Maybe I *am* nasally hypersensitive.

[lotsofplants]

You know how turnip greens have a sort of distinctive turnip-green scent and flavor?

Did you also know that your body will excrete that same scent via sweat the following day?

I don't think I'm ever going to eat a turnip green salad again, even if my frugal side is telling me that I paid a whole lot for a bunch of organic baby turnips and I really should eat the leaves as well as the roots. Do not want to smell like turnip!

In other news, I'm trying to see if I can learn to identify plants by floral scent. Harder than expected. I'm wondering if the problem is lack of appropriate vocabulary. I can smell *that* and know that it's linden, and *this* and know that it's climbing rose, but can't describe it so that I can categorize it in memory.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

It's not just turnips that do that. Onions and garlic and scallions, asparagus, and something that goes into the classic brown sauce used in Chinese food all do that to me.

[plantae.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've never noticed a problem with the brown sauce. Clearly more Chinese food is in order, in the name of science!

I've also never noticed asparagus in sweat, just urine. And oats, for some reason.

[urox.livejournal.com]

You could try boiling the turnip greens.

Mmmmm.. turnip greens.

[plantae.livejournal.com]

I have never mastered the art of cooked greens. I eat them and mostly wonder what happened to them. My pure northern ancestry, perhaps.

[maribou]

I know what you mean, about scents being hard to memorize. Somehow food scents are easier than floral scents, for me...

[plantae.livejournal.com]

I think because we have slightly better words for tastes. And tastes are more familiar.