
the Serbian, Macedonian and Romanian churches, and some churches have
basil pots under the church altars. When the British controlled
India tallsa basil was sometimes used in the place of
the Bible as something to swear on in court. This
spiritual aspect of basil meant that it showed up in
(24:19):
a lot of rituals and ceremonies. The ancient Greeks and
Egyptians thought that basil was the key to opening the
gates of heaven and allowing the dead passage. It was
sort of I think I read somewhere seen as your
passport to get in.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Both the Europeans and Indians have traditions of placing basil
in the hands or mouth, respectively, of the dead or
dying to ensure their safe journey in the afterlife.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
It was at one point in Greece or Rome considered
a sacred herb to be picked only by men under
the guidance of priests. Priests like wearing new outfits. Oh,
who had not been hanging around with women unchased women, well,
with women who could have been menstru waiting, because you know,
that's the worst. It's true, super unclean, that's true. You
(25:03):
have to be careful when you're picking your basil, you do.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It was once believed that a woman on her period
who called a man would cause him to die. Oh,
there have been some interesting theories and history about that.
But well speaking speaking sort of related. In the thirteen hundreds,
the Decameron by boca Chio included a Pretty Dark Tail
where basil played an integral role. The story centers around Elizabetha,
(25:32):
whose lover was murdered by her brothers. The lover's spirit
appears to her one night in a dream, and informing
her of where he's buried. She recovers his head and
hides it in a pot of basil that is freshly
watered with her tears. And her lover's demise. When her
brothers find out, they take the pot from her, and
soon after she dies, overwhelmed by grief. Huh, that's chipper
(25:57):
it is, and it spawned the equal John Keats Keats's
Isabella or the Pot of Basil. And here I mean
spoiler alert, here are the last two bits of that
well piteous she'd look on dead and senseless things, asking
for her lost basil Amorseley, and with melodious chuckle in
(26:17):
the strings of her lorn voice, she oftentimes would cry
after the pilgrim and his wanderings, to ask him where
her basil was and why twas hid from her? For
cruel tis said she to steal my basil pot away
from me. And so she pined, and so she died forlorn,
imploring for her basil to the last. No heart was
(26:38):
there on Florence, but did mourn and pity of her
love so overcast, and a sad ditty of the story
born from mouth to mouth through all the country past.
Still is the Burthen sung, Oh, cruelty to steal my
basil pot away from me.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
This also morphed into another bit of cultural symbolism in Italy.
If a woman placed a pot of basil on her balcony,
it might mean that she was ready for her suitor
to arrive, and if he showed up with a sprig
of basil, she should know that he was serious. Well, clearly,
I mean obviously he had to go get the basil.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, show up, two step process. And speaking of tragedies
and basil, if we skip away ahead to the nineteen eighties,
a bulletin on herbs from the British Ministry of Agriculture
labeled basil as being of quote little or no importance.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Little or no importance. Right, that is tragic, it is
why would you say that, British Ministry culture?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
What what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Well, I think we're proving them wrong every day, every
day of our lives. You and I are with one
could praise a salad at a time, one margarita pizza
per day.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Oh yeah, that's that's the kind of interesting mishmash of.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I had no idea, oh me either, that we're gonna
be talking about scorecorpions so much basks satan. Yeah, well
there you go, there you go, now, you know, and
knowing's half the basil. Oh, I'm just gonna crawl under
(28:29):
the desk after that one.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I'm sorry, guys, Dylan is a plotting quite enthusiastically he.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Is, thank you, thank you, Dylan. Oh well, that brings
us to more or less the end of our basil episode.
But right after we've got a quick.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Break for a word from our sponsor, and that brings
us to the end of this classic episode. We hope
that you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing
(29:08):
it back and doing it in the first place. Definitely,
if you have any recipes, because I'm in the springtime
state of mind, I already have kind of a posta
recipe that I created it last year that I do
for Easter now and it has a lot of basil
in it. Oh, so if you've got any of.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Those, yeah, yeah, And I still have one basil plant
that I haven't killed, so so good. Note we're rooting
for you, well, thank you, I'm rooting for it. It
was touch and go for a minute there.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Oh, dear dear, Well send send your thoughts for Lauren's
basil plant. But also yeah, you can contact us about
this recipes thoughts for the basil plant at our email
at Hello at savourpod dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Saber pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Save is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to save your prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm
Annie and I'm more.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In Vogelbaum, and today we have a classic episode for
you about.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Basil or basil.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Uh huh yep. So this is one of the episodes
that really cemented our mythology that Annie is a sleeper
agent for the British Empire, and you know that's what's
going on with her.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, that's what's just going on. I have to say,
because there's been several instances after that. Paprika Paprika was
another one. I have now started to say basil and
basil because I think I've gotten really in my head.
