(March 28, 2019)
epazote* stalks
ready-to-bloom reminds me
must make chili soon
*(Epazote, like most if not all our food plants or herbs is a weed. It grows in spoil-lands wherever its fluttery streamer seeds take early Spring wind. It is natal from Panama to New York City’s Central Park, though in most polite – and sadly untutored sites – it is pulled as the weed it is and left to rot. Better to cut off the seed head (pre-deadheading I shall declaim you, since you want not to draw all the plant’s power to reproduction and keep it in the stem) and plop chunks into simmering bean dishes of which chili is a mainstay. Takes away athleticism anally if you get my drift. Eat legumes remain unmusical, so say its aficionados and Central American and Southern cooks from Texas to The Carolinas. Dry the parts you put not into your beanpots. The seeds, like those from other flowering weeds will float everywhere. Although some say it’s “an acquired taste” and claim Epazote is an analog of turpentine – which is a canard true and flightless – it is full of ascorbic acid…which will not get your high but chase off any attempts at scurvy…it’s chock-full of Vitamin C, in longer words. And it tastes just fine on its own. So, there!)