Tansies (were) “good for the stomach, on account of discussing the Flatulences generated by eating Pulses and Fish during Lent.”
Easter is just around the corner, and if time travel were an option, allowing us to surface in England a few hundred years ago, we might observe the preparation and consumption of tansy “pancakes” for the holiday season.
I was today years old upon learning about the tansy’s existence on this planet, so let’s have a look.
Tansy (The Wildlife Trusts)
Tansy is an aromatic plant of disturbed ground, rough grasslands, riverbanks and roadside verges. It has fern-like foliage and yellow flower heads that appear in clusters from July to October. It is a composite flower, so the flower heads are made up of lots of tiny flowers called ‘disc florets’, but no outer ‘ray florets’. It has a long history of use for medicinal purposes and was cultivated by the Ancient Greeks.
These pancake-like creations had a greenish tinge.
Remembering the Tansy, the Forgotten Easter Pancake of Centuries Past: Green, herbal, and slightly toxic, by Natasha Frost (Gastro Obscura)
Almost every holiday comes with its own accompanying foodstuff. For Thanksgiving, it is turkey; for Hanukkah, donuts filled with a thick plug of sweetened jelly, or latkes. Many Muslims break their Ramadan fast each day with dates; people in Japan greet the New Year with mochi and soba noodles. Easter treats seem self-evident: chocolate, eggs, chocolate eggs. But for hundreds of years, the English ate something entirely different at Easter: a sweet, herbal concoction—somewhere between a pancake and an omelette—known as a tansy.
The tansy was brought to America, where it is regarded as a noxious species. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture explains.
(Tansy) is highly invasive and therefore can severely reduce pasture capacity and desirable forage. In some instances, it can be toxic to livestock if consumed. Common tansy can also degrade wildlife habitat, hinder reforestation and landscape restoration efforts.
But the persistence of folk remedies compels WebMD to reluctantly broach the topic.
Tansy is used for digestive tract problems including stomach and intestinal ulcers, certain gallbladder conditions, migraines, nerve pain, joint pain, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses. Using tansy might also cause toxic effects.
I careful weighed the suitability of mentioning tansy pancakes at this portal, for fear that once local brewers realized the flower lends a greenish hue...Read more
