[Sca-cooks] Somewhat OT: Looking for Canadian on-line suppliers

[Stefan li Rous]

Petru mentioned:
> I've recently developed an interest in period pharmaceutics, and while
> I'm eager
> to try making a few balms, oils and pills (not sure about testing them,
> though!)
> I find a few ingredients to be... er... hard to get by.

There are various period recipes for these in the PLANTS, HERBS AND 
SPICES and the PERSONAL CARE sections of the Florilegium.
>
> So I'm turning toward your collective wisdom to recommend a good source
> for opopanax, sandalwood, styrax, amber, mastic, etc, etc, etc...

Are you wanting the sandalwood for perfumes or to eat? There are two 
different types. The sandalwood for food coloring is also called 
sauders and has little aroma.

There are a number of spice merchants given in this file:
merch-spices-msg  (32K)  9/19/04    Spice merchants. Reviews and 
recommendations

For some info on mastic, although I'm not sure there are any merchants 
mentioned, you might want to look at this file:
gums-resins-msg   (32K)  8/31/03    Period use of plant gums and 
resins. Myrrh,
                                        mastic, frankincense, camphor.

I've bought frankincense from the Pepperer's Guild at Pennsic. They do 
mail order as well, but I can't remember if they carry mastic or not.

For amber, I would take a look at this file in the NORSE section. There 
is a lot of fake amber being sold out there composed of amber dust 
melded together. I don't know if this would work for you or not. On the 
otherhand if you can find someone who has some of this amber dust you 
might be able to purchase it cheaper than chunks of amber.
amber-buying-art  (27K) 12/30/96    How to buy amber. How to detect 
fake amber.

I'm not sure what "opopanax" and "styrax" are.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****