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Spice History
The usage of dried herbs in the preparation of food goes back a considerable ways in history. Possibly the earliest bulk herbs to be traded as commodities were cloves, cinnamon and pepper, most of that have been used in the Middle East for over 3,000 years. In the Old Testament, the collection of ancient Hebrew wedding songs called the Song of Solomon contains passages in that your bridegroom compares his bride with various spices, indicating that such dried herbs were available - if not common.
Another important botanical among organic spices that have been used since ancient times is horseradish, that has been used in the Passover Seder since at least 1500 BCE; the powerful, sinus-blasting wasabi variety is a stable of Japanese cuisine since the days of the shoguns.
In Europe, the earliest mention of spices is in the first Century writings of Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, who identifies cloves. During medieval times, such bulk herbs were literally worth their weight in gold. Despite popular belief, organic spices were not used by medieval chefs to disguise the taste of rotten meat. Because of their extravagant cost, using precious bulk herbs in this fashion could have been regarded as tremendously wasteful. But, many dried herbs that were used as spice may be used to preserve meat and fish in the days before refrigeration.
New World Spices
When European explorers discovered the Americas, they also discovered a plethora of new organic spices that had hitherto been unknown. The best-known of they are of the chili pepper family, that was used by native peoples of Mexico and Mesoamerica for centuries. Chili peppers have found their way into cuisines from Africa and the Mediterranean to East Asia and Japan.
Organic Spices Today
Organic Spices in the form of bulk organic herbs are no longer expensive as they were as little as 500 years ago. The main reason is that organic bulk herbs in olden days might have been found in only one or two places in the world are now grown virtually all over the world.
That said, you can expect to cover somewhat more for bulk organic herbs, primarily because they are grown locally by small, independent farmers in relatively small quantities, and thus are less abundant. If you think about the flavor and health advantages of organic bulk herbs but, organic spices are still a bargain.
