[Sca-cooks] Pellitory
Suey
lordhunt at gmail.com
Sun Jul 19 12:33:11 PDT 2009
/ /pyrethrum/./ This includes all the single-flowered chrysanthemums,
which contain a natural insecticide nontoxic to mammals. Naturally, it
is symbolic of protection. The flower is dried and the powder is
sprinkled about the house too kill cockroaches, spiders, flies, ants and
bedbugs. Further, it can kill pests living on the skin of animals and
men. These plants are bitter. In the Middle Ages they were used as
purgatives. In England the leaves were chewed to "clean the head." Also
they were used equally in food and in perfume. In Al Andalus it was
thought that all food items had a purpose and virtues. Pyrethrum was to
make one happy. The fresh flower may be added to decorate dishes. Like
cress, the leaves were an ingredient for salads and other dishes. The
leaves and flowers were added to soups for flavoring. The taste is
similar to the tansy. In 13^th C Al-Andalus pellitory was an ingredient
for honey water. In southern Europe the root of it was used to make a
paste applied locally as an irritant. In England it was an ingredient
for Sauce Vert (Green Sauce). There pellitory was included in a
medicinal bath to cure all ills especially coughing in foggy London.
See Charles Perry's footnote 221 in his translation of the 13th Century
Al-Andalus MSS and Cindy Renfrow's _Glossary Of Medieval & Renaissance
Culinary Terms _http://www.thousandeggs.com/glossary.html
I wonder if it kills slugs. One year at a cousin's I was appointed to
water and spray the roses with a poison for them while cousin and wife
were away. I did not read the instructions on the jar of the poison and
did not dilute it as it ordered. I found myself drowning the rose bushes
at 3 am that morning with water and massaging the leaves in an effort to
save the prickly bushes. Beside it was my male cousin's wife who 'owned'
the bushes. The next year when I went back tried to convince her to
plant parsley around the rose bushes but she only put one plant there
not the whole width of the garden so of course the slugs were back in
full force and she's screaming at me: "you see it didn't work!"
Suey
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