The Journal

One herb at a time. What it is, where its uses were written down, and who wrote them.

7 articles

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  29 September 2026podcast

  Ginger Root

  There is no wild ginger anywhere on earth. Every plant alive is a cutting of a human decision, and the species has no ancestor anyone can name.

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  26 September 2026podcast

  Meadowsweet

  Meadowsweet gave aspirin its name but not its first isolation, and Culpeper catalogued the plant while missing the one thing it is now sold for.

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  23 September 2026podcast

  Peppermint

  A peer-reviewed paper disproved the claim that peppermint was found in Egyptian pyramids. Two years later it is still printed on tea boxes.

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  20 September 2026podcast

  Nettle Leaf

  A fairy tale about shirts woven from nettles, a Scottish proverb about housewifery, and a wartime story that everyone repeats and the source denies.

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  17 September 2026podcast

  Fenugreek Seed

  A seed that smells of maple syrup, a name that means Greek hay, and a citation everybody repeats from a book that does not contain it.

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  14 September 2026podcast

  Rooibos

  A pea-family shrub from one mountain range, a red that is manufactured rather than grown, and the ancient tradition behind it that nobody has ever been able to find in the record.

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  07 September 2026podcast

  Gunpowder Green Tea

  A leaf rolled into pellets, a name that arrived four hundred years late, and the most repeated origin story in tea, which nobody has ever been able to source.