Babiana--TOW

Rodger Whitlock totototo@mail.pacificcoast.net
Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:33:21 PDT
On 17 Apr 03 at 15:30, IntarsiaCo@aol.com wrote:

> ...A couple of years ago mice nested in the greenhouse, they
> ate only the Sparaxis and Babiana.  So I tasted the dry Babiana
> corms, nuttyish flavor, nice crunch, not bitter like acorns.  I'd
> bet they could be ground into a flour.

I've read -- possibly in Brian Mathews' "The Crocus" -- of crocus 
corms being sold in the markets of Damascus, braided together like 
garlic. "Salap", an ancient foodstuff still available if you know 
where to look, is made from tubers of Orchis species; it makes a 
pudding of a peculiarly sticky nature. And I've tried bulbs of 
Camassia, steamed: they looked and tasted like, and had the texture 
of, library paste. They might have been better baked or roasted.


-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island


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