SC - figs

[Jenne Heise]

> Well, according to the Good Eats show on Food Network - celery seed comes
> from Lovage (at least that's what my faulty memory remembers from the pickle
> show.)  Is lovage something they used in period? 

*blink* Lovage will definitely give you a similar flavor to celery seed. I
was under the impression that celery seed came from celery, but certainly
a number of online sources-- all connected with the FoodTV network-- say
it comes from lovage; others don't. Interestingly, the same sources that
say lovage produces celery seed say that lovage is also called smallage.
But smallage is wild celery, Apium graveolens, where lovage's latin name
is Levisticum officinale. I suspect that the authors of the FoodTV sites
are conflating lovage and smallage, thus the confusion.

Yes, lovage is period (assuming the period authors were not also
conflating lovage and smallage). It shows up in a few herbals, and Mrs.
Grieve's _Modern Herbal_ gives a summary:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/lovage42.html

Alexanders, another period relative of celery, is marketed as black lovage
by seedsellers. I'm going to try again this year to grow some from the
seed I bought last year.

 -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at mail.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"It's no use trying to be clever-- we are all clever here; just try
to be kind -- a little kind." F.J. Foakes-Jackson