Oh the sweet, warm aroma of aniseed that wafts from a handful of freshly cut fennel.
And the whole bulb is all incredibly edible, which means you can eat the seeds, the leaves, and even the roots. People have been doing this for donkey's years, as far back as ancient China actually, where they worshipped fennel for its fantastic medicinal properties.
Kitchen rumour has it that the Roman Emperor Charlemagne even used it to give him courage.
The Italians love it for its pure culinary magic and food-lovers everywhere are catching on.
Go on. Name another plant that can double as both a vegetable and a spice (there aren't many!).
Fabulous fennel's sweet-flavoured, tasty stems can be eaten raw in salads or served piping hot in soups, stews and pasta-dishes. Or the whole fennel bulb can be steamed and roasted in the oven -delicious with a dollop of Salsa Verde. It's a meal in itself.
Its feathery leaves can be used to flavour volumes of recipes, while its seeds get sprinkled from Venice to Sicily.
The seeds are rich in potassium and calcium, great at fixing digestive problems and colicky babies, and they add pizzazz to food wherever they go. Pops up in breads, antipasti, salads and vegetables, our authentic Italian fennel Pesto (of course), and even apple pies and chocolate cake.
But there's one more thing.
After you've cooked up a storm in the kitchen the good old fennel can even reward you with a refreshing cup of delicious and restorative tea.