[HN Gopher] Black currants were banned in the USA (2017)
___________________________________________________________________
Black currants were banned in the USA (2017)
Author : thunderbong
Score : 112 points
Date : 2023-09-12 06:55 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (foodtolive.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (foodtolive.com)
| alexwasserman wrote:
| Harvested raw berries in general don't travel well, and so there
| are plenty of instances of berries existing in specific
| countries. They need processing into something like jam to
| travel. You don't miss what you've never heard of.
|
| As a Brit in the US losing currents is a shame, and an
| interesting reason, but there others we get in the US that are
| much rarer at home.
|
| For example several here aren't found in the UK (or used to be
| hard to find): https://gizmodo.com/the-18-tastiest-berries-that-
| grow-wild-i...
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| > raw berries in general don't travel well,
|
| A quick search for baer (berries) on the website of the biggest
| online grocer here in Norway shows: blueberries from Poland,
| Italy, and Spain, raspberries from Poland and Portugal,
| blackberries from Belgium and Netherlands, redcurrants from
| Norway. Perhaps they only travel well inside EFTA.
| bombela wrote:
| You find those modern thick skinned fat blueberries
| everywhere it seems. But the more delicate berries not so
| much.
|
| Blackcurrant (Cassis) and redcurrant (Groseille) taste quite
| different, they are nice sprinkled atop fraisier cake for
| example.
|
| One of my favorite little berry is the Myrtille. They are
| tiny little balls, dark purple all the way through, and
| lovely when cooked on a tart crust. Trader Joe has a frozen
| berry tart from France that includes it. Yummy!
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| 'Myrtille' is blueberry. The thing is that there are
| several cultivars and species, so it can be difficult to
| know which one.
|
| You probably mean the 'European blueberry', _Vaccinium
| myrtillus_.
| bombela wrote:
| "Vaccinium myrtillus" literally means the "common
| Myrtille". Which is not blue and doesn't taste like a
| blueberry. I understand that blueberry is the common
| North American English word for Bleuet an and Myrtilles.
| While it's the other way around in France.
|
| Blueberies are called Bleuet in Canadian French. And in
| France today they are sold with the same two names on the
| packaging (blueberies, bleuet), but often people will
| call them myrtille anyways! A point of contention for me
| as I am alwahs sad to hear Myrtille and be served Bleuet
| :)
| monkpit wrote:
| Google says "myrtille" is the English "bilberry", not
| blueberry.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| Well not so strictly. It says bilberry or blueberry
| because what is exactly meant is not so black and white,
| and it may also depends on your flavour of English and
| French.
|
| For instance, @bombela says that "North American"
| blueberry is 'bleuet' in Canadian French. In France,
| 'bleuet' is a flower.
| mrguyorama wrote:
| >But the more delicate berries not so much.
|
| I have a mountain of experience freezing wild maine
| blueberries and wild strawberries. They both freeze just
| fine and can be eaten as is after thawing, a little mushy
| but still clearly the proper flavor profiles.
|
| My grocery has an entire section of frozen berries.
|
| Frozen berries will travel just fine and be delicious
| anywhere. Most berries don't cross significant borders
| because A HUNDRED YEARS AGO they couldn't travel well, and
| so local tastes diverged. Consider, gooseberries are easy
| to find here in new england when they are in season, but
| you still wouldn't see something like a gooseberry soda,
| because that's just not that popular of a flavor.
| dylan604 wrote:
| >Harvested raw berries in general don't travel well,
|
| Yes, that's why the majority of berries in the US are grown in
| Mexico. The largest selection of blueberries, blackberries, and
| raspberries in my local groceries are all from Mexico. There's
| one specific store that has a really great produce department,
| and from time to time, they will have local blueberries from a
| farm in state, but that's only while they are in season.
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| They travel and store very well if shock frozen, which enables
| me to buy them all year in bags from 500g to 2000g. Spicing up
| my Musli, Yoghurt, sometimes ice cream, and what not else.
