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Spikenard and Dragon’s Blood

by Gillian Polack

Pity shopkeepers who encounter Gillian.

Today I explored a magic shop. Not a shop that sells cute tricks for enthusiastic entertainers, but one that has the various stuffs that the local Wiccan and Pagan communities need for their daily whatever. Since I teach the history of magic from time to time, I was curious to see what they had.

The lady who runs the shop is very charming and had the cutest baby. She is also very accepting of differences. When I asked her the source of her dragon’s blood she answered me straightforwardly: it was not the right dragon’s blood for my history classes, alas - I would have loved to ring my mother and tell her I had just bought some dragon’s blood. When I gave her a potted history of the use of spikenard and some of the problems with working out exactly which herb was meant in various documents over 2000 years she dealt with aplomb. When I gave her an even more potted history of Medieval-lack-of-evidence-for-Druids she was unfailing cheerful and courteous. I think she is owed a reward for handling difficult customers and I intend to go back there and buy things when I get paid.

This is the first shop I have seen that sells spikenard in Australia and spikenard is an ingredient in the very best hypocras recipe I have ever tasted. If you ever need spikenard (or gorgeous elven cloaks, or the stuff to create magic) the shop is just down the road from the Canberra Centre - go up one of those obscure stairways that pepper the street between Sammy’s and the Canberra Centre and then walk down the corridor a way.

For non-Canberrans who are otherwise reduced to making hypocras using lesser recipes, my useful URL this Sunday will point you towards an online shop that stocks it.

PS Please don’t cook with dragon’s blood. Culinary is not my only history and I wanted the dragon’s blood for classes on Medieval manuscripts. I don’t even know if it’s poisonous - another thing on my list of need-to-know.

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Posted in Middle Ages, herbs and spices, ingredients on October 27th, 2006

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2 Responses to “Spikenard and Dragon’s Blood”

  1. Talia Mana, Health Psychologist Says:
    October 31st, 2006 at 2:16 am

    OMG This is a foreign language - it sounds more like something that would go in a witch’s cauldron!!!

  2. Gillian Says:
    October 31st, 2006 at 2:34 am

    Why I love culinary history. :) Spikenard looks boring FWIW.

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