Instead of importing tea, we could use yaupon to make cassina. This is a fascinating article explaining why yaupon frightened people so they would not drink the resulting drink.
Another article explains how beaver was eaten by Catholics to circumvent their meat fasts.
One article explains how beaver musk gives a vanilla raspberry taste to sweets. Well, I won't be trying to replace my vanilla in the kitchen by catching a beaver.
I did not get the link for the other two articles, but they are on the same page as the yaupon article.
Probably none of my hollies are yaupon since my bushes have lethal spines. Ouch! I intend to determine if this is would satisfy my need for tea. I don't drink coffee but some people use this as a substitute for coffee.
Maybe we could dispense with the costs of transporting our favorite caffeine drinks by producing it ourselves.
I have heard of yaupon, a holly. However, I have never heard of using beaver musk for a seasoning or the Catholic predilection for beaver meat. Have you?
That is a cool website. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteAnne,
DeleteThanks. I was impressed with the site. I figure it will be fodder for many posts on my blog. I spent way too much time reading.
It would make sense to revive the use of yaupon for drinking. As a local species it would probably be easy to grow, it would require much less transport than tea or coffee and would be an all round more sustainable option.
ReplyDeleteI love coffee but between slavery, child labour and extensive shipping it's not exactly an ethical drink
kylie,
DeleteYes, all those problems would be solved by just sourcing a more local drink. I want to try this. If we were to suddenly have no more access to tea and coffee, this would be a good thing to know about and have for our needs.