
Lovely Laurel
The bay leaf that we know and use in our kitchen is a descendant of the enormous laurel forests that covered most of the Mediterranean landscape long ago, at a time when the climate was more lush and humid. Though some of these trees still exist in Turkey, Spain, and Portugal, most ancient laurel forests disappeared around ten thousand years ago. Laurus nobilis is known by many names – bay, laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, laurel tree, and Grecian laurel. Its fragrant leaves a