On 5 Apr 2004 11:49:49 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

][snip]

] Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
] as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
] with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.
]

Indeed it is, and also very reliable and trouble free. Only thing is to keep
the slugs off it. Otherwise it comes back like clockwork. With 3 heads
we never seem to have enough, as it's a staple in salads, and makes
a lovely sauce just chopped and a bit of cream added, over fish.

Sorrel is still very common in France, just about everyone I know
grows it. My neighbor must have 20 heads of it or so.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

On 5 Apr 2004 11:49:49 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

][snip]

] Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
] as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
] with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.
]

Indeed it is, and also very reliable and trouble free. Only thing is to keep
the slugs off it. Otherwise it comes back like clockwork. With 3 heads
we never seem to have enough, as it's a staple in salads, and makes
a lovely sauce just chopped and a bit of cream added, over fish.

Sorrel is still very common in France, just about everyone I know
grows it. My neighbor must have 20 heads of it or so.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 12:01:15 +0100, ajr wrote:

Good King Henry
Hamburg Parsley
Sorrel

[a book mentions] that they were a staple of most herb gardens
until supermarkets became common - is this true?

IMHO, there's a lot of urban myth-making and falsification of the
historical record where herbs are concerned. Just take a look at
a copy of the original Mrs. Beeton and you'll see that most herbs
are rarely mentioned, if at all.

Perhaps what's happened is that famine and poverty foods have
been mistaken for everyday foods. Certainly, here in the Pacific
Northwest the Indians were often reduced to dire straits by late
winter when the previous summer's stash had been consumed and
would end up eating, inter alia, the young shoots of thimbleberry
(Rubus parviflorus) for lack of anything better.

It's easy to see how "oh yeah, our folks used to eat those in the
late winter before the white man arrived, but now we go to
Macdonald's when we're hungry" could get translated into
"Thimbleberry shoots were a late-winter delicacy among the
Indians" by an uncritical author.

Someone in another reply mentioned Good King Henry's penchant for
seeding around. You may want to reconsider growing it at all;
many of the plants denoted "herb" by the enthusiast turn out to
be pretty weedy.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 12:01:15 +0100, ajr wrote:

Good King Henry
Hamburg Parsley
Sorrel

[a book mentions] that they were a staple of most herb gardens
until supermarkets became common - is this true?

IMHO, there's a lot of urban myth-making and falsification of the
historical record where herbs are concerned. Just take a look at
a copy of the original Mrs. Beeton and you'll see that most herbs
are rarely mentioned, if at all.

Perhaps what's happened is that famine and poverty foods have
been mistaken for everyday foods. Certainly, here in the Pacific
Northwest the Indians were often reduced to dire straits by late
winter when the previous summer's stash had been consumed and
would end up eating, inter alia, the young shoots of thimbleberry
(Rubus parviflorus) for lack of anything better.

It's easy to see how "oh yeah, our folks used to eat those in the
late winter before the white man arrived, but now we go to
Macdonald's when we're hungry" could get translated into
"Thimbleberry shoots were a late-winter delicacy among the
Indians" by an uncritical author.

Someone in another reply mentioned Good King Henry's penchant for
seeding around. You may want to reconsider growing it at all;
many of the plants denoted "herb" by the enthusiast turn out to
be pretty weedy.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

Emery Davis5/4/04 10:22

On 5 Apr 2004 11:49:49 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

][snip]

] Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
] as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
] with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.
]

Indeed it is, and also very reliable and trouble free. Only thing is to keep
the slugs off it. Otherwise it comes back like clockwork. With 3 heads
we never seem to have enough, as it's a staple in salads, and makes
a lovely sauce just chopped and a bit of cream added, over fish.

Sorrel is still very common in France, just about everyone I know
grows it. My neighbor must have 20 heads of it or so.

-E

One of the very best soups I've ever eaten was Sorrel soup. My ma outlaw is
Italian and it was one of her best ever dishes. Superb.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

Emery Davis5/4/04 10:22

On 5 Apr 2004 11:49:49 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

][snip]

] Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
] as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
] with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.
]

Indeed it is, and also very reliable and trouble free. Only thing is to keep
the slugs off it. Otherwise it comes back like clockwork. With 3 heads
we never seem to have enough, as it's a staple in salads, and makes
a lovely sauce just chopped and a bit of cream added, over fish.

Sorrel is still very common in France, just about everyone I know
grows it. My neighbor must have 20 heads of it or so.

-E

One of the very best soups I've ever eaten was Sorrel soup. My ma outlaw is
Italian and it was one of her best ever dishes. Superb.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
. ..
On 5 Apr 2004 11:49:49 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

][snip]

] Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
] as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
] with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.
]

Indeed it is, and also very reliable and trouble free. Only thing is to
keep
the slugs off it. Otherwise it comes back like clockwork. With 3 heads
we never seem to have enough, as it's a staple in salads, and makes
a lovely sauce just chopped and a bit of cream added, over fish.

Sorrel is still very common in France, just about everyone I know
grows it. My neighbor must have 20 heads of it or so.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

Emery,

I'm sure that I must have sampled sorrel at some point, however I must admit
that I have no idea, off the top of my head, what it tastes like!

