We've all heard of chicory. Here (and in Baltimore) it's just a local weed growing in vacant lots and along the roadside. Elsewhere (see also the link), the roasted taproots produce a treasured beverage.
Anyway, there's a lovely patch of chicory along the sidewalk on my way to the local library. I stopped to snap a photo with my cell phone and spotted a cute little fly enjoying a meal on this distinctive blue flower. Thanks to yesterday's breeze (and my assorted nonskills with a cell-phone camera), the image is not sharp. This isn't exactly a fly or a bee....something in between?? A fake fly or a fake bee??
I've been calling this blue flower "sassafras." So much for memory. My botanist-engineer friend Liz told me what they were some years ago when I noticed them growing along the road in Virginia. Come to find out this a.m. when I looked it all up, sassafras is a TREE, and they use it to make root beer. I knew it was some kind of beverage.
GREAT pic...And I think I can spot that sassafras tea; we usta use the bark to make tea--which tastes like root beer. And then guess wot? We learned that it was carcinogenic! No more root beer tea!
ReplyDeleteAnd I think we usta call the little critter in the pic a "sweat bee." They sting. But not so bad as a real bee. Kitty says in LA they usta play with 'em as children, and encourage 'em to sting their arms on purpose. They produce a weak burn and teensy itchy welts.
Boo
Close, Boo, but it's not a sweat bee. It's a hover fly, which acts like a helicopter and hangs around flowers! the photo is from an angle, so you can't see how long the fly is, but that's it! Fun finding out about all this stuff that's right around us.
DeleteAlso--ha...southern lore...chickory usta be a cheap sub for coffee. When folks discovered they loved the taste, they deliberately added it to coffee and (especially in LA) advertised their coffee and coffee WITH chicory.
ReplyDeleteAh...Most of being 61 I hate. But the silver lining is the remnant of memory I still carry around.
Boo
I think it looks pretty cool out of focus like that! I should use my cell phone camera more, but I'm rarely pleased with the pretty average results.
ReplyDeleteI used to drink sassafrass tea too! Didn't know it was carcinogenic! I like the leaves on sassafrass trees -- three different shapes on one tree.
ReplyDeleteCute little fly!
I have never tasted chicory and do remember that is was a cheap substitute for coffee.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother drank sassafras tea and I think she believed it had medicinal properties. Apparently, she was sadly mistaken.
That's the kind of pic that is more interesting than a "good" picture. I think chicory is sometimes put into coffee to make it go farther. Is that true?
ReplyDeleteit (i.e., one fraction of sassafras oil) is carcinogenic for RATS & MICE. not so much known about effect on humans. Sassafras tea is a long-time Native American and old wives' cure...I wouldn't hesitate to drink it if I thought it would do me some good. And the homemade root beer that we used to make from the little bottles of extract available at the supermarket was fabulous!! I think MILK is much more dangerous to be drinking--if you are an adult.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, linda, darlene, hattie--the link to Baltimore Brew tells a lot about the history of chicory and coffee. A favorite in FRANCE, not only New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteThe coffee taste with chicory I recall from years ago was a bitter one I didn't like. Sassafras tea I recall as being very tasty and believed, then, to have medicinal qualities. Haven't had either as an adult, so maybe my impressions now would be different.
ReplyDeleteThe coffee taste with chicory I recall from years ago was a bitter one I didn't like. Sassafras tea I recall as being very tasty and believed, then, to have medicinal qualities. Haven't had either as an adult, so maybe my impressions now would be different.
ReplyDeleteI've never tasted coffee with chicory, though it seems to me that one of the kinds we could buy in the supermarket had it, and my mother and her coffee party pals loved it. Of course, I can't remember which brand it was...
ReplyDeleteSassafras tea is good for you. Amazing how they say not to drink it cuz it can cause cancer in rodents. how do they feel about diet coke? or plain coke with all the high fructose corn syrup? gah.