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Lisa McLean's avatar

What an excellent and charming piece Elizabeth, so many threads of knowledge woven into a nightshade tapestry. I know your soup will be delicious too.

Olly Rowe's avatar

Off to source lovage - and not coming home until I succeed…..

Vanilla Black's avatar

Funny how afraid we were of certain foods. I read a piece about the first settlers from England who arrived to America and nearly starved because they were afraid to eat the produce. It was the native Indians who showed them what to eat.

Lisa McLean's avatar

I bet they regret that. Our indigenous people were equally generous, and were similarly rewarded.

Vanilla Black's avatar

There’s a story, from many years ago, about two American astronauts who were training in the desserts of America before a trip to the moon. They met two native Americans, a young chap and his grandfather. They asked the astronauts what they were doing and they explained that they were in training for a moon landing. The grandfather took out a pencil and some paper and wrote something in his language, then gave it to the astronauts and asked them to give it to the moon God. When they were back at base camp they remembered the note, but obviously couldn’t read it. However, there was a guy in the room who had studied the language and asked to see it, and when he did, he laughed. They astronauts wanted to know what it read, so he gave them the translation as follows, ‘don’t trust these people, they will steal your land.’