[Sca-cooks] Feast Ambience - incense

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 10:58 AM 8/5/02 -0700, you wrote:

>BUT the Native Americans in question are NOT burning salvia (in which
>family is cooking sage)!!!
>
>Rather, they burn the leaves of several plants *called* sage, but
>which are really artemisias - white sage, mountain sage, and
>sagebrush among them. These "sages" are bushes with very pale
>whitish-green leathery leaves that grow well in arid environments.
>There is a *vast* difference in fragrance - i much prefer artemisias.
>I think burning salvia smells icky (and i like the smell of burning,
>uh, hemp...).

Thank you for pointing this out- while I think the stoopid salvia bundles
(put together by dreamy eyed kids who don't actually know anything about
the aboriginal religious practices) stink when burnt, I am allergic to the
artemisia sages (as in I could never live in Nevada and cannot to east of
the Cascades when they are blooming or when it's really dry and they are
seeding- basically May through Septmeber) and have no desire to get really
sick while a guy in dreads and tye dye says it will cleanse my spirit... it
may set my Spirit FREE, if you get my drift... (I have to be very careful
about Saturday Market in Eugene...)

>What i hope to do at my Moorish-inspired Mediterranean Tour Feast is
>pass around bowls of rose and orange flower scented waters for hand
>washing at the beginning of the meal, not too logistically difficult
>with eight to ten  tables of eight diners.

Easy enough to do with your servers, or you can have stations at the door
on their way in. I've done that and it worked well. And I once did the
pitcher and bowl of rosewater for a private Middle-Eastern feast I once did
for a man I was sweet on- it worked a little too well ;-) and he was very
impressed. But he turned out to be Mr Nice-but-not-Mr-Right, and now I have
Mr Right for Me. ;-)

'Lainie
-(yes you goofus, I mean you!)
___________________________________________________________________________
"I'd rather staple a skunk to my forehead and go to a trade show for banjo
makers."
-Carol the Secretary, _Dilbert_