Like many spices, fennel was widely used in Europe in the early Middle Ages. Now it's time to reintroduce it into our everyday cooking, along with coriander, cumin and turmeric. Fennel is mainly grown in India, although it is originally from the Mediterranean basin. It is also grown in Turkey, Japan, Argentina, North Africa and California. With its slightly sweet, aniseed taste, fennel aids digestion, which is why it is so common to find it on tables at the end of a meal in northern India. The fruits are produced by tiny yellow flowers in umbels, from the Apiaceae family. Fennel thrives in the sunny, dry soils of Gujarat. A great soul, Yaksha fennel? Nicknamed the Mahatma, a title meaning “The Great Me”, Gandhi was born, raised and lived in the state of Gujarat, more precisely in Ahmedabad, where he founded his first Indian ashram to pass on his teachings. A land steeped in spirituality and tradition, sometimes overlooked by many travellers who escape to Rajasthan, the land of a thousand temples, on the border with Gujarat.