Re- SC - chicken on string

[Terry Nutter]

Melissa Hicks wrote:
[snipped a good bit]

> In all my modern herb books I cannot find 'skirrets' except
> one...which
> describes a herb with an edible root which was highly prized by the
> Romans
> and which has the botanical name:
> Sium Sisarum.  Any ideas anyone?
>
> Drake Morgan,
> Politarchopolis.
>
> ================
> ===========================================================

Aha!!Gardening--something I know lots about! I have a reference to
skirrets, just a minute.....Sorry that took so long <cough cough, the
dust on that bookcase is choking me...>
Here it is:
"Gardening for Good Eating"
Helen Morgenthau Fox
Collier Books, New York
Copyright 1943 by The Macmillan Company, renewed 1971 by the author
!st edition Collier Books, 1973
2nd printing 1974
these two are the paperback editions.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-12964

And I quote the entire passage, pages54 &55:
=================================================================

In the sixteenth century, skirrets, Sium sisarum, were brought to Europe
from Siberia and Persia, where they grew wild.  The plant is a hard
perennial and has fleshy twisted roots, clustered like dahlia tubers.
Formerly these roots were a highly esteemed vegetable.  Skirrets were
grown in Mobile, Alabama, in 1775 and are now obtinable from several
nurseries in the United States.  The plants make thick lush growth about
2 feet high.  The stems and divided leaves are a fresh yellow-green, and
the white flowers, in umbels, are somewhat weedy.  The shoots and stems
have been blanched and eaten as a spring salad.  They have a pleasant,
slightly camphoracieous taste, and the roots, too, have a pleasant
flavor.
    To increase the supply of plants, they can readily be grown from
see, or the roots can be divided in autumn, wintered over in a sandy bed
and set out again in the garden in spring.  They are hardy enough to
endure the winter outdoors, but this method of wintering over perennials
in the North has been found highly satisfactory.  It does away with the
danger of plants being heaved out of the earth through thawing and
freezing.
    The roots can be washed, scraped, and then steamed or boiled and
served like any root vegetables.  To keep them from darkening after
peeling, they are dropped in water with lemon in it.  This is Mrs.
Glasse's recipe to fricassee skirrets:
    Wash the roots very well, boil them till they are tender; the thin
skin of the roots must be removed and the roots are cut in slices--have
ready a little cream, a piece of butter rolled in flour, the yolk of an
egg beaten, a little nutmeg, 2 to 3 spoonfuls of white wine, a little
salt and stir all together.  Your roots being in a dish pour the sauce
over them.
    to this might be added, put the whole dish in the oven to brown.
Rosemary can be substituted for nutmeg.

===========================
Hope this helps you out, tho I don't know who might have seeds or
plants,you could check sead saver exchanges or rare seed companies.
Mairi
- --
Mary Hysong <Lady Mairi Broder, Atenveldt Kingdom Scribe> and  Curtis
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