But I feel like I'm in a strange state. I'm
(01:00):
gonna I don't know, like something in my brain will awaken,
but I do say both alternately. Now, was there any
particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Lord now? No, The episode originally aired in June of
twenty eighteen, and I was just kind of going through
our older archive and I was thinking about the basil
plant that I killed over the winter, and it was like,
that sounds like a good topic. I wonder if it's
still pleasant to listen to, and it was, this is
(01:34):
a super fun one.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It was a really fun one. My basil plant. See
this is the issues I always pause before it. Now,
I'm like, which one are you going to say? It died?
I oh, oh, I'm sorry. Tragedy.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh nice.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Ants came in out of nowhere and they killed the
plant and then they left. I thought I thought I
was gonna have a big ant problem, you know, And
I'm glad that I didn't. It seemed that they just
came in to kill this plant, and.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
They just marked the plant and then left. Yeah okay, all.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Right, sure vacated. This episode does remind me of one
of the funniest, in my opinion, complain to listener mails
we ever got, which was why didn't you talk about pesto?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That was sort of the heart of the message. And
I was like, oh, yeah, okay, but we could just
talk about pestal later.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, we could do a whole episode
about pasto. I mean we probably should.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
We probably should.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It was just lutest Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
This person was very seemed very passionate about pasto.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, we appreciate passion around here.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
We do. I'm not mad about this message. I just
remember kind of being taken back.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, just just like, oh, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know.
I didn't know that this was so dear to you.
I would have, I didn't. I meant to no pesto offense,
you know, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Never, never any pesto. She's just funny because at the
time I don't think i'd had pasto. I either hadn't
had it or I just didn't know i'd had it.
I definitely did had not knowingly had it. But I
had a friend who had a lot of basil plants
(03:21):
and she made some homemade pesto from them, and then
after that I was sold, and I was really mad.
I hadn't been.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Joining eaten more of it, but previously Yeah, sure, share, yes.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, well, I guess we should let past Annie and
Lauren take it away. Hello, and welcome to food Stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm Annie Reeve and I'm more in volba bam and
today we're talking about one of my favorite herbs.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Oh we too.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Oh yeah, well, I think it's basically like everyone's favorite
herb worldwide.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Basically we're talking about basil. Basil. I really hesitated because
I almost said basil.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Uh a bit. Basil is according to BabyCenter Dot com
the twenty six hundred and sixtieth most popular name for
babies this year. Moving on up, I guess it's actually
moving on down. It was more popular last year.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But ah, that's too bad. I wonder where herb or
herb is on that list.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh, research for another day, yes, but no, today we
are talking about basil.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And what is it? Well.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Basil is a tender flowering plant with oblong leaves that
are highly aromatic. The species Acamum basilicum is in the
same family as mintce and lots of other culinary herbs
like sage or regano lavender.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
In time. There are over sixty types of basil. Oh
my gosh, I am saying basil and I.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Don't know why or hell okay, I mean, just roll with.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It, okay. I you know, some days you say basil,
some days just say basil, Some days you probably say
a completely different pronunciation. Anyway, there are over sixty types
shades of green to purple to.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Red, depending on the variety. Basil plants may grow about
one to three feet tall that's up to a meter and.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Taste wise, basil can have notes of lemon, annis, cinnamon, clove, licorice, citrus, jazzmine,
and thyme. Most basil grown in Asia typically has a
stronger clove flavor. I feel like I need to go
into a room and like have some kind of speech therapy.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I genuinely can't tell if you're doing this on prime.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I'm not doing it on purpose. I don't know what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
This is a terrific like Madonna moment.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
It really is, it really is. Here we go. According
to what I I read, it's best to pick basil
leaves before the plant flowers, which means I'm sool because
mine has beautiful, bright white buds. To prevent this, growers
are advised to pinch it back. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
For optimal herb leaf growth, you're gonna want to trim
off flowers as they start to grow. However, basil flowers
are also edible. Lots of herb flowers are edible. Google
to be sure before you eat something. But yeah, basil
buds and flowers are a little bit more peppery than
the leaves and are a pretty delightful addition to like
salads and cocktails stuff like that. Bees and other pollinators
(06:34):
also do like them, so leaving flowers on your outdoor
plants can help out some of those local pollinator populations.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And all is not lost for me because I also
read that apparently basil keeps away cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's a plant, thinking that can grow pretty well without pesticides,
because yeah, a lot of a lot of bugs don't
like it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Mine grows pretty well in general, because I'm bad with plants,
and I had I had eleven like herbs last year
and now I have only two, the basil and the parsley,
and they like I've forgotten to water them for weeks.
