Spring has arrived with the evidence of new growth and blooms in the garden, and the thoughts of gardeners turn to the increasing opportunities to indulge in more gardening. However, it has not been a quiet, subtle ushering in of spring in the southeast of our continent. Destructive gale-force winds have howled across many areas heralding polar blasts from the Antarctic region, and sudden bursts of pelting rain are drenching the ground and threatening low-lying properties and waterways with flooding. Large hail, too, is battering everything that it strikes, and power outages are affecting many homes and businesses. This extreme weather is breaking records and severely disrupting the lives of many people.
 
It looks as though there may be days and days of yard maintenance ahead, rather than the peaceful pleasure of ‘pottering’ in the garden. We also think of and pray for those who are experiencing hardship and heartbreak because of the inclement weather and its effects on their loved ones, their property and surrounding infrastructure.
 
On a much smaller scale, my little garden has had portions of its new growth stripped from the plants; wet leaves and flowers are piled up at the front door and across the entry path; small branches have snapped from my few trees and those in my neighbours’ yards, and they are scattered across the driveway and through the garden; the trellis has broken; rubbish that is not mine has blown onto my property; and a small tree lies across the driveway.
 
I can see the damage and know that I have to do a few days of garden repairs and maintenance, but I’m also thinking of what I can plant in order to have a garden that will please me throughout the summer and into autumn. I’m sure that other gardeners are also thinking through their gardening plans as they begin to clean up after this hostile weather and look ahead to more pleasant days.
 
Quite a few gardeners will be wanting to plant herbs for mid-spring and summer, and they will be hoping that this torrid weather will settle down and allow them to begin the sowing process. One of the popular herbs to be grown is coriander, which is a well-known and loved addition to all kinds of cuisine, since ancient times. And it is mentioned just the once in the Bible, in Exodus 16:31 in the Old Testament, when the mysterious, life-sustaining manna’s appearance is compared with a characteristic of coriander seed.
 
Coriander also reminds people of parsley, and they are related – both belong to the Apiaceae family, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘celery, carrot or parsley family’ according to Wikipedia. And coriander is reputed to be easy to grow and can be sown and raised in the same way as parsley.
 
Most herbs have a distinctive fragrance and this is true of coriander. Also, like other herbs, coriander is employed as a culinary and medicinal plant. Its stems, leaves and seeds are all useful for these purposes.
 
I found it interesting in Tristram’s old book, The Natural History of the Bible, that he referred to coriander being used in ‘sweets’. This is not a use of coriander that I had considered, as I have always thought of it as a flavouring for savoury dishes. 

Tristram wrote:

          ... a well known annual umbelliferous plant, with white blossoms, which produce small globular seed vessels, bearing small greyish-white round seeds, of a pleasant spicy flavour. It is cultivated in England for confectionery, and is wild in Egypt and Palestine. We found it abundant in the Valley of the Jordan. The seeds are used very largely as a spice to mix with bread in the East, as well as to give an aromatic flavour to sweetmeats. The Hebrew name is gad. It is only mentioned in Scripture as that to which the Israelites compared the Manna. They "called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white".

And in Osborn’s, Plants of the Holy Land with their fruits and flowers, he remarks that throughout the East it was chewed by all ‘for the agreeable flavor it imparts to the breath’. I was not expecting that observation of uses of coriander. This is why I like to look at old books that were written about the Holy Land because they give us a view of life there before our modern life started sweeping away old traditions.

Osborn followed his chewing comment with another observation that gives us greater perspective on the wide use of coriander in ancient times:

          The only reference to coriander in Scripture is in comparison with the manna upon which the Israelites fed in the desert; whence we may infer that it was well known in Egypt before the departure of the children of Israel, and was probably used then as now, namely, as a condiment to flavor food and please the taste.

In John Balfour’s book, The Plants of the Bible, he gives a good description of the coriander plant and also mentions its use by confectioners. He wrote:

          Coriandrum sativum is an annual plant, belonging to the natural order Umbelliferse [or Apiaceae]. The plant is about two feet high; its flowers are small and white, and are produced in umbels; and the fruit (often erroneously called seed) consists of two hemispherical carpels, which are so combined as to form a little ball or globe of the size of a pepper-corn. Each of these balls contains two seeds. The plant is very common in the south of Europe, and it grows also in India and other Eastern countries. It is cultivated in Britain on account of its seeds and fruit, which are used by confectioners, druggists, and distillers.

I find it intriguing how plants have been used throughout history, especially those that we call ‘Bible plants’. Our October plant is a vegetable that I was not fond of when I was a child. It is the Vicia faba, which I know as the broad bean.