The χό?τα Mishap — Random Thoughts on Food Nostalgia

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annis
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The χό?τα Mishap — Random Thoughts on Food Nostalgia

Post by annis »

When my father first moved to Duchess County, NY, the area was mostly devoted to dairy farming. There is still some of that going on, but over the years dairy has been replaced by wineries, golf courses, horse stables and the estates of people from NY City who have a few extra dollars to spend on land.

After 9/11 there was a big run on land as people moved their families out and commuted into work, or rented very small apartments in the city and came home only during the weekend. At least the Hudson Line offers nice scenery when the weather's good.

The country air takes people in different ways. A chance encounter with a church dinner or maybe an episode of Martha Stewart will overcome people who were once financial, technical or business professionals, and suddenly they've got a canning operation going on in their kitchen. Old men are the worst gossips, of course, and my dad and his old crows always know when one of these Arcadian canning fantasies results in unpleasant cases of listeriosis. Really, you should find a local granny to learn canning from, not the TV.

I have no idea if this nostalgia for country living is strong in Greece, but while I was boiling up some greens on the weekend I started to wonder. Do you get Greek city people suddenly overcome by the desire to go collecting plants for χό?τα but, because they've never been grabbed by γιαγιά for such a trip, pick something very unpleasant or dangerous? I have no reason to think this has ever happened — despite this post's title — but I have to ask.

For non-Greeks and non-foodies: χό?τα (usually spelled horta in English) are just boiled greens dressed with lemon and olive oil. The plants are often collected wild, and all sorts of things many'd consider a weed might end up in χό?τα. Any delivery mechanism for olive oil is OK by me, so I deploy the χό?τα concept happily, but with tamer greens: chard and turnip greens went into Sunday's dinner.
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Bert
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Post by Bert »

I have never heard of χό?τα but as I was reading this post I wondered if the word is related to the Dutch "gort" or barley. Then you wrote that it usually is spelled horta in English and gave a short description. Now I think it more likely that Horiticulture may be a related word.

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annis
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Post by annis »


William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί;

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IreneY
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Post by IreneY »

Yes, quite a few are as far as I know, and I am sure I will be in the future (up to now I had my mom picking up and preparing horta for me you see. Now I can see me after some time roaming the Michigan countryside with a biggish and sharp knife and a plastic bag and being picked up by the police.) Horta and andracla/glystrida (αντ?άκλα/γλυστ?ίδα, possibly, according to my favourite online dictionary, claytonia,purslane) are two things city people seem to get nostalgic about amongst other things.
By the way, my etymological dictionary confirms annis' last post (as if I needed to check) about where horta comes from.

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Post by darodalaf »

Don't forget the Old English word for 'plant', wort, as in St. John's Wort. Additionally, this word survives as the name for the barley brew that is fermented to produce beer.

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Bert
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annis
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Post by annis »


William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί;

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Post by darodalaf »

Ah, thanks for the clarification, annis.

In my neck of the woods, words beginning with 'w' are usually pronounced 'hw' and I jumped to conclusions.

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Lucus Eques
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Post by Lucus Eques »

Out of curiosity, which woodland neck would that be?
L. Amādeus Rāniērius · Λ. Θεόφιλος Ῥᾱνιήριος 🦂

SCORPIO·MARTIANVS

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