[Sca-cooks] OOP Question -Sassafras

[Jeff Gedney]

>Sassafras might not be OOP---when they settled Jamestown in 1607, 
>sassafras was one of the things they were looking for, which 
>implies there was already a market for it.  I believe it was used 
>medicinally.

Sassafras wood was frequently exported to England for furniture and barrel making.

The Jamestown narratives mention that the local Indians ate a "pottage" made from powdered sassafras leaves... in otherwords: file (fee-lay)... Perhaps the first record of file gumbo? 

It's qualities for settling an upset stomach was well noted.
So it did have a medicinal value. 
But IIRC, the wood itself was the chief export of this species. 
The medicial byproducts, leaves and root bark were exported, but in significantly smaller quantities (this is all recollection, I dont have my resources to hand and I may be completely mistaken, but I am confident in my knowlege of the use of the wood in furniture.  

Capt Elias
Dragonship Haven, East
(Stratford, CT, USA)

-Renaissance Geek of the Cyber Seas

- Help! I am being pecked to death by the Ducks of Dilletanteism! 
There are SO damn many more things I want to try in the SCA 
than I can possibly have time for. It's killing me!!!

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