Garden shorts
It is not unknown for expert chefs to write unsubstantiated tosh or indulge in airy generalisations about kitchen garden cultivation, organic produce and edible plants, but it is rare that they actively promote poisonous ones. Rare, but not unheard of. Recently, Anthony Worrall-Thompson confused Fat Hen and Henbane. He recommended the latter, Hyoscyamus niger, a poisonous and hallucination-inducing member of the Solanaceae, in an article on salad ingredients and, not surprisingly, got himself into hot water. Of course, it was much more likely that he didn’t bother to check, than that he genuinely didn’t know the difference between an uncommon relative of deadly nightshade and a widespread and edible weed of farm and garden. I find it in my heart to feel sorry for him, since these things can rather easily happen to journalists. Let he that is without sin, and all that.
It is unlikely that such a slip of the pen could have done much harm, in any event, since every reader, I feel sure, will know that ‘bane’ is something stenuously to avoid as in Milton’s ‘precious bane’ and will mentally discount such advice. Won’t they?
Ursula Buchan
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