Rude vegetables at the Market

Wednesday market day has come round again (so soon).

Rude vegetables are those that we cultivate for their rudes (the rudes are how plants generally get nuitrance from the ground). We eat the the rudes as vegetables.

In fact, of this collection of plants, I think that only the Yams can really be classified as rude vegetables. And even they are really toobers. Although the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) has also been referred to as a yam in parts of the United States and Canada, it is not part of the family Dioscoreaceae, rather it is in the Morning Glory family Convolvulaceae. That really interests me, because I love trying to cultivate Morning Glories in the UK, and know that the seeds, at least, contain hallucinogens related to LSD. Here a yam has been allowed (helped) to penetrate thebutternut basket.

The acquisition of nuitrance by the rudes is part of the science of nuitrition (which word implies "wearing away at night"). Sometimes one is entranced at night by music, the "food of love", and the need for sustenance at night ("the hungries") is a well known symptom of ingesting other psychoactive plant materials. The way this commentary has come out may make readers think that I have had some already (and not just the Mezcal related to Tequila that will follow my pressing "Submit") . However, it is not true that tequila contains mescaline, although there is a saying attributed to Oaxaca regarding the drink: "para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien también" ("for everything bad, mezcal, and for everything good, as well")., which summarises the belief of some of my South American colleagues.

NB about worms: Certain mezcals, usually from the state of Oaxaca, are sold con gusano, a practice that began as a marketing gimmick in the 1940s. The worm is actually the larval form of the moth Hypopta agavis that lives on the agave or mescaline plant. Lovely!!!