SC - lavendar

[Jeff Heilveil]

Salut!
this will be brief (hopefully not terse) as I have to go work on some
field samples, but...

In general any flower that you pick up from a florist is a REALLY bad idea
to use in cooking.  There are little to no regulations on pesticide use in
greenhouses if the food was not intended for consumption.  This goes along
with the theory that you don't want florist roses for making rosewater
unless you know that they are organic, or that the grower uses biological
control agents and not chemical control agents.

Also, as for the use of lavendar in period there are a couple of recipes
in the Miscellany (as Ras posted, I believe they ARE from al-Bahgdi (SP)).
The recipe for a Counterfeit of Garbanzos (period Falafel), as well as the
original (for which I cannot currently remember the name, but is on page
32-34ish) which is made with lamb both use lavendar and the recipes are
not quite as good IMHO without said lavendar.  

Hope this helps.

In service to the Dream.
Cu drag,
Bogdan 


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Jeffrey Heilveil M.S.		      Ld. Bogdan de la Brasov, C.W.
Department of Entomology	A Bear's paw and base vert on field argent
University of Illinois		    	  
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