The kitchen Garden

For the rich and poor alike, a kitchen garden was a necessity in Shakespeare’s time. How many vegetables can you recognize before you? The tall, stately garlic whose pincushion blossoms smell nearly as strong as their famed bulb. The showy leaves of carrots, radishes, turnips, and potatoes whose edible roots are maturing just out of sight. The lettuces, chives, cabbages and beans that can be harvested before summer’s out. Or the bay tree, parsley, marjoram, and savory to enhance any dish created in your kitchens.

Gardening was such an everyday task that Shakespeare’s audiences knew well the tastes and associations of these plants, and his plays reference them liberally.