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| Btw. regarding preparation of Musli with Milk, have you ever
| tried putting it in the fridge overnight? And wouldn't you
| expect a soft sludge then?
|
| Not so if you put the frozen berries in! The low temperature
| in the fridge lets the berries thaw up very slowly, turning
| it all into a cool slush, which crumbles at the lightest
| pressure. Can be varied by crushing/mushing the berries for
| even more taste. Very pleasuring texture!
| ginko wrote:
| Meh, not a huge loss for Americans IMO. Blackcurrants are
| probably the berry I could most easily do without.
|
| Redcurrants on the other hand..
| vmilner wrote:
| You can still get UK blackcurrant yogurt (eg "Longley Farm") in
| the same little pots I used to get from the milkman in the
| mid-70s so not all is wrong with the world....
| pvaldes wrote:
| Chokeberries would made an acceptable substitute.
| SanchoPanda wrote:
| If ever there were a food item that needed a "Chilean Sea
| Bass" style marketing rebranding, its the Chokeberry.
| nicolaslem wrote:
| I didn't like it at first but as some grows in my garden I got
| used to it. Now eating blackcurrant while working is one of the
| highlights of summer for me.
| scandox wrote:
| Makes an amazing Jam. Surprisingly complex flavour.
| tpm wrote:
| And they have a naturally high content of pectin (a fibre
| that is used as a thickener additive / gelling agent).
| DrScientist wrote:
| Yep - one of my favourite jams - that's how pretty much all
| my black currents are used.
| TRiG_Ireland wrote:
| If you haven't had blackcurrant, seek it out. It's a distinctive
| flavour, and I love it. Also, while articles on this always
| highlight specifically blackcurrant, I believe that it also
| applies to redcurrant (like blackcurrant but milder) and
| gooseberry (like blackcurrant but tarter).
| Lutger wrote:
| Oh my, I don't care much for blackcurrent, but absolutely love
| redcurrant and whitecurrant. The best one is a pink cultivar.
|
| I tell you, the pines aren't worth it.
| blincoln wrote:
| Agreed. It's my favourite fruit flavour. It's _very_
| distinctive, so I imagine it 's a love-it-or-hate-it taste. In
| the US, there are few domestic products that incorporate
| blackcurrant, but just about any European-import grocery will
| likely be stocked with a wide variety. Jams, jellies, syrups,
| soft drinks, instant oatmeal with freeze-dried blackcurrants,
| etc. Larger liquor stores will often have (usually imported)
| cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) as well.
|
| I'm still disappointed that Strongbow never brought their "Dark
| Fruit" cider to the US. I first tasted blackcurrant by drinking
| one in London about ten years ago.
| adw wrote:
| ... I somehow shouldn't be surprised that industrial
| snakebite-and-black exists. The favourite drink of UK goths
| everywhere. I can feel Andrew Eldritch sneaking up behind me.
| He has a drum machine.
|
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakebite_(drink))
| tpm wrote:
| And there is also josta (or jostaberry), a hybrid of
| JOhannisbeere (blackcurrant) x STAchelbeere (2 different
| species of gooseberry).
| goda90 wrote:
| I've planted two Josta bushes that I hope will produce next
| year. Haven't even tasted one yet.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| Another good one of the Berries of Distinctive Flavour is The
| Elderberry .. the flowers from which one can make a delightful
| syrup that not only makes for a superb soda, or cocktail base,
| but can be turned into a fruit-flavoured Liquor, which is .. if
| you like such things .. probably one of the nicest little
| schnapps you'll slurp.
|
| (Gotta cook 'em right though, well except the flowers, you just
| harvest those before the ants do and make a delicious summer
| soda for the kids ..)
| skypanther wrote:
| Elderberries make great jelly and pie. Unfortunately the
| birds keep getting mine before they're ripe, it's hard to
| find them in the wild on public land, and no one grows them
| commercially around me. So I haven't had either in years.
| TRiG_Ireland wrote:
| The flowers, yes. I grew up on elderflower champaign.
| Wonderful stuff. I have had elderberry cordial, but not
| recently. Must seek it out again.
| Arrath wrote:
| There's also the salmonberry!
| mortureb wrote:
| Gooseberries are very different. Much more sour, very
| firm/hard, crisp and very tannin-y. Pickled gooseberries made
| in India are amazing if you're okay with it being hot.
| tuukkah wrote:
| Red gooseberry is somewhat less sour than the green one
| though.
