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from the maybe-irma-will-unearth-some-in-florida dept.
Long ago, in the ancient city of Cyrene, there was a herb called silphium. It didn't look like much – with stout roots, stumpy leaves and bunches of small yellow flowers – but it oozed with an odiferous sap that was so delicious and useful, the plant was eventually worth its weight in gold.
To list its uses would be an endless task. Its crunchable stalks were roasted, sauteed or boiled and eaten as a vegetable. Its roots were eaten fresh, dipped in vinegar. It was an excellent preservative for lentils and when it was fed to sheep, their flesh became delectably tender.
Perfume was coaxed from its delicate blooms, while its sap was dried and grated liberally over dishes from brains to braised flamingo. Known as "laser", the condiment was as fundamental to Roman haute cuisine as eating your food horizontally in a toga.
Then there were the medical applications. Silphium was a veritable wonder herb, a panacea for all manner of ailments, including growths of the anus (the Roman author Pliny the Elder recommends repeated fumigations with the root) and the bites of feral dogs (simply rub into the affected area, though Pliny warns his readers never, ever to try this with a tooth cavity, after a man who did so threw himself off a house).
Finally, silphium was required in the bedroom, where its juice was drunk as an aphrodisiac or applied "to purge the uterus". It may have been the first genuinely effective birth control; its heart-shaped seeds are thought to be the reason we associate the symbol with romance to this day.
The herb resisted cultivation, and was thought to have been harvested to extinction. Could it have survived somewhere?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @05:48PM (5 children)
I dunno, stop shopping at Walmart. I've lived in flyover country my whole life. Currently living in a small city. I can get whatever I want right here in town.
You conservatives have turned feeling sorry for yourself into an art form.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fritsd on Sunday September 10 2017, @06:15PM (4 children)
Actually, I'd expect uncommon locally-sourced delicacies to show up more in "flyover country" and equivalents than in the big city.
Every year at the summer yearmarket in the village, a hunter sells his wares, and in the large supermarket in town, there is sometimes a stall selling bear sausages.
I'd expect licensed American hunters selling their slabs of deer and elk (and raccoons? armadillos? alligators? rattle snakes?) in a refrigerated stall rented at the local Walmart. Or is that not "a thing" over there?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Arik on Sunday September 10 2017, @07:11PM
It's a shame too. Having fresh venison available at the butcher for a few pennies more than the beef was something I really appreciated.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2017, @07:19PM (2 children)
Arby's is Selling Venison Sandwiches in Six Deer-Hunting States [soylentnews.org]
Arby's is a fast food restaurant.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Informative) by PocketSizeSUn on Monday September 11 2017, @03:33AM (1 child)
Farm raised deer is a thing.
Non-farm raised deer meat is not legal for sale, AFAIK.
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 11 2017, @12:37PM
And imported from New Zealand.