(22 Aug 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS –
Berlin, Germany – 17 August 2025
1. Martin Roetzel, owner of the Monk Garden in Berlin picking herbs
2. Close hands cutting herbs
3. Wide of the Monk Garden next to a former gasworks
4. Yellow rose in front in the middle of the garden in front of the former gasworks
5. Martin Roetzel walks through his garden
7. Close plant
8. Various herbs and plants with sky and sun in the background
9. Martin Roetzel picking fresh mint and putting it in a bowl
10. Pull focus from plant to blackberry
11. SOUNDBITE (German) Martin Roetzel, owner of the Monk Garden:
“A long time ago, I had an ecological allotment garden. I started growing a lot of plants there. I propagated most of the plants myself. I brought black cumin back from Syria at some point, and so on and so forth. It got bigger and bigger.“
12. Close of dish of crayfish shawa, with grilled peas, dashi, basil oil, pea sprouts and char caviar,
13. Team preparing dinner in the outdoor kitchen of the monk garden
14. Close of ingredients being added to teapot pan to ingredient container
15. Close of hot water being poured on tea
16. SOUNDBITE (German) Britta Rosenthal, guest at the monk garden:
“So I hope to get some more information about what herbs can do, what they allow you to do, and maybe be a little more adventurous when it comes to preparing food, in terms of products, not always relying on pepper, salt, and paprika, but also using something green and fresh, and maybe I’ll plant something in the garden.“
17. Close hand touches plant
18. Pull focus from plant to pink rose
19. Pan of garden
20. SOUNDBITE (German) Martin Roetzel, owner of the Monk Garden:
“We are trying to provide access to this ancient knowledge through formats such as this one, Reficio, because basically you can explain a lot to people, but if they don’t try it, if they don’t taste it and if they don’t know how to prepare it in a delicious way, they won’t pursue it anyway."
21. Various of guests at dinner table in the middle of the monk garden
22. Sauce being squeezed onto fresh leaves
23. Various of guests eating
24. SOUNDBITE (German) Angela Merscher-Harms, guest at the monk garden:
“What we have already learned is that Martin has an incredible knowledge of these natural herbs and the effects herbs have on the body in general. I am a nurse, so I naturally find it very interesting and exciting to learn what can be healed and achieved with nature as opposed to medicine. I am also lucky that my husband is a gifted amateur chef. And of course, I hope that he will pick up a few tips and tricks here to cook even more delicious things for me. Yes, the saying “the way to a person’s heart is through the stomach” is almost perfect.”
25. Guests at dinner table
26. Pull focus from sage to flower with bee on it
27. Wide monk garden with guests at dinner table
AP Video shot by Fanny Brodersen
STORYLINE:
LEADIN:
In Berlin is an almost secret garden owned by a man whose passion is to reintroduce people to tasty food made from herbs and plants from a bygone age.
It’s full of ingredients which would have been familiar to monks in monasteries, but he’s rapidly converting a new generation to his cause.
STORYLINE:
In a secluded lot next to a disused gasworks in suburban Berlin, Martin Rötzel is breathing new life into a tradition of centuries past: the monastery garden.
Rötzel’s Monk Garden is home to between 150 and 200 types of herbs, leaves and trees including many that are unlikely to be found at any German supermarket.
Rötzel trained as a hotelier and also worked as a dancer.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d33f4fb80dd0469da67bc83a7f03f63e
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in August 27, 2025, 3:04 am.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