| swores wrote:
| Gooseberries don't taste anything like blackcurrant to me
| (thankfully so, since I love gooseberries and don't like
| blackcurrants)
| SanchoPanda wrote:
| Growing up outside the US, black currant was the third default
| flavor of ice cream after vanilla and chocolate. Having
| strawberry fill that role here still seems like a missed
| opportunity for something slightly more bitter in the lineup of
| your average tiny one cart ice cream vendor on a beach or
| similar.
| ravenstine wrote:
| The "author" either recently learned English as a second language
| or needs to upgrade from GPT-2.
| grumblepeet wrote:
| Such a coincidence. I rarely drink Ribena - which is the
| concentrate made from Blackcurrants (other blackcurrant cordials
| are available) - but the other day I bought a bottle. I had just
| made myself a drink of it and sat down and opened Hacker News and
| this is the first article I see. It's sad that that are banned
| over there in the USA and I did know about the issue with pines
| but the little berries are great in drinks and also for making
| summer pudding.
| jfrej wrote:
| Oh, so there's no Ribena[1] in the US? Or is it imported?
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribena
| dghughes wrote:
| Hit and miss for Ribena here in Canada I never even knew about
| it until last year. The existence of it I mean not the
| availability here.
|
| Here in Canada we tend to know more about UK stuff than people
| in the US. We get imports the US doesn't of various products
| Kinder chocolate/toy eggs for one.
| OJFord wrote:
| Probably (or its equivalent) 'grape' flavoured.
| joncrocks wrote:
| Cordial drinks aren't as much of a thing in the US anyway.
| throwaway154 wrote:
| I feel Ribena's so baked in to British psychology it's not
| seen as a cordial. Orange, lime, and blackcurrant cordials
| are cordials.
|
| Ribena's just Ribena. It's mixed with water almost
| exclusively, lemonade at a push, but blackcurrant cordial
| would be used for snakebites or rum+Guinness. Surely I'm not
| alone on this?
| justinclift wrote:
| > blackcurrant cordial would be used for snakebites
|
| Of the actual snake variety, or are you meaning some kind
| of drink?
| dfawcus wrote:
| A drink, larger and cider.
|
| One can have a 'snakebite and black' adding a dash of
| black currant, also a 'black nasty' being a 'snakebite,
| pernod and black currant'.
| doloputer wrote:
| In the UK, it's a 50-50 mix of larger and cider. I guess
| some people mix in some cordial too.
| drivers99 wrote:
| Both replies mentioned "larger" (and cider) so I googled
| it and it's just a typo for "lager"
| vmilner wrote:
| I am with you on this.
| throwaway154 wrote:
| To add to mixing... just the right amount of water.
| Stronger or weaker for a cordial is simply stronger or
| weaker. But more or less water for Ribena is a question
| of _right_ or _wrong_ ; that's why it's never quite right
| when going round a friend's house back in the day, or if
| it is that's uncanny.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| Rum & Guinness sounds like an interesting combination. I
| have to try it.
| IntelMiner wrote:
| I believe they refer to them as "Kool-Aid" drinks, despite
| being prepared differently
| red_trumpet wrote:
| I'm not sure I understand the word "cordial" correctly, but
| Ribena doesn't have alcohol.
| wuiheerfoj wrote:
| Cordial is a thick juicy syrup added to drinks, but is not
| alcoholic itself. I think the GP means 'squash' or
| 'diluting juice', which sometimes gets called cordial too
| (though I associate cordial with the thicker stuff)
| jfrej wrote:
| It's worth noting that Ribena also comes ready made. If I
| ever buy Ribena, that's what I go for. Especially the
| carbonated version.
|
| There are alternative blackcurrant cordials for diluting
| which are much cheaper and taste good. I think every
| British supermarket has their own brand one.
| arethuza wrote:
| Also _creme de cassis_ - which is basically Ribena with
| alcohol!
| dinkleberg wrote:
| I'm sure you can find them somewhere in the US, but it is
| definitely not a usual item here. I've never encountered it and
| have only heard of it from some British folk.
|
| I can't imagine many non-US soft drinks companies try to come
| to the US and compete against Coke and Pepsi companies outside
| of maybe niche stores.
