International Women's Day with Herbs

Today is International Woman’s Day 2012.  The celebration of this day began back in 1911 when it was called International Working Women’s Day.  Originally a Socialist political event in 100 years it has changed into a celebration of respect and appreciation with recognition of women's economic, political and social achievements.   The International Women’s Day website chooses a theme every year and this year’s theme is Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.  March is also Women’s History Month, so the two concepts mesh nicely together giving one the opportunity to celebrate women in many different ways.

This year it was suggested that if every International Women’s Day celebration included girls in some way, then thousands of minds would be inspired globally.  Since cooking is often considered a very feminine task, herbs can blend quite nicely into celebration of Women.  Especially if you look at the herbs and spices that are popular in your family historically and how they were used by your ancestors in different parts of the world.

This idea of herbs and International Women’s Day came to me about a year ago and during the year I gathered up a few ideas for ways to use herbs in celebration of International Women’s Day.  I put all of these ideas into an article that is in the current issue of The Essential Herbal Magazine. I will share one aspect of that article with you here.  

Remember if you want to read more on this subject and other wonderful articles on using and growing herbs, you really should get yourself a subscription.

Activity for Women’s History and International Women’s Day

In this day and age where we forget that some of the items we take for granted had to come from somewhere else to be part of our life, I think is wonderful for kids of any age is to locate the origin of herbs.  Every herb is native to somewhere on Earth. However, the native habitat is not necessarily the country known for using the herb in its cuisine or where commercial quantities for worldwide distribution are grown today. For example, basil is native to India although best known for use in Italian cuisine. Today’s major commercial supplies of basil are grown not in India or Italy but in Egypt’s Nile River Valley.

One can choose a region or a cuisine or even a list of favorite plants and have some fun looking up the historical data.  I know that many commercial grower websites like McCormick, Spice Islands, and C.F. Sauer and the Herb Society of America can explain where herbs are coming from now as well as where they came from originally.

So why don’t you find someone younger than you and start an herbal adventure into history and in the process access some family stories about herbs used by women in your family that you can share with another generation.