Thinking about making absinthe.

    At Mirepoix market, you can buy all kinds of plants. Winter salads, leeks, chard at this time of year but also rarer varieties. Under the old iron canopy in the market is where you find some of the smaller, more interesting producers. One guy there sells all kinds of hot and very hot peppers. At one side of his stall is a small selection of plants.
     My regular gardening books are strangely lacking in how to grow absinthe but a web-trawl revealed that it's commonly known as wormwood, is extremely bitter and is, indeed, the key ingredient in the drink that put the fin in fin de siècle.
     Artists, poets and writers all indulged in this seductive green drink, probably because it was said to make you more creative.
       Hmm. An on-line recipe calls for vodka and several herbs that are already growing in the garden. I find myself strangely attracted to the idea of an absinthe evening...especially now that I've learned the correct way to pour it.