Food is one of the most basic Human needs, necessary for survival. But what do Humans eat on an alien planet? What do they eat when they escape from the tyranny of the Dock-winders and have no access to the high-tech resources of the planet?
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Odymn, the heroine of the Meniscus stories, is skilled at finding edible wild plants. This is in part because her father taught her the basics of natural history at home on Earth. She also uses her curiosity to discover the edible among the plants she finds.
Odymn picks
a leaf
from an unfamiliar plant.
Takes a nibble.
Shoos Madoline’s hand away.
“I test new plants I find,”
says Odymn.
“Just one per sun-reel,
so I know
which leaves or roots or berries
make me sick.”
(Do not try this at home on Earth!)
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When they combine Odymn’s knowledge and the wood lore of the furry Argenops, the Humans of Themble Hill have a range of foods to choose from:
- roots – arbel corms and ransindyne
- fruit – spenel berries, yarnel, thief-bush berries and sloe
- seeds and legumes – gettle gourds and grammid beans
- greens – slag-fern, glasswort, ishlin, and zill
- and the sweet sap of the pilinoth tree
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The Slain hunt for wild kotildi meat and have access to the Dock-winder markets, so they add to the variety of the diet. Items include oranges (brought from Earth since they will not grow on Meniscus), MRE (meals ready-to-eat, also from Earth) and chocolate (no diet is complete without chocolate).
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Kathryn, who escaped a transport crash to join the Humans of Themble Hill, is an artist and she has drawn many of the plants in the Themble Woods.
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arbel
The nodding arbel is the first edible wild planet introduced in the Meniscus Series. The plant produces an edible corm and its leaves can be used to make an analgesic tea.
Gnaw of an empty stomach.
A cluster of arbel flowers,
green and nodding.
She digs with her good hand.
Finds the corm, rubs it white,
slides it into her mouth.
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yarnel
In Meniscus: Crossing The Churn Odymn uses her parkour skills to reach the branches of yarnel and its juicy fruit. The bark of yarnel is bulbous, depicted on the cover of Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill.
A glimpse of crimson,
high in the canopy.
Rolls to running. Two steps on a trunk.
Grabs a branch. Swing and push
to standing.
Yarnel kernels gleam.
A pomegranate turned inside-out.
Tart and juicy.
~
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gettle
The gettle gourd is first introduced in Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb as a staple in the gardens of the furry, friendly Argenops. The seeds are a major food-source. The gourds can be used as an odd-shaped ball in a game or as a substitute for a jack-o-lantern.
Nine hollow
gettle-shells
arranged at intervals.
Belnar picks one up.
Reaches in.
Pulls out
a half-burned candle.
“Don’est,”
says Vicki.
“Signalling
to her people.”
~
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I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at the vegetation on planet Meniscus. If the plants resemble some of Earth’s plants quite closely, just know I am a strong believer in convergent evolution.
~
All my best,
Jane
off planet 