Oh sure, and they are still kicking. Yeah, And they're
(07:16):
both lovely and delightful and probably about the only thing
I can grow.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I've done that with mint.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Oh yeah, mint is tough.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Oh yes, it's It's gonna outlast all of.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Us, Yes it will. An African legend asserts that basil
keeps away scorpions, on the other hand, because something we
learned during the research for this is that basil is
full of contradictions throughout history. In the sixteen hundreds, English
(07:48):
botanist Nicholas Culpeper, referring to a French physician, suggested that
it was understood that smelling too much basil would turn
your brain into a breeding ground for sus.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So it either keeps scorpions away or merely smelling it
will make scorpions appear in your brain cavity one or
the other.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Basil has a surprising amount of connections throughout history to scorpions.
Another superstition of the time was that if you left
a leaf of basil underneath the pot, it would transform
into a scorpion after enough time had passed. A sixteenth
century Flemish doctor warned that if you crushed a basil
leaf between two bricks, you'd have a scorpion on your hands.
(08:37):
Were people doing this on mass leaving basil between bricks?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And I think it just gets left there and sometimes
scorpions show up later. I'm you and your logic, Lauren, sorry,
speaking of logic.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Basil nutrition, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, in it, okay, in the amounts that you would
eat basil, it's essential nutritionally, moot okay. I mean you know,
I guess it's it's got some fiber mm hmm. If
you eat about two chopped tablespoons of basil, you're giving
yourself about five percent of your daily recommended in take
of vitamin A.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Two chopped tablespoons. Okay, that might.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Be yeah, depending on how much you're eating.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Herbs in general are a wonderful addition to foods because
they pack a lot of flavor without adding sugar or fats.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I have been known to just I guess it's not
like I'm not frying them, but I'll make them crispy,
like I'll just oh, yeah, a pan, I'll just eat
the leaves. Oh sure. Chemically, basil has a lot of
interesting stuff going on. That hint of clove comes from eugenol,
the same chemical that gives clove it's clobiness. There's higher
(09:49):
levels of citral or lemonol along with the terpeen chemical lemonine,
and this is the same thing that's behind lemon peel scent.
Those chemicals are present in high levels and lemon and
lime basil. The same is true for the chemicals behind
liquorice for liquorice basil, cinnamon for cinnamon basil, so on.
There are so many types that have kind of similar.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, flavor profiles to something else exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Throughout history, basil has been used for a plethora of
medicinal purposes. Bronchitis insect bites, cold muscle pains, aeruvetic medicine
employed basil seeds. Current studies are looking into basil's potential
anti cancer, antimicrobial, anti accident, and anti viral properties as
well as well. It also has a known carcinogen called estragol,
(10:36):
but studies and rodents show that you need to take
in about one thousand times what's considered a normal amount
of basil before it'd give you cancer. An entry I
found on the supernatural uses of basil included love, wealth, cheerfulness, flying, production,
and extracism. Oh yeah, so let's talk about some production,
(10:57):
shall we Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
If you want to get all of those all those benefits.
Although basil plants will survive year to year, as you
have found ani in warm climates or kept indoors, they
are generally treated as an annual crop for production. Replanted
every year, they will not survive a frost. Farmers can
harvest up to five crops from the same plants in
(11:18):
a single growing season. Once harvested, basil has to be
treated pretty carefully to avoid damage. It's usually refrigerated immediately
like in the field if possible, after harvest. Even when
it's dried, it is treated very gently heated to no
higher than about ninety degrees fahrenheit about thirty two degrees
celsius to preserve the oils in it for growing at home.
(11:40):
If you ever buy fresh basil that you really like,
try trimming like a centimeter or so of the stalk
off of a sprig and then just putting it in
water in a sunny spot. Basil is pretty good at
growing from cuttings. Once a couple of centimeters worth of
roots grow, you can just plant it in soil, but
it also does grow pretty well without soil. It's one
of the plants being experimented with in hydroponic and aquaponic
(12:02):
studies investigating alternatives to traditional farming, which could become more
important as climate change affects our farmlands. Indeed, one study
I found was testing out basil's growth in water inhabited
by crawfish, and it did really well.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Aw food stuff, food stuff past and present into twine
mm hm.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And speaking of hydroponics, one of the best ways to
keep basil fresh once it's been cut off of a
plant is to place the stems in water and keep
the vase of basil that you've got at that point
in the fridge. Just change out the water every day.
