please pass the emetic -- Happy St. Patty's Day!

  
So, I'm mixing the 1st 2 ingredients of a sauce for our Saint Patrick's Day corned beef, and realize it's a natural emetic.

For those who don't know, an emetic is something that makes you throw up.

In this case, the ingredients are warm water and mustard.

=)

Read years ago that a glass of tepid water and a teaspoon of mustard will rid you of inopportune things in your belly, plus some stomach acid to boot (no pun intended).

I love weird factoids like this. My question is: why? Why does this make you barf?

I looked it up and it's the seeds, specifically, that make you barf. Well, that DOES make sense. If you are a plant and an animal is eating you, and you are not the sort of seed to survive digestion, then for Pete's sake, if you can manage to get the animal to barf you up, you're probably in the clear. And will get to grow and bloom next year, with a little nutrient boost to boot (again, unintended...).

I                  LOVE                 BIOLOGY.

Heavens. Endlessly entertaining.

Just double checked it on the web, and the page I found said to give that tepid tea-cup of water and mustard every ten minutes "until the desired effect is produced." That is such delightful language. So delicate.

So, der ya go. Happy Saint Patty's Day, eh?

=) biobabbler

P.S. Amusing sentence in corned beef and cabbage recipe (http://www.recipezaar.com/NYC-Corned-Beef-and-Cabbage-15846) regarding the brisket, there's "no need to rinse it because nothing bad will survive what you are about to do to it..."

oaks n grapes

Visited wine country last week. Not for wine, but for visit, and hike-age here and there. You've already seen a few of the coastal pics. They also have LOVELY old oaks.

Shadowy view up the hill from trail.

Gorgeous creature (looks much better if you click on it to see all the lichen and moss on the tree)

Gorgeous creature's "bark." Doesn't look anything like bark out here. Pardon semi-lame photo, but it's the only one I had of this shaggy beast's hide.

The mustard (Brassica nigra, a non-native) was blooming like mad, and was really in beautiful contrast to the dark, gnarled grape vines.

Beautiful country. Ecologically, there are things I'd prefer to vineyards, like light ranching with lots of refugia, but these have a cool geometry I can nevertheless appreciate.

biobabbler