SC - Tansy:To poison or not to poison

[Michael P Newton]

I have a quandary which has come up again: is tansy poisonous, and if so,
why do I keep running into recipes in period or near period, which call
for tansy as the main flavorings?
It is especially madding considering that I have planted three tansy
plants outside my kitchen window to repel the ants {which worked for a
while}. When I bought them, they came with a warning that they were
poisonous, then I found some recipes in my herbal books, but our local
herbalist thought they were similar to wormwood, in that flavoring
wouldn't kill you but it was to picky to mess around with.Now I find two
more recipes in the _A concise encyclopedia of Gastronomy_, one of which
says that a "Tansy" in England was the name of a custard flavored with
tansy or other bitterish leaves. The other recipe is for a pudding.
Has anyone else come across these or similar  recipes,preferably in
period sources? Is it really poisonous or only in large quantities? Does
anyone have any other uses for tansy?
Lady Beatrix
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