You might want to cover the whole thing in plastic.
Your results may vary. Separate leaves, once they're d stemmed,
can be layered with paper towels to keep them fresh
(12:46):
a little bit longer. Some guides say that the paper
towels should be damp again. Your results may vary by
the numbers. Basil numbers are difficult to track because a
lot of it is fresh and that's generally used locally,
like pretty quickly after the harvest. But France, Italy, India, Thailand,
(13:08):
and Egypt grow a lot, producing just amongst themselves thousands
of tons per year. Hundreds of tons of dried basil
are imported to the United States and various European countries
every year, and basil oil is also a major production.
As of the mid nineteen nineties, about forty three tons
that's two point eight million dollars worth of basil oil
(13:30):
were in production every year.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Basil is used in various delicious ways and cuisines all
around the world. Thai Laoshan, Vietnamese, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Indonesian,
Indian basil chicken pestoke, praise all my favorite pizza, the
margarita deep fried basil alongside fruits and desserts and cocktails.
That dessert we had at Food and Wine it had basil.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah. Yeah, the key limeon watermelon wind.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah. And it's an ingredient in shaw.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
True, it's one of the things that makes it green.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I did not know that. I have no idea what
I thought chartreuse was, but I never would have guessed
that add basil in it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Basil seeds are also eaten. If you soak them in
water for like a couple minutes up to thirty minutes,
they'll they'll plump up with a gelatinous coating, the same
way that the chia seeds do. What's happening here is
that the outer layer, the outer skin of the seed,
contains mucilage or muselage, perhaps the sticky stuff that expands
and becomes sort of jelly like when it absorbs water.
(14:33):
And this is helpful to seeds because it means that
when they encounter moist soil that that mucilage grabs up
water for the seed to use and also kind of
sticks it in to the soil. It's also rad for
eating because it's texturally interesting. You get a little bit
of chew and like this burst of mild floral flavor
and then a crunch from the seed within. Bloomed basil
(14:55):
seeds are incorporated into cold drinks and chilled and frozen
desserts in and Southeast Asia.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Oh I bet that's good. Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's sort of like a like tapioca, yeah, bubble tea. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I have a friend. This reminds me because I was
thinking about this like two days ago. I have a
friend who is a She used to have a pretty
substantial fear of eating anything with seeds. Oh yeah, in
it like she won't eat strawberries. Oh wow, okay because
the little tiny sure, because she thought she knew it
(15:29):
was ridiculous, but she said she couldn't shake the idea
that would like sprout her stomach and kill her. And
I've been made to follow up because I was eating
pumpkin seeds the other day and I was like, I
wonder if this counts or if it's a specific type
of seed. I like to know more about people's fears
of things. I'm one of those weird people, So I'm
glad I have this reminder to follow up. To follow up, Yeah,
(15:50):
to follow up. I just want to understand.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
If it's only whole seeds or yeah, if you crunch
the seed, then clearly you're killing it, I think, right,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, how how far does this seed phobia go? That's
all I need to know. But that's a project, that's
a side project I'll do on my own time, absolutely
for now. Yeah, we're talking about Basil, which has been
a symbol of love in Italy and on certain Portuguese
holidays it makes up a part of a gift to
(16:19):
a loved one. Please, if there's any listeners in Portugal,
I'd love to hear more about that. Yeah. But throughout
its history, as we sort of alluded to, Basil has
represented everything from hatred to royalty to satan, sometimes all
at once. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So we're going to get into that confusing mash of
legend and history. But first we're going to get into
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you. All right,
(17:02):
So Basil history is tough to track down, it is,
but we have tried to make sense of the confusing
history that we have uncovered, and we will present it
to you as unconfusingly as possible that that is what
(17:23):
we promise, that is the foodstuff guarantee we do our best.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
So basil has been cultivated for about five thousand years
or so and most likely originated in India or around there.
It was found in the tombs of mummies, and historians
think it was used in embalming and preserving an ancient Egypt.
Some of the first records written records of basil came
out of Hunan, China in eight hundred and seven CE,
(17:51):
so that's pretty newish relatively, Yeah, relatively, I'm used to like.
