[Gpdd] [CARE] Sorrel & Cilantro/Coriander Greens

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

Many thanks to Susi for the food list - the one I had magneted onto my  
fridge for ages fell prey to the damp in the kitchen eventually and is no more!  
This one will stay on my computer!
 
I notice Sorrel is listed as a questionable food, and would just like to  say 
that this was listed as a suitable food in my previous list, and I have been  
feeding wild sorrel to the Dolly Mixtures all their lives, with no apparent 
ill  effects. Admittedly there are only 13 of the original 22 Dolly Mixtures 
left,  but Soulage, Boulotte, Scarecrow, Sable and Claude have already 
celebrated their  Big Four-O birthdays (they are now 4 years old), so I think if their 
food was  poisoning them I might have noticed by now! They probably eat as 
much sorrel as  they do dandelions - I know the latter are bad in large 
quantities, but they do  so love them! This time of year, sorrel is more prolific in 
the hedgerows than  dandelions, so they maybe get more of that.
 
Now then, cilantro! I had always been led to believe that this was what the  
British call coriander, and this year I grew some from seed, as I have never  
seen the plant on sale here in France. I was disappointed when the Dolly  
Mixtures seemed pointedly unimpressed by it, but did harvest and dry the seeds  
for curries. We had a volunteer from the US in the autumn, and I was cooking  
some dish for her which required coriander leaves, but told her I'd leave them  
out as I didn't like the taste either. She protested that she loved the taste  
and please could she have lots, so I went and picked some for her, but when 
she  saw and smelt it she recoiled in horror and said no, that was not the 
cilantro  she knew and loved. We looked up coriander on the Internet, and got 
photos of  what seemed to be the plant I had grown - but Teagan was adamant that 
was NOT  cilantro! I know the US piggies tend to really love cilantro, so can 
anyone in  the UK or Europe tell me what it really is here - as obviously it's 
NOT  coriander as we know it!!
 
Many thanks
 
Debbie and the 13 Dolly Mixtures