OVERREACTIONS

TANSY FLOWER HEAD

...AKA "GOLDEN BUTTONS"

GOOD LOCAL RESTAURANT...

...SUDDENLY CLOSED

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  7r degrees F, wind W, light to moderate.  The sky is a cloudless blue with haze on the eastern horizon.  The humidity is 75% and the barometer is on the rise.  It will be a hot day, although pleasant now.
    Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, in the composite family, is in bloom in fields and along roadsides everywhere now.  It is a tall, spreading herb, of Old World origin. Its compound yellow flowers are quite pretty. and its leaves have a strongly bitter, rather acrid smell that I do not find unpleasant; in fact, in England, where it has the very descriptive common name of “golden buttons,” it has been a tradition to make cakes with the leaves to be eaten on Easter Sunday, as a reminder of the bitter herbs eaten at Passover. Tansy leaves are also used to flavor omelets, which I vow I will try myself. There have been numbers of medicinal uses for Tansy in the past, including treating gout and various nervous disorders.  In the Middle Ages it was much used as a strewing herb because of its strong scent. It is established practically everywhere in Northern Wisconsin.  It is not poisonous, nor noxious in any way, and seems no more aggressive than many native plants, but it has been declared an Invasive Species by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and is Restricted, meaning that it is illegal for it to be transported, transferred, sold or introduced.  Good Heavens!  I think perhaps we have a bit of an overreaction here.
    The Northern Edge, a homey restaurant and bar much frequented by locals of Bayfield and the Rez, just down the road on Hwy 13, closed suddenly a few days ago.  Rumor has it that the IRS shut them down because of tax problems.  The owners are good local folks who probably got in over their heads in a tough economy in a tough place to do business. The Northern Edge will be much missed after the tourist season ends, as it was always open, and reasonably priced.
    I hope the Feds did not  overreact, and that they will cut them some slack so they can open again one day.