Pimpinella anisum.
One of the oldest documented spices of humanity, cultivated in ancient Egypt since at least 1500 BC (mentioned in the famous Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical treatise dated to around 1550 BC), celebrated by the Greeks and Romans, who used it at once as a spice, as a digestive medicine and as a sacred perfume in certain religious rites. Pliny the Elder devotes several paragraphs to it in his Natural History, praising its virtues, and Dioscorides prescribes it for relieving digestive disorders and menstrual pain.
In the Middle Ages, anise appears in the Capitulare De Villis of Charlemagne (around 800), one of the great reference documents of European agriculture. Botanically, anise belongs to the Apiaceae family (with fennel, dill, chervil and parsley), native to the eastern Mediterranean basin — Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon — where it still sometimes grows in the wild. Not to be confused with "star anise" (Illicium verum), an Asian spice from an entirely different botanical family (the Schisandraceae) which shares however the same major aromatic molecule, anethole.
Fine, light plant 50 to 60 cm tall, with foliage at first rounded then dividing into fine thread-like strips toward the top, finishing in summer in flat umbels of tiny yellow-white flowers attractive to bees. The whole plant is aromatic, but it's the seeds that make the great harvest — small oval greyish achenes picked at full maturity when the umbels turn brown. Classic "anise-licorice" flavour, sweet, fresh, round, pushing the anethole profile even further than that of the mature fennel already described in our pages.
A thousand uses: whole or ground seeds in French anise bread (a specialty of the Cévennes and northern Italy), in Italian pizzelle and taralli, in Sicilian ciambelle, in pain d'épices, in German Christmas cookies, macerated in the great Mediterranean anise-based spirits — French pastis, Greek ouzo, Italian sambuca, Turkish raki, Lebanese arak — which all owe their character essentially to this spice; as a simple digestive infusion (1 tsp crushed seeds per cup of boiling water) particularly effective after a heavy meal; and in Indian cuisine in paan, biryani and certain masala chai. The young fresh leaves are also used as an aromatic herb, similar to fennel fronds but more subtle.
Grower's tip: anise demands a long, well-warmed season — undoubtedly its greatest challenge at our latitudes. To succeed at seed production in Québec, indoor start 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting at mid-May, or direct-sowing in mid-May only if you have a truly long season (the Montréal region and points south). Transplanting must be done without disturbing the taproots — use biodegradable pots or sow in place. Well-drained soil, intense sun, little watering once established (anise tolerates standing moisture poorly). Harvest the umbels as soon as the seeds turn brown and begin to detach at the slightest brushing — ideally in the morning in dry weather. Hang the umbels upside down in a paper bag for 2 weeks to finish drying and catch fallen seeds. Storage in an opaque airtight jar, where the seeds keep their aroma for 2 to 3 years.
- Open-pollinated. Heirloom variety. Annual. Insect-pollinated, so few crossings to fear — Pimpinella anisum being rare in neighbouring gardens.
- Height: 50 to 60 cm.
- Maturity: 100 to 120 days after sowing for the seed harvest.
- Exposure: full sun mandatory.
- Well-drained soil, dry to moderately moist, neutral to slightly alkaline. Space plants 20 to 25 cm apart.
- Start indoors 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting in biodegradable pots (fragile taproot), or direct-sow mid-May. Harvest the brown umbels in September.
