..../Wizarding Food/....

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 142010

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"
<catlady at w...> wrote:

> We've heard of Agatha Timms's eel farm, but the eels could be for
> potion ingredients rather than for food. 

I've found the reference for which I was looking last night. It's in
OoP, when the Trio go to St. Mungo's: 

<< They walked along the corridor, through a set of double doors and
found a rickety staircase lined with more portraits of brutal-looking
Healers. As they climbed it, the various Healers called out to them,
diagnosing odd complaints and suggesting horrible remedies. Ron was
seriously affronted when a medieval wizard called out that he clearly
had a bad case of spattergroit.
    'And what's that supposed to be?' he asked angrily, as the Healer
pursued him through six more portraits, shoving the occupants out of
the way.
    ' 'Tis a most grievous affliction of the skin, young master, that
will leave you pockmarked and more gruesome even than you are now — '
    'Watch who you're calling gruesome!' said Ron, his ears turning red.
    ' — the only remedy is to take the liver of a toad, bind it tight
about your throat, stand naked at the full moon in a barrel of eels'
eyes — '>>

That is a LOT of eels' eyes. What percentage of the natural population
of eels would have to be fished from the wild to provide so many eyes?
I think it would be better to use farmed eels.

Anyway, the nonsensical diagnoses and nonsensical prescriptions of the
 medieval Healers are clearly a parody of medieval Muggles, with
prescriptions like tying a dead mouse around your neck to cure a cold.
But I hate to think that wizards, who can keep track of the date of
founding of a business through the changes of calendar that have
occured since 273 BC (from my memory, which might not be able to keep
track!), and could already make talking portraits in the Middle Ages,
would have forgotten their Hellenistic science as easily as Muggles did.