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A short white wheat found throughout the area of the
Estuary of the Forked Tongue, Aenia wheat is a staple of bread production around
Balic. It creates a soft, powdery flour used to make light breads and rolls. It grows
wild throughout the region, but grows best when cultivated. If left on its own,
Aenia wheat tends to grow in clumps, which limits its growth potential to half of
its optimal height. When planted in rows, the roots are able to expand more widely
and the wheat can grow to its full height, which is just shy of two feet.
This plant grows on the side of cliffs and gullies. It is a
low growing light green scrub plant with very hard, very sharp needles a half inch in length.
It is often planted around the estates of nobles houses of Balic as a defensive feature.
Caffrey is, a tall, weed like plant that grows
almost exclusively on their stretch of land. It has a sweet smell and taste, and
is especially popular in soups in the Balican peninsula. Visitors will find it
difficult to find a dish with caffrey, whether in the traditional soup, or as a
side dish, or meet flavored with powdered with powdered caffrey.
A balican vegetable with a tangy taste. Above the ground,
cembic reveals itself as a small patch of pale green leaves. Underneath, it has a large root
system covered with dozens small white bulbs. The bulbs are usually crushed into a powder and
used to spice food. They can also be roasted and eaten directly for those looking for a
culinary adventure.
This type of corn is grown in the fields west of Balic. It
reaches a height of four feet, and each plant typically has from three to five ears per
stalk. The stalk and leaves are varying shades of yellow, and the fruit are golden in color.
Dawo is usually eaten cooked on the cob or the kernels are removed from the cob and put into a soup.
This tough tuber grows one foot underground and has a color
that runs from white to gray. Extremely bitter in taste, all races agree that maknac root
tastes awful. The most useful property of this mildly acidic plant is it’s ability to clean
stains. When ground up into a fine powder and applied to cloth, the powder absorbs the stain,
taking on the tint of the discoloration, and the powder is then discarded. The process
requires little moisture, a useful property in a generally waterless area such as the
Tablelands. Maknac root is difficult to find, however, as it requires a very specific soil
type to grow – the right mixture of dirt, sand, and silt – and the only sign above ground
that the root grows below is a short pale stalk which is nearly identical in color to the
soil in which root grows.
The dictator Andropinis of Balic maintained a private orange
grove near his palace grounds. Originally grown only for his consumption, the merchant-house
of Wavir has began selling a limited number of the fruit since the disappearance of the
sorcerer-king. The oranges fetch a high price for their rarity and their wonderful taste.
Pedar is a long, curving vegetable, purple in color and with a
sweet taste. Grown underground, it is not a common crop because of the richness of soil which
pedar requires to grow, and it’s rarity makes it expensive. It is often prepared mashed or
cut into thin slices and fried.
A blue-green moss that grows on the bottom of the
Estuary of the Forked Tongue. It requires a very specific environment in which
to grow, protected from the suns rays, but still getting enough light, and the
shallow silt in the Estuary provides exactly the correct lighting. It has the
unusual effect that at dawn and dusk, the sunlight reflects off the moss and
through the silt producing a bluish light, and when the wind blows over the
silt, it looks like water. Tatnis Moss has no nutritional value, and has a dry,
paperlike taste. The moss is named after
Tatnis, a Balican botanist who did extensive reseach into the Estuary regions
plant life.
Balican Wheat is similar to common wheat, but with a short
whitestalk and a pale yellow tip. It is a coarse wheat and is used to make less expensive
baked goods consumed by the working class of Balic.
Sadi Wheat only grows in the areas around the Estuary of the
Forked Tongue, most likely because of the siltly soil. Goods made with Sadi Wheat have a
tangy, dry taste. Rolls and buns are the most commonly created baked items made with Sadi
Wheat. It burns easily, however, so only experience bakers work with it.
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