HERB - HERB Queen Ann's Lace, and many other things

[CorwynWdwd@aol.com]

>         First how do you know the diffrence between Queen Ann's Lace and the
>  much less edible plants which impersonate it?  And what would be a good way
>  to prepare the root of this plant for eating.  

Queen Anne's Lace is actually a naturilised wild carrot. We brought over
carots from Europe, and they spread. The only way I know for sure it's Queen
Anne's Lace is if there's a red spot in the middle of the compound flower. One
little red compound blossom. As to proper preperation... I'll get back to you
on that.

>          Secondly.  I have heard some people talking of Absinthe as a
strange
>  concoction of Alcohol and Wormwood.  They said it was a potent
hilucinigenic
>  and occasionally drove people mad.  I was curious if this was actualy a
>  period drink and if such poisons might have contributed to the beleife in
>  Magic and other things which were firmly beleved in at the time but now
>  proven to have never existed. 

Absinthe, if it existed in period at all, was probably late period. It was the
acid of the nineteenth century. It causes madness and brain damage. It is
banned in all the industrilised nations, but I have it on fairly good
authority you can still get in in the Bahamas, so somebody's still making it.
I think the belief in magic dosen't need any drug assistance... but maybe our
Psychic Friends on the Hotline have a different opinion...:) . There WAS a
theory that the witch hysteria was caused somewhat by ergot poisoning, ergot
being a fungus that grows on rye. I tend to believe it's herd mentality...
just like the McCarthy hearings.

Prerambulating again...

Corwyn
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