| alexwasserman wrote:
| Basically not available outside of specialty stores, or the
| occasional supermarket with an import aisle.
|
| Definitely not widely drunk. Nor is Robinson Orange Barley,
| which is still my fav drink, despite being somewhat older than
| the typical market.
|
| (Brit in US)
| vmilner wrote:
| I remember Annapolis MD used to have a store with lots of
| British biscuits, Marmite, Bovril, marmalade, Ribena etc. -
| an oasis to the Englishman abroad.
| Tangurena2 wrote:
| The nickname for them is "BritMart" and tend to be more
| common in areas with large British expat communities. I
| remember lots of them when I lived in Florida.
|
| There is a bit of difficulty getting Cadbury's chocolate
| due to Hershey owning the trademark in the US. They shut
| down most grey-market importers.
| vmilner wrote:
| Can you get other (ie non-Cadbury) brands of chocolate
| that don't have the butyric acid that (I believe) makes
| Hershey etc. so grim to most British palates?
| masfuerte wrote:
| Ribena has been ruined with artificial sweeteners. If this
| tinkering actually worked I wouldn't mind but Britons continue
| to get fatter.
| swe_dima wrote:
| Adding black currant leafs when brewing tea can add wondeful
| taste!
|
| I'd say it's stronger and more nuanced than mint.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| Here in central Europe, I have black and red variants in my
| garden, from which I've been picking for my daily muesli on the
| regular for years, and probably have a few bowls' worth in the
| fridge, as their season is over but my collecting isn't .. they
| are delightful plants, providing much in terms of vitamin C and
| other things, such as sugars ..
|
| I think berries (and peas) are among the easier things to grow
| locally, and I sure wish more people in the cities and things
| did, we'd have more for the birds ..
|
| Of course, this story is a reason we can't just have
| 'uncontrolled agriculture' but so, I'd just say let people grow
| the native species of whatever they can eat and leave us all
| alone, gardening is a human right ..
| ofcrpls wrote:
| The closest I get to experiencing Black Currants in the US has
| been Black Currant Ice Cream in Indian Style Ice Cream shops and
| Duerr's Black Currant Preserve in Cost Plus World Market.
| mabbo wrote:
| When I lived in Scotland (exchange program year in University) I
| remember asking my roommates "what's blackcurrant?" And they
| looked at me like I had asked what an apple was.
|
| We actually had to go search online and figure out why I'd never
| heard of them.
| Orlan wrote:
| For me, it was Skittles! I traveled to the UK, bought some
| Skittles, and almost spit them out (blackcurrant instead of
| grape). Had to look up what it was. Still haven't tried the
| real thing, only in candy form.
| mattl wrote:
| British food area of your local grocery store may have
| Ribena, which is a blackcurrant cordial.
| tj-teej wrote:
| Squash! :)
| oniony wrote:
| I have literally never seen blackcurrant written as two words
| before. Here in UK it's always a coined single word.
| xbmcuser wrote:
| If we are talking about unknown berries I would like to promote
| phalsa it grows in India and Pakistan only available in some
| cities in the month of May and June.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grewia_asiatica
| goda90 wrote:
| This really should be titled "Why WERE Black Currants Banned in
| the USA". They are no longer banned in the majority of states as
| the article itself says. I can buy them at the farmers market in
| Wisconsin when in season and my garden store sells bushes of
| multiple varieties of currants.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| The article says: "Therefore, some states start reversing the
| federal ban on this berry" and goes on to say "Today, these
| plants are successfully grown in New York, Connecticut, Oregon,
| and Vermont." which would explain why I've been growing black
| currants in Oregon for the last 15 years or so, I guess.
| miah_ wrote:
| And just across the lake here in Michigan I cannot grow without
| permit, and am only allowed a few varieties that are known to
| be resistant to WPBR. I may try to grow some next season, if I
| can get seeds _and_ a permit.
|
| https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mdard/docu...
| [deleted]
| hillsboroughman wrote:
| Awesome story. If black currants are so much richer than oranges
| in Vitamin C, why didnt the long distance sailors of the Age of
| Discovery, like the Portuguese going to India or the Spaniards
| going to the New World, not carry them? They only carried
| oranges. Puzzled.
| crazygringo wrote:
| Black currants don't keep fresh, the way citrus does.
