[permaculture-oceania] Orris root

[Virginia Solomon]

Wow, thanks Liane! I would agree with the "takes four years to grow" thing, and maybe leaving them for a year to dry is a fair option. I have them all on an old wire rack and they have hardly changed, so I can believe it will take ages for them to slowly dessicate, and I imagine hurrying them (putting them in a dehydrator, for example) might remove some of their potency. But if they are a preservative, then wouldn't they preserve themselves?
I had no idea that ras al hanout contained orris, that's really interesting. I doubt orris is as toxic as spanish fly (yeurch!), is spanish fly optional in the 100 ingredients?
You are a fount of knowledge, thank you! By the way, would you, or anyone else on the list, like an orris rhyzome?
Cheers
Virginia

Quoted from list vol 12 issue 3

Virginia

I have only seen this referenced in beauty care books. One says it takes
4
years to grow this rhizome and TWO MORE YEARS TO DRY THEM OUT BEFORE
THEY
CAN BE USED. Wow!

They are used as perfume fixatives, natural talcum powder and a dry hair
shampoo.

Sorry if I missed previous emails about this or you knew it all anyway.

Do you know of any culinary uses of orris root other than in the
Moroccan
blend ras el hanout [trsl to 'top of the shop'] which contains as many
as
100 plus ingredients [including the neurotoxic Spanish Fly, which is
actually a beetle, ingestion of which does permanent damage].

Kind regards 

Liane Colwell