The herbs the village still knows by name

• Wild fennel

  Funucchièlle

  Foeniculum vulgare

  Season:

  Leaves from March, seeds in late summer

  Habitat:

  Vineyard edges and trail margins across the Massico slopes

  The seeds flavour the black Caserta pork sausage and the new oil from the press; the tender leaves end up in legume soup. They are the aromatic base of finocchietto, the after-meal liqueur made at home with alcohol and sugar.

  • Kitchen
  • Liqueurs
  • Infusions

• Oregano

  Réano

  Origanum vulgare

  Season:

  Harvested in bloom, July–August

  Habitat:

  Sunny slopes of Roccamonfina, dry-stone walls

  Picked in small bunches, hung upside down in the cellar and crumbled in winter onto escarole pizza and piennolo tomatoes. The aroma is more resinous than its Apulian cousin, thanks to the volcanic soil.

  • Kitchen
  • Infusions

• Lesser calamint

  Nepitèlla

  Clinopodium nepeta

  Season:

  April–October

  Habitat:

  Shaded edges, old kitchen gardens, the stony Vignali

  Halfway between mint and thyme. Essential with porcini from the chestnut woods and in Roman-style artichokes; a sprig in hot water settles the stomach after long lunches.

  • Kitchen
  • Infusions

• Wild rocket

  Rucchètta

  Diplotaxis tenuifolia

  Season:

  Year-round, spicier in summer

  Habitat:

  Fallow fields, disturbed soil, embankments

  A narrow leaf with a sharp, peppery bite that has nothing to do with supermarket rocket. Eaten raw with tomato and buffalo mozzarella, or distilled into rucolino, the Casertan digestive bitter.

  • Kitchen
  • Liqueurs

• Wild chicory

  Cicòria

  Cichorium intybus

  Season:

  October–March, before flowering

  Habitat:

  Meadows and roadsides across the Ager Falernus

  Gathered with a small knife after the first autumn rains. Blanched and tossed in the pan with garlic, chilli and new oil, it is the Sunday side dish. The roasted root was the wartime coffee.

  • Kitchen
  • Folk medicine

• Borage

  Vurràine

  Borago officinalis

  Season:

  Leaves in spring, blue flowers in May

  Habitat:

  Vegetable gardens and damp ground around the village

  The fuzzy leaves are battered and fried — the frittella di vurràine that appears on Easter tables. The blue edible flowers decorate salads and ricotta desserts.

  • Kitchen
  • Infusions

• Myrtle

  Mùrtilla

  Myrtus communis

  Season:

  Black berries in December

  Habitat:

  Low Mediterranean scrub towards the Domitian coast

  Berries picked in December and steeped in alcohol for 40 days make the house myrtle liqueur. The leaves perfume pork roasted in the wood oven, as they did when families used to drive down to the sea in a horse-drawn cart.

  • Liqueurs
  • Kitchen

• Mastic tree

  Pistacia lentiscus

  Season:

  Red-black berries in autumn

  Habitat:

  Mediterranean scrub on the lower Massico slopes

  The chewed resin cleans the teeth and freshens the breath — an ancient use already documented by Roman writers in the Ager Falernus. The dark-green oil pressed from the berries was a salve for wounds and burns.

  • Folk medicine

• Strawberry tree

  Sòrva pelósa

  Arbutus unedo

  Season:

  Fruit in November, alongside the white flowers

  Habitat:

  Mixed Roccamonfina woods, among chestnuts and holm oaks

  The orange-red fruit, grainy outside and very sweet inside, is eaten while walking the trail. In the kitchen it becomes a thick jam to pair with aged pecorino; fermented, it yields a wild-scented grappa.

  • Kitchen
  • Liqueurs

• Wild asparagus

  Spàrace

  Asparagus acutifolius

  Season:

  Shoots in March–April

  Habitat:

  Holm-oak and downy-oak understorey, country hedgerows

  Thin, bitter, almost black. Foraged at the end of winter when the woods are still bare. The sparace omelette is the ritual dish of farming spring — a tie to the land that lasts across generations.

  • Kitchen

Note: only forage what you can identify with certainty, in small amounts, and never inside protected areas or along roadsides. For medicinal use, ask a qualified pharmacist or herbalist.