|
| So you'd need to dry them, which loses something like 90% of
| the vitamin C in the process.
|
| Seems like an awful lot of work when you can just haul a few
| boxes of limes, which are a lot easier to harvest anyways then
| tons of tiny berries.
|
| (Not to mention they didn't even know about vitamin C
| specifically to begin with.)
| lionkor wrote:
| they are very difficult to store in large quantities, and
| pretty much impossible to store for longer periods than a few
| days
| diogenes4 wrote:
| [dead]
| raverbashing wrote:
| Probably because the ability to measure Vit C was not invented
| yet, and you really need a small dose of Vit C to not get
| scurvy
|
| (Not sure how blackcurrents keep over long distances compared
| to oranges as well)
| mrguyorama wrote:
| The link between Scurvy and Vitamin C was not established until
| the early 1900s. Before that, pretty much only experimental
| evidence was able to establish what helped with scurvy, with
| various things found to be useful, including certain animal
| meats for arctic expeditions and sauerkraut, and lots of things
| that definitely didn't cause scurvy were blamed for it, like
| bad hygiene, tinned meats, alcoholism, etc.
|
| For the British, things were especially bad. Numerous captains
| and sailors had personally demonstrated and convinced
| themselves that scurvy could be prevented with fresh citrus,
| but were unable to convince the "classically trained"
| physicians who made Naval policy, who were still pushing things
| like "you need more air in your tissue". One of captain Cook's
| expeditions had good results with malt and wort preventing
| scurvy, so that was official practice even as navy admirals
| demanded lemons.
|
| The connection between citrus and Scurvy was finally proven in
| an animal model in the early 1920s, before we even understood
| what "Vitamins" where.
| [deleted]
| momirlan wrote:
| or some Ribena bottles
| netsharc wrote:
| What an oddly written article. ChatGPT? SEO bot? High-schooler?
|
| These sentences don't seem to have a very strong connection with
| each other:
|
| > Getting black currants banned has been deemed minimally
| effective for disease prevention. Therefore, some states start
| reversing the federal ban on this berry. However, Europe still
| remains the producer of 99% of the world's black currants stock.
|
| "It is not so bad"?
|
| > Today, these plants are successfully grown in New York,
| Connecticut, Oregon, and Vermont. Yet, the majority of Americans
| can only enjoy processed or dried berries. It's not so bad
| considering the benefits of eating dry fruits.
| Mordisquitos wrote:
| It's badly written, but more on the level of a bad human writer
| than any AI. The connection between the three sentences in the
| first example seems quite clear to me. Starting from the second
| sentence:
|
| 1) "[...] _some states start reversing the federal ban on this
| berry_ [because the ban has been deemed ineffective for disease
| prevention] ".
|
| 2) "[Even though some US states are reversing the ban] _Europe
| still remains the producer of 99% of the world's black currants
| stock_ ".
|
| Regarding the second example, it is just an excuse to have an
| internal link to another article on the same site praising
| dried fruits. " _It 's not so bad_ [that Americans can only
| enjoy processed or dried blackcurrants] _considering the
| benefits of eating dry fruits._ ". The reasoning is quite
| crappy, given that the linked article does not imply that dried
| fruits are better than non-dried fruits, but it is to the level
| of precision that one might expect from a filler blog on some
| health-food online store.
| [deleted]
| sitzkrieg wrote:
| the weird aff link in the middle for random berries is the
| cherry on the top
| NikkiA wrote:
| Sounds like an ESL writer, 'It is not so bad' is a common
| phrase I see written by native slavic speakers, it's probably a
| direct translation of a language idiom.
| OJFord wrote:
| Why are we talking about it uncontracted, making it sound
| weird, when the actual quote is 'it's not so bad' which
| sounds perfectly fluent to me (native BrEng)?