Back in six thousand BC, whatever, whatever happened, the ancient
Greeks associated basil with mourning, referring to it as the
royal herb, possibly because of the Greek word basilius, meaning king,
(18:11):
and the French still call it the herb royal.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah. The ancient Greek term for basil was basilicon phyton,
a royal plant.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The Oxford English Dictionary entry on basil recounts it might
have been quote some royal ungent bath or medicine, and
that might be where the name came from. Another possible
etymological origin, though less likely, suggests that the Latin basilicus
as the root word for basil, basilicus, meaning dragon, the
(18:43):
same word for basilisk. Yeah, this is less likely, but
anytime we can bring up a basilisk, gonna.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Show Yeah, it's it's probably definitely not the root of
the word basil. But at one point the Latin term
for basil and the Latin term for basilisk were the
same basiliskus. Yes, the French words for basil and basilisk
are still the same basilic And this might be where
(19:14):
the connection to scorpions comes in. Oh okay, So, the
ancient Greek word basiliscus, meaning little king, was the term
for a type of bird that had this golden crust
of feathers on its head. The word could also refer
to a kind of poisonous snake that had a spot
on its head that supposedly resembled a crown. Pliny talked
(19:34):
about this and might have been referring to king cobras.
From these creatures we got the mythological basilisk, the venomous
lizard or serpent type being, and part of the myth
of the basilisk was that basil was a cure for
its venom. Oh herbalists were already using basil oil topically
to treat insect bites. And furthermore, the basilisk and the
(19:58):
scorpion were associated with one another because they were both venomous.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
A Greek legend gives basil its scientific name after a
Greek warrior, Alchemis, was killed by a gladiator, basil grew
where he fell. There's a similar Ish legend that has
basil growing on the spot where Helen and Saint Constantine
found the Holy Cross.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah. Some medieval legends describe Helen following a trail of
basil up to the cross, as the herb had apparently
sprung up wherever Jesus's blood had fallen to the earth,
and one legend in particular says that basil was growing
on the cross itself. This might have come from what
John wrote was inscribed on the cross Jesus of Nazareth,
(20:41):
king of the Jews. The Greek version of that inscription
uses the word Basilius for king.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
And another name for Basil is Saint Joseph's Wart, named
after Mary's husband.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
I didn't know that. I feel like a fool. Saint
joseph Wart Yeah is basil.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, not Saint John's wart, which.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Is totally Okay, that's what I'm to go.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, few, yeah, the one with all the mental properties
is Saint John's wart. The one that's Basil is Saint
Joseph's wart.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
The ones the one that's Basil, Okay, that makes more sense.
From India and through the Middle East, Basil made its
way to Europe in the sixteenth century, although European accounts
of it of it exist before then. Oh yeah. From there,
it made the jump across the Pond to the Americas
in the seventeenth century.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, and I think it was definitely in southern Europe
way before that. Yeah, by northern.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Europe it made its way out too, Yes, yeah, exactly.
Basil shows up in Jewish folklore granting strength during fasting.
European lore took a slightly different track, occasionally using Basil
as a symbol of Satan. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed
that Basil only flourished when abuse was a factor, and
(21:58):
because of that belief, they is so siated it with hate,
bad fortune, poverty, and Satan himself. This connotation with Basil
was so strong that some Greek farmers may have let
cursewords fly when planting basil, and inspired the French to
come up with the phrase similar basilica as a slang
(22:19):
for slander. I can only hope there were farmers.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Just cussing out their basil plants as they were sewing. Yeah,
I can only.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Hope this whole satan thing stuck around to In the
sixteen hundred's Natural History, published by Lord Francis Bacon, he
posited that a basil plant left in the sun for
too long would turn into time courtesy of the devil.
It's time like evil or something.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's a whole other episode. Yeah, I was like, oht
to no them, I must focus my efforts on basil.
