Fennel

The deliciously light scent of fennel wafts all the way through the “Chemin des douaniers” (“Customs walking path”) and the beaches in Brittany. As with aniseed sweets, people of all ages savour the air along the length of the path as well as the return walk from the beach. At the end of August and in the beginning of September, stems can be cut and left upside down in order to harvest the grains. I use fennel in a large number of my spice mixes for seafood, but I also love adding just a few seeds into a salad, and sometimes even just crunching one or two of the grains at the end of a meal.

We source our fennel seeds from an organic grower in Egypt whose farm lies just upstream of the Nile Delta. The seeds are dried, sorted, and packaged on site. 

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is an herbaceous perennial that belongs to the Umbellifereae plant family. The plant is found throughout the Mediterranean basin from Egypt to Madeira, and also north along the Atlantic to Brittany and Cornwall. It is abundant in Asia as well. Today, India, China, and Egypt are the three primary producers of fennel seeds.  

Fennel produces oblong green and yellowish-brown seeds with paler-hued ridges. Fennel seeds have an anise flavor. They contains anethol, an aromatic essential oil also found in star anise and green aniseeds. 

In the Middle Ages, the 12th century nun and botanist Hildegarde de Binge wrote, ‘The [fennel] seed’s warming properties are good for health.’ At the time, fennel was one of the four warming, carminative spice seeds cultivated along with coriander, green aniseed, and caraway. 

In India, fennel seeds are part of the pan masala spice blend served at the end of each meal. Our Rêves d’Etoiles herbal tea contains fennel and we recommend enjoying a cup after a meal. We also use fennel seeds as a foundation spice in our curry powders and garam masala blend.  

The bulbous fennel variety prepared as a vegetable is Florence fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Florence azoricum) which was hybridized in Italy in the 16th century.