I gave the matter some grave thought, and realized that after last night’s martini party there was nothing in my icebox except a bit of baking soda, a scrap of blueberry jam and a twig of burdock root.
Miss Lenni Jabour, The Story of The Third Floor (December 2002 edition)
I remember playing with burrs (the flowers of the burdock plant) as a kid on walks through the woodlots near my parents’ place, but hadn’t thought much further about them until seeing the text quoted above in Lenni’s story today. The things you’ll learn from reading (with a dash of Google):
- After experimenting for eight years with plastic models that he designed to mimic burrs, George de Mestral created Velcro.
- Only buy your burdock root from a reliable supplier; at least one has been known to substitute belladonna.
- The burdock root has many medicinal uses, such as using it as a treatment for scurvy.
- Burdock root is known in Japan as Gobo (not to be confused with Gobo Fraggle). It
is considered an intensely yang vegetable
. - The most common burdock dish in Japan (and hence the world) is kimpira gobo (sauteed burdock), a slightly spicy carrot and burdock stir-fry.
I think I’ve found a project for when I go home at Christmas. It’s been a while since I was back in those woods….