Berlin – In an isolated lot next to an old Gasworks of the Berlin suburbs, Martin Rötzel breathes a new life in a tradition of past centuries: the monastery garden.
The Rötzel monk garden is home to between 150 and 200 types of herbs, leaves and trees, many of which, it is unlikely to be in a German supermarket. There are many varieties of mint, oregano and coriander, hysop and New Zealand spinach, Correl with four leaves, central and a local variety of tarragon.
Rötzel has built Monk Garden as a business since 2022, delivering to high -end restaurants that want scholarly local plants for their dishes. He also organizes “Wild Herbs walks” and workshops showing people how to make skin cream, wine and other plant articles.
Packed in about 2,000 square meters (21,530 square feet) in Marienfelde, on the southern edge of Berlin, each of the plants has its own flavors and tangs and, in many cases, medicinal properties.
Rötzel, a qualified hotelier who also worked as a dancer, said that his knowledge of plants came from his father, while his passion for them returns at the age of 4 or 5 when he started collecting wild herbs.
During an illness 13 years ago, he deepened his knowledge of herbs and made teas which, according to him, helped him regain his health. He also installed a monastic medicinal garden next to a church in the German capital, reflecting those cultivated in the Middle Ages to provide plants to food and healing.
“At one point, knowledge was lost”, which was exacerbated by “food industrialization,” said Rötzel. These days, “something like 99% of people do not know a single name of a plant”.
Rötzel used his garden to counter this loss since he opened Monk Garden. In addition to providing restaurants, there are occasional dinners in the garden bringing together people at a table in the middle of the herbs. Five lessons are each accompanied by a different herbal tea.
After a first crayfish and pea lesson, dinner Britta Rosenthal said that she wanted to discover “what herbs can do” and “perhaps become a little more courageous to prepare food, not only with pepper, salt and paprika but also with fresh green stuff”.
Rötzel said he liked to revive the memories of the people of past flavors.
“Many people, especially older generations, have grown up in a way that they still know certain things that no longer exist today,” he said. “It’s a pleasure for me when people remember something really special.”
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Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
