SC - Salsify or Oyster Plant

[Cindy Renfrow]

><snip>>IIRC, I have seen no references to salsify in any period source in a
>language I can understand or otherwise access. I wonder if it's one of
>those vegetables that began to be cultivated and widely eaten late in
>period, or possibly later still.
>
>Adamantius
>--
>Phil & Susan Troy
>
>troy at asan.com

Hello!  I looked it up in Gerard & Parkinson under its Latin name,
Tragopogon luteum.  In English of the time it was commonly known as
Goats-Beard or Go-to-bed-at-noon.  Other names include Joseph's flower,
Star of Jerusalem, Noone-tide, Sassefrica (Italian), Barba Cabruna
(Spanish), and Barbe de bouc (French).

Gerard says it was imported and is grown in gardens as an ornamental & for
their roots.  Both mention that there are two kinds, the purple & the
yellow.  (The purple one is T. purpureum.)

>From Gerard, p. 736:
"The roots of Goats-beard boyled in wine and drunke, asswageth the paine
and pricking stitches of the sides.
The same boyled in water vntill they be tender, and buttered as parsneps
and carrots, are a most pleasant and wholsome meate, in delecate taste
farre surpassing either Parsneps or Carrot:  which meate procures appetite,
warmeth the stomacke, preuaileth greatly in consumptions, and strengthneth
those that haue been sicke of a long lingring disease."

HTH,


Cindy Renfrow
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/


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