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| It's definitely a common phrase but it's really poor
| writing here.
| OJFord wrote:
| I agree, just only really because it's too
| colloquial/informal/spoken for an article imo, wouldn't
| be my choice. But not worth calling out, and certainly
| not for not making sense or seeming like a robot or ESL
| author wrote it.
| pcrh wrote:
| It reads like it was automatically translated from another
| language. The grammar is all over the place.
| nerdponx wrote:
| It also answers the question directly in the first paragraph
| with no fussing around, so I like it better than 99% of
| articles.
| radiorental wrote:
| Definitely reads like AI. Short declarative statements. No
| coherent narrative.
|
| (I see what I did there (o;)
| Aulig wrote:
| The publishing date of the article is 2017, so pre-ChatGPT. Of
| course there were spintaxes back then, but those articles were
| way worse.
|
| Either way, the article seems mostly fine to me.
| aaron695 wrote:
| > The publishing date of the article is 2017
|
| I used to predate my blog posts in Wordpress by years. Why
| would you use todays date? No one reads blogs in order, how
| pedestrian to follow the old rules.
|
| You can also fool some of Googles date metadata, it's not
| just the day it's first indexed. Reddit by incompetence
| screws with it.
|
| But I've never seen a content farm do it.... yet.
|
| Webarchive first snapshot 8th Nov 2020 - http://web.archive.o
| rg/web/20230000000000*/https://foodtoliv...
|
| The idea there is a pre-AI internet is not true.
|
| AI will go back and change the past. Not even Google/Web
| Archive can record it all. Is it AI pre-dating or was it
| missed on Web Archive here? (A: The Facebook comments seem
| real, so missed by Web Archive, but if Facebook deletes/makes
| private the data then we are back to not knowing)
| jliptzin wrote:
| Chatgpt wouldn't write crap like that
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| I've got black currant plants growing here in Oregon (the variety
| is Crandall) - I've grown them for years. You can order them from
| One Green World near Portland - I don't see anything on that
| particular page that says they can't ship them:
| https://onegreenworld.com/product-category/berries/currant/b...
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| The leaves look a lot like raspberry leaves.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| They look quite different from each other in person.
| vjk800 wrote:
| Pines and black currants both grow here in (Northern) Europe. How
| come the fungus isn't a problem here?
| bstpierre wrote:
| > Some varieties of European and Asian pines have this innate
| resistance because they evolved alongside the fungus. However,
| American trees met this threat too late to develop a workable
| defense.
| masklinn wrote:
| So similar to e.g. phylloxera, chestnut blight, "dutch" elm
| disease, ...
| timeon wrote:
| Yes most European vineyards are now grafted on American
| rootstock.
| happymellon wrote:
| As the article states, European pine has a natural resistance.
| pmx wrote:
| This is covered in the article. European pines evolved
| alongside the fungus so they have a natural resistance to it.
| Simulacra wrote:
| _The US Department of Agriculture had no choice but to have black
| currants banned because the plants became a vector for a disease
| that threatened to annihilate all pines in America_
| DennisP wrote:
| It sometimes startles me how disconnected some people are from
| nature. I can't imagine all our pine trees dying off, it seems
| utterly horrific. It would be devastating to biodiversity and I
| would deeply miss the trees themselves. But to the author:
|
| > It might seem extreme, but this measure was necessary to save
| the logging industry at that time.
|
| And later:
|
| > The situation has turned so serious that it threatened the
| existence of US pines. As they are the main element of the
| logging industry, it must have been dealt with as soon as
| possible.
| swyx wrote:
| [flagged]
| cout wrote:
| I grew up (in US) thinking blackcurrant was a variety of black
| tea. I had no idea until I got older that it is a berry.
|
| Similarly, I thought elderberry was just a silly word that Monty
| Python made up to be funny.
| Symbiote wrote:
| I wonder if young Americans would make the association between
| elder wood and elderberries, from reading Harry Potter -- the
| Elder Wand is a significant object.
|
| Elderflowers are also used in drinks, both cordials and
| liqueurs.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elderflower_cordial
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Germain_(liqueur)
| mahidol wrote:
| Blackcurrants are no longer banned in the United States.
| systems_glitch wrote:
| Huh, we were wondering aloud at the farm the other day why
| they're basically unknown in the USA anymore. TIL.
| delfinom wrote:
| My parents were growing it illegally for years in the US (now its
| legal in NY) and they got the shoots from their relatives in
| Jersey who have been quietly farming it for a few decades (going
| back to the 1950s) for the Eastern European community in the
| region.
|
| It wasn't really banned too well....
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-09-12 23:01 UTC)