Treat the earth with a powerful flavouring and let your children play 'chef'. Remind them however that, regardless of their taste, the mud pies are still made of mud, and generally should not be consumed.

* Also legitimately suitable for Picas and Geophagites. And of course, Elbonians.

-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007

Pica http://en.wikipedia...iki/Pica_(disorder)
[hippo, Feb 21 2007]

Geophagy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagy
[hippo, Feb 21 2007]

Elbonians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbonian
You're not wrong [jurist], thanks. [theleopard, Feb 22 2007]

Bit of a mixed message? - Don't eat the really, really tasty mud.
-- hippo, Feb 21 2007


Ditto.

Or how about flavoured mud packs that you can lick off of your girlfriend's face?
-- skinflaps, Feb 21 2007


//Don't eat the really, really tasty mud.//

Yup. It's a lesson in restraint.
-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007


Most earth is actually fairly safe to eat, though there are some nasty parasites whose eggs/cysts etc hang around in the soil. Many animals and some people eat mud (especially clayish mud), probably for minerals.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 21 2007


I read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Marquez last month and a character in that ate alot of mud. And dried wall paint if I remember correctly.
Flavoured paint anyone?
-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007


Fantastic book, [theleopard]. I think eating mud is symptomatic of a an illness called "Pica" (see link).
-- hippo, Feb 21 2007


Yeah it is, loved every bit of it. I found the endless generations of characters with the same names a little confusing at times, thank God for the family tree diagram at the beginning.
-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007


//Flavoured paint anyone?//
"Snozzberry? Whoever heard of a snozzberry?"
"We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams."
-- calum, Feb 21 2007


It's one of a very small number of books I've read more than once - I've probably read it half a dozen times now and the confusing names are more manageable on repeated reading.
(Geophagy link added).
-- hippo, Feb 21 2007


Is it within the halfbakery's etiquette boundaries to add changes brought up by fellow bakers? ie. adding "Also suitable for Picas and Geophagites".

It's all rather interesting, thanks [hippo].
-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007


I would be honoured
-- hippo, Feb 21 2007


Done and done.
-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007


Surely the real mud connoseiur would find that flavouring rather detracts from the taste of mud?
-- wagster, Feb 21 2007


//Or how about flavoured mud packs that you can lick off of your girlfriend's face?//

Mmm! Guacamole!
-- angel, Feb 21 2007


[wags] that's an interesting point. However, I'm not sure we can offer the humble geophagite the accolade of 'connoseiur'. It's not as though they're in restaurants ordering a rich and palatable, softly moss-aged peat, garnished with sand and served with a scoop of freshly mashed clay, with a flute of fermented South American swamp mud on the side.

Rather, they seem to fall in to one of two categories, those that believe that eating Earth is a natural way of boosting the immune system, and those who chew their own feet and complain about the little crying children that live behind their eyes.

Sweeping generalisations aside; for those that believe eating Earth is good for you, why not make it taste nice for them too?
-- theleopard, Feb 21 2007


You could bake the mud pies, and then they would be much safer to eat! Really though, most diet food has little food value and tastes like dirt anyways, so this is cheaper. Might be a touch tougher on the bowels though.
-- Agamemnon, Feb 21 2007


//It's not as though they're in restaurants ordering a rich and palatable, softly moss-aged peat, garnished with sand and served with a scoop of freshly mashed clay, with a flute of fermented South American swamp mud on the side.// - Quick! A niche market!
-- wagster, Feb 21 2007


Elbonians will love this idea.
-- jurist, Feb 21 2007



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