Fennel – Culinary and Medicinal

Fennel, a plant of rather stiff branching stem, bears deep cut grayish green flowers of whose seed has been known to help out with “cold belly”.  Though it tastes of the same flavors as Star Anise, its healing properties in the Chinese system of medicine are completely the opposite and generally affect the yin (liver, heart, spleen, lung, kidneys) rather than the yang organs.   Fennel turns out to aid the internal region rather than the skin and muscles, and in so doing, promotes the circulation of internal energy and positively affects the kidneys, bladder and stomach.

Fennel, with its licorice flavoring, is a wild perennial, sometimes biennial, which grows anywhere from the US to Europe and the Mediterranean and a little further into Asia Minor.  Because of this, it became a great addition to Minestrone soup when fresh and cut like celery.   Indeed, in 812 A.D. Charlemagne himself declared fennel to be a primary component of every royal garden.  As a result, fennel was taken along as Charlemagne overran Europe for fifty years and to this day fennel is a product of many national food categories in countries spanning these regions.  Fennel is still used in a variety of different ways including a breath mint, food seasoning and medicinal tea for a couple peculiar ailments.

To cure pain in the small intestine, and especially pain caused by hernia, prepare 40 grams of apricot seeds, 20 grams of green onion heads and 40 grams of fennel seeds, all dried and crushed appropriately (see ____) and mixed into a powder.  Take 10 grams of this powder and dissolve into a cup of rice wine and drink twice a day for relief of small intestine hernia.   The jury’s still out on whether it’s the wine or the fennel concoction that’s actually doing the hernia justice.

When combined in food preparations with ginger and often time cinnamon, fennel can aid in abdominal pain relief as well.   Chinese herbalists feel that fennel moves very fast in the body and greatly accelerates the warming of the internal region, thus it’s been the best cold belly treatment for ages.  And let’s not forget the Norman conquest which brought about the marriage of fennel and fish and put them both on the map for pirates and their kind ever since.

And if you just chew the fresh plant fennel is said to remove hunger cravings and help dramatically with the vagaries of dieting.