Fragrant faggots for food and fires

The herb bed dedicated to lavender, rosemary, and scented geraniums, had become overgrown. I decided to clear the bed and make it available for the planting of a new selection of herbs and salad greens. The replanting of the herb beds will also incorporate the new rosemary, lavender and lemon verbena plants which have been produced from cuttings taken earlier on in the season.

A herb faggot (bouquet garni)

The decision to take out the herb bushes was not an easy one. The large bushes were reliable suppliers of lavender flowers, rosemary sprigs and lemon verbena leaves. Before I had the bushes removed, I did a quick research on uses for lavender, rosemary, and lemon verbena twigs.

The overgrown herb garden

Historically, nothing in and around a house was ever wasted. All small branches and twigs were bundled and tied together to form faggots.

Herb faggots for making fire

Interestingly enough, when I researched the binding of faggots, I came across the website of the MOT, a DIY museum of old hand-tools and techniques which are powered by man, wind, or water. The DIY Museum is located near Brussels. It has a complete section dedicated to the binding of faggots. The sentence, “If you want to use a wood fired baker’s oven, or you know somebody who wants to do so, carefully keep the branches when clipping, pruning or clearing the garden”, immediately caught my attention. I needed to know everything about the use of faggots.

From the information on the website, it was clear that binding faggots was an important part of recycling twigs into faggots for their use as fuel in wood fired ovens. Thinking of all the prunings that we generate each year, made me realise how valuable these faggots could be for future use.

The website has measurements and practical guidance for making the faggots. “You make bunches with a circumference of about 90 cm and a length of about 80 cm that you press together well. Make sure to tighten well, the branches will shrink during drying and the binding will come loose.”

Side view of the Woodman's Grip and an example of a Faggot Press

There are also dedicated tools for binding faggots. There is a woodman’s grip to tighten branches as well as a faggot press and binding jig. There is even a plan for a binding jig that you can build yourself.

I am excited by this newfound information. I decided to cut up the large herb bushes and with the help of Fungai, we bound them into fragrant faggots to use as an aromatic fuel for fires.

I have discovered that the historical way of doing things was more eco-friendly than we are today.

In “Mrs Beeton’s Dictionary of Everyday Cookery”, published in 1865, she writes the following about the use of faggots, “Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread: these should be heated with wood faggots, and then swept and mopped out, to cleanse them for the reception of the bread.”

Clearly, binding faggots was an integral part of farm work. Making faggots produced a constant source of fuel for bread ovens.

In my further research, I came across the reference for herb faggots by Mrs Beeton. I fetched my own copy of “Mrs Beeton’s book of Household management” in the Towerwater library. I was hoping to find more detail of what goes into a faggot of herbs. From the 23 references to faggots in her book, the reference is either a faggot of herbs, a faggot of savoury herbs and a faggot of sweet herbs, depending on the dish. Clearly Mrs Beeton trusted that her audience knew their herbs.

In her Bechamel sauce, she calls for 1 small bunch of parsley, ½ a bay-leaf and one small faggot of savoury herbs. I will have to do some more research on Mrs Beeton’s cooking because when I make a bouquet garni (faggot of herbs), I normally include parsley and bay leaves.  

The cleaned herb garden ready for fresh planting 

Cleaning the herb beds after winter has taught me so much more about the functions of a herb garden and the optimal use of fresh herbs and pruned bushes. From a faggot of herbs for making lamb shanks to faggots of herbs for cooking fires, the herb bushes might be gone but they will not be forgotten. Their fragrance will linger on in future meals and fires.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word faggot means:

a. “A bundle of sticks, twigs, or brushwood tied together for use as fuel.”

b. “A bundle or bunch of reeds, herbs, flowers, etc.; esp. a small bunch of herbs for seasoning a dish. More generally: a bundle of anything bound or clustered together.”

 

Sources:  

Het MOT https://www.mot.be/en/ (The drawings of the Woodmen's grip and faggot press are also from this website)

Mrs Beeton’s book of Household management, published 1861

Mrs Beeton’s Dictionary of Everyday Cookery, published 1865

The Oxford English Dictionary - https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/67623