What is its flavour? Nick mentioned earlier that it was good with "fat
meat", so I assumed that it would have a sage like flavour, but (presumably)
if it compliments fish as well it is a lot more 'delicate'.

Anyway, I'm getting hold of some seeds tommorow so by the end of the summer
I'll know if it's worth keeping, or throwing on the compost heap!

Cheers,


Andrew

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
. ..
On 5 Apr 2004 11:49:49 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

][snip]

] Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
] as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
] with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.
]

Indeed it is, and also very reliable and trouble free. Only thing is to
keep
the slugs off it. Otherwise it comes back like clockwork. With 3 heads
we never seem to have enough, as it's a staple in salads, and makes
a lovely sauce just chopped and a bit of cream added, over fish.

Sorrel is still very common in France, just about everyone I know
grows it. My neighbor must have 20 heads of it or so.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

Emery,

I'm sure that I must have sampled sorrel at some point, however I must admit
that I have no idea, off the top of my head, what it tastes like!

What is its flavour? Nick mentioned earlier that it was good with "fat
meat", so I assumed that it would have a sage like flavour, but (presumably)
if it compliments fish as well it is a lot more 'delicate'.

Anyway, I'm getting hold of some seeds tommorow so by the end of the summer
I'll know if it's worth keeping, or throwing on the compost heap!

Cheers,


Andrew

On 6 Apr 2004 07:47:11 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

]
] In article ,
] Emery Davis writes:
] |
] | It may take a bit to get established. (It does stay green all winter, although the
] | leaves are too small for anything that requires a lot.) Anyway, if you don't like
] | it you can always sell it at the local market!
]
] Only in mild winters. If the temperature drops below about -5
] Celcius, it will lose its leaves.
]

Nick, that may be. Although it gets a lot colder than that here, our herb
bed is against a south facing wall of the house, so the actual temp on
ground there may never get colder than 5C. I will say it stays green when
the other soft herbs have died back for winter, and is quite happy after
a coating of snow or ice.

cheers,

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

The message
from "ajr" contains these words:


I'm sure that I must have sampled sorrel at some point, however I must admit
that I have no idea, off the top of my head, what it tastes like!

What is its flavour? Nick mentioned earlier that it was good with "fat
meat", so I assumed that it would have a sage like flavour, but (presumably)
if it compliments fish as well it is a lot more 'delicate'.

Nothing like sage. It's more acid, like a sharp spinach.

Janet.

On 6 Apr 2004 07:47:11 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) said:

]
] In article ,
] Emery Davis writes:
] |
] | It may take a bit to get established. (It does stay green all winter, although the
] | leaves are too small for anything that requires a lot.) Anyway, if you don't like
] | it you can always sell it at the local market!
]
] Only in mild winters. If the temperature drops below about -5
] Celcius, it will lose its leaves.
]

Nick, that may be. Although it gets a lot colder than that here, our herb
bed is against a south facing wall of the house, so the actual temp on
ground there may never get colder than 5C. I will say it stays green when
the other soft herbs have died back for winter, and is quite happy after
a coating of snow or ice.

cheers,

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

The message
from "ajr" contains these words:


I'm sure that I must have sampled sorrel at some point, however I must admit
that I have no idea, off the top of my head, what it tastes like!

What is its flavour? Nick mentioned earlier that it was good with "fat
meat", so I assumed that it would have a sage like flavour, but (presumably)
if it compliments fish as well it is a lot more 'delicate'.

Nothing like sage. It's more acid, like a sharp spinach.

Janet.

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in news:c4tml5$j7r$1
@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk:

There is very little written about how the common people cooked,
which doesn't help :-( Try and find anything written about how
the poorer people (or even somewhat richer people in poorer areas)
cookec in even 1950, for example, and it's hard. Try for 1850,
and it's diabolical. Try for 1750, and it's almost impossible.
And so on ....

My favorite quote from a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine appears in a
paragraph of 'filler stuff' about how there were a range of things to eat
in medieval England, not (shock horror) just turnips. It goes :

"Fruit grew on trees..."

A true classic!

My guess: people in the past had diverse tastes and views on what
constitutes food - like today's urglers.

Probably, some of them even ate nettle soup (ugh). Some people will eat
any damn thing! ;-)

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in news:c4tml5$j7r$1
@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk:

There is very little written about how the common people cooked,
which doesn't help :-( Try and find anything written about how
the poorer people (or even somewhat richer people in poorer areas)
cookec in even 1950, for example, and it's hard. Try for 1850,
and it's diabolical. Try for 1750, and it's almost impossible.
And so on ....

My favorite quote from a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine appears in a
paragraph of 'filler stuff' about how there were a range of things to eat
in medieval England, not (shock horror) just turnips. It goes :

"Fruit grew on trees..."

A true classic!

My guess: people in the past had diverse tastes and views on what
constitutes food - like today's urglers.

Probably, some of them even ate nettle soup (ugh). Some people will eat
any damn thing! ;-)

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 23:07:10 +0100, "ajr" wrote:

I'm sure that I must have sampled sorrel at some point, however I must admit
that I have no idea, off the top of my head, what it tastes like!

Rather lemony and astringent.