Cretan herbs

Crete offers many herbs and the flora in Crete is on its best in spring after the rain from winter and spring. This is the time when Crete looks actually very green and plenty of wild flowers are in blossom.

Many of the herbs are used widely in Greek kitchen such as basil, mint, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano and thyme. All these you can buy in shops, but my favorite shop is the one in Sivas, near Matala, called Botano.

You might have come accross to the mountain tea, many times old ladies are selling them in villages. This herb you can only find above 1000 meters, on the white mountains of Crete. This like many other herbs are known as healing herbs of folklore. Together with honey it is a good natural medicine against the cold, well you might want to have a little glass of raki too:).

These are laurel leaves, something I like to use much in cooking!

Mountain tea drying. After collecting you need to dry it about a week until the yellow flower is totally dry.

Here you can see well the flower where it is still fresh.

Another herb used as tea.

Cretan wild thyme. Also a herb I use quite some. This I add plenty in my Fasolaki.

Cretan wild oregano.

I got some fresh oregano and couldn´t use it all at the time fresh, so I was drying part of it. Just letting it dry over a paper inside my car and after some days it was ready to be crashed in small pieces.