The Herbarium
Part I · Medicinal herbs
Herb. No. 151
Caraway
Carum carvi
Apiaceae
The rye-bread seed — a biennial umbel whose crescent spice is the carminative of Central Europe.
Culinary seed. Identify carefully among umbels if you grow it.
- Parts used
- Ripe seed · Young leaf
- Traditional notes
- Kitchen spice · After cabbage and beans · Traditional colic folklore
- Grow · USDA 6b
- Biennial, USDA 3–8 Direct-sow in late spring or autumn. Resents transplanting. In work: Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug
- Harvest
- Umbels in year two when they tan; bag them.
- Year one is a ferny row. Year two is the spice.
- They shatter. Bag the heads.
Safety
Unidentified wild Apiaceae
Lore
Caraway is in the Swiss lake dwellings of the Neolithic. Shakespeare’s Justice Shallow offers a pippin with a dish of caraways. German Kümmel is the seed and the liqueur. A medieval superstition held that the seed kept lovers — and pigeons — from wandering, which is a lot to ask of a rye crust.
The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.