Be Aromatic is Rute Porto and her husband João, at Quinta dos Choupos, on the outskirts of Évora. They have grown and sold aromatic and medicinal herbs there, organically, since 2013.
Only a small part of the land is planted. The rest is left to itself: they brought the old olive grove back, put in an apiary, collected and propagated wild plants native to the area, sowed flowers for the bees, and planted trees along the stream for the birds that were already there.
The herbs most asked for are lemon verbena, peppermint, lemongrass, thyme in three kinds, pennyroyal, oregano and lemon balm. Behind those sits a longer list that fewer people know: sage and pineapple sage, which really does smell of pineapple, bergamot mint, marjoram, lavender, tulsi, Thai basil and four other basils. Rute's point about winter savory is that it works in almost any dish and almost nobody uses it.
One thyme has a name of its own. Tomilho Bela Luz, Thymus mastichina, is endemic to the Iberian peninsula. Dried and ground it is used like salt, which is why it is called sal verde, green salt. It also gave its name to Sal Verde, Aromáticas e Cozinha, the book Rute wrote during the pandemic with her friends Margarida and Kerry, who took the photographs. It is a herbarium of 22 plants, what each one looks like, what it is good for and what to cook with it, alongside chapters on farming, on Alentejo food, and on soil, water and bees.
There is olive oil too, cold extracted from the century-old trees on the farm, and honey from their own hives. Harvesting, drying, packing and olive picking are all done by hand.
It is a farm, not a shop. Visits are by appointment, and they run tastings, cooking workshops and herbarium illustration sessions.
https://www.bearomatic.com