I suppose related is the practice of giving young onwed
women a basil leave to carry around if it withered
before the lady got hitched. Well, I don't have to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I think you do.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
What did?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
What did it mean? I met?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
They were unchased, obviously, and you couldn't marry them? Oh okay,
I guess that wasn't very obvious. They had different beliefs
back then about basil than we do now. In Hinduism, Tolsi,
our holy basil, is believed to have a connection to
the gods, Vishnu one of them. Holy basil was used
in the preparation of holy water in the Greek Orthodox Church,
(23:39):
and rumors of history say that it might have been
found near the tomb of Christ post resurrection, so not
satanic like that non holy basil.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah. By the sixteen hundreds, people in England would hang
basil in doorways to ward off flies and perhaps evil spirits.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
M Basil is still used when preparing holy water in
the Serbian, Macedonian and Romanian churches, and some churches have
basil pots under the church altars. When the British controlled
India tallsa basil was sometimes used in the place of
the Bible as something to swear on in court. This
spiritual aspect of basil meant that it showed up in
(24:19):
a lot of rituals and ceremonies. The ancient Greeks and
Egyptians thought that basil was the key to opening the
gates of heaven and allowing the dead passage. It was
sort of I think I read somewhere seen as your
passport to get in.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Both the Europeans and Indians have traditions of placing basil
in the hands or mouth, respectively, of the dead or
dying to ensure their safe journey in the afterlife.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
It was at one point in Greece or Rome considered
a sacred herb to be picked only by men under
the guidance of priests. Priests like wearing new outfits. Oh,
who had not been hanging around with women unchased women, well,
with women who could have been menstru waiting, because you know,
that's the worst. It's true, super unclean, that's true. You
(25:03):
have to be careful when you're picking your basil, you do.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It was once believed that a woman on her period
who called a man would cause him to die. Oh,
there have been some interesting theories and history about that.
But well speaking speaking sort of related. In the thirteen hundreds,
the Decameron by boca Chio included a Pretty Dark Tail
where basil played an integral role. The story centers around Elizabetha,
(25:32):
whose lover was murdered by her brothers. The lover's spirit
appears to her one night in a dream, and informing
her of where he's buried. She recovers his head and
hides it in a pot of basil that is freshly
watered with her tears. And her lover's demise. When her
brothers find out, they take the pot from her, and
soon after she dies, overwhelmed by grief. Huh, that's chipper
(25:57):
it is, and it spawned the equal John Keats Keats's
Isabella or the Pot of Basil. And here I mean
spoiler alert, here are the last two bits of that
well piteous she'd look on dead and senseless things, asking
for her lost basil Amorseley, and with melodious chuckle in
(26:17):
the strings of her lorn voice, she oftentimes would cry
after the pilgrim and his wanderings, to ask him where
her basil was and why twas hid from her? For
cruel tis said she to steal my basil pot away
from me. And so she pined, and so she died forlorn,
imploring for her basil to the last. No heart was
(26:38):
there on Florence, but did mourn and pity of her
love so overcast, and a sad ditty of the story
born from mouth to mouth through all the country past.
Still is the Burthen sung, Oh, cruelty to steal my
basil pot away from me.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
This also morphed into another bit of cultural symbolism in Italy.
If a woman placed a pot of basil on her balcony,
it might mean that she was ready for her suitor
to arrive, and if he showed up with a sprig
of basil, she should know that he was serious. Well, clearly,
I mean obviously he had to go get the basil.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, show up, two step process. And speaking of tragedies
and basil, if we skip away ahead to the nineteen eighties,
a bulletin on herbs from the British Ministry of Agriculture
labeled basil as being of quote little or no importance.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Little or no importance. Right, that is tragic, it is
why would you say that, British Ministry culture?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
What what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Well, I think we're proving them wrong every day, every
day of our lives. You and I are with one
could praise a salad at a time, one margarita pizza
per day.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Oh yeah, that's that's the kind of interesting mishmash of.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I had no idea, oh me either, that we're gonna
be talking about scorecorpions so much basks satan. Yeah, well
there you go, there you go, now, you know, and
knowing's half the basil. Oh, I'm just gonna crawl under
(28:29):
the desk after that one.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I'm sorry, guys, Dylan is a plotting quite enthusiastically he.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Is, thank you, thank you, Dylan. Oh well, that brings
us to more or less the end of our basil episode.
But right after we've got a quick.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Break for a word from our sponsor, and that brings
us to the end of this classic episode. We hope
that you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing
(29:08):
it back and doing it in the first place. Definitely,
if you have any recipes, because I'm in the springtime
state of mind, I already have kind of a posta
recipe that I created it last year that I do
for Easter now and it has a lot of basil
in it. Oh, so if you've got any of.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Those, yeah, yeah, And I still have one basil plant
that I haven't killed, so so good. Note we're rooting
for you, well, thank you, I'm rooting for it. It
was touch and go for a minute there.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Oh, dear dear, Well send send your thoughts for Lauren's
basil plant. But also yeah, you can contact us about
this recipes thoughts for the basil plant at our email
at Hello at savourpod dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Saber pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Save is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Dylan Fagan
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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