Spaghetti Trees – [Critter/Foodlore/Bonsai]

Description

“Spaghetti (& Meatball) Trees.” – [Fearsome Critter/Foodlore/Bonsai] – (latin name: Spaghetti verticalis (Switzerland), Spaghetti horizontalis (Italian) – aka “Pasta plants.”

• About this ‘Bonsai’: To my dearest reader; Whatever you do, Do NOT sneeze on your spaghetti dinner, ‘lest the delicious meatball roll off the table, out the door and away into your garden, out under a bush and eventually grow into a tree!!!  These plants are incredibly invasive and are said to grow in stocks at speeds similar to bamboo. A pest called The “spaghetti weevil” (Pastaeformis hoaxii) is known to swarm these plants and have caused much concern to the Swiss cultivation of their vertically grown pasta; fortunately these puny pests perish in mild-cold weather. Growing the pasta horizontally is something every italian chef’s mother has mastered. Yet another particular pasta enjoying pest are the Side-Hill-Gougers [particularly the ones from Idaho.*] who are said to be attracted to & consume adolescent pasta plants roots …I wonder if Macaroni & Conchiglie grow from pasta plants of the same or a similar classification? – One also cant help but ponder about the bizarre plants which might grow fusilli spirals, farfalle bowties and what of the alphabet noodles!?! The implications here are both tasty and terrifying!

• History:  Ah, ze humble spaghetti plant… To begin; “On top of spaghetti” is a 1962 song by Tom Glazer, and a parody of the American folk-song: “On top of old smokey” – The lyrics to the popular song go as follows:

“On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese
I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed
It rolled off the table, and onto the floor
And then my poor meatball rolled right out the door
It rolled in the garden, and under a bush
And then my poor meatball was nothing but mush
The mush was as tasty, as tasty could be
And then the next summer it grew into a tree
The tree was all covered, all covered with moss
And on it grew meatballs with tomato sauce
So if you eat spaghetti all covered with cheese
Hold on to your meatballs whenever you sneeze”

Admittedly this might also be classified as an “Earworm“; give a listen:

Though, Prior to that, in 1957; a famous televised April fools day prank/hoax about “Switzerland’s Spaghetti Trees” growing a bumpercrop harvest was broadcast by the BBC. For a while those across the UK where not familiar with spaghetti as a delicacy; The hoax was widely believed! – The BBC & Swiss tourist offices soon got hundreds of calls inquiring about how to grow their own trees; what to do about “Spaghetti weevil’s” and other such questions. to which the BBC was said to have replied: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” – the video can still be enjoyed below:

[a news clipping about the incident from a 1957 newspaper.]

A couple of decades before all of that! Shortly before World War 2; The “Fearsome-Critter” relevant story book “Saga of the Saw-tooths”* [Published in 1938 by Hank Sanger] which included a poem about “Side Hill Gougers” that eat “wild spaghetti plants.” – The included poem & illustration are as such:

“The Gouger is so seldom seen, That hunters waste from fat to lean. While stalking, in his high retreat, This silly beast with silent feet. With a tailight lit and feet aslant, He hunts the wild spaghetti plant. Eats miles and miles of tender shoots, And tons and tons of luscious roots. For many months in upward toil, While their temperature would boil; Old hank and Nick have had to climb, to get a picture for this rhyme. When Hank was weary torn and tired, and Nicks white beard had grown a yard, A Gouger suddenly showed himself A comin’ ’round the mountain shelf. Now Nick was scared and Hank was too, In fact, they knew not what to do; But gougers cannot turn aroun’– So Nick went up, and Hank went down! Should you meet him which is doubtful, Give him Roots – a whole big snoutful. Of Spaghetti – the choicest pickin’s –– Then just run like the very dickens!! – R.H.S”

So, perhaps this shows that the idea of ‘Spaghetti growing out of the ground like a plant is generally a very old, humorous idea?‘ if not ‘folkloric’; Food in general growing from the ground is an old concept, really there are several food-inspired settings, plants and animals. People have always imagined wonderful places where treats & fully cooked meals grow out of the ground. (See also; “Cockaigne“, “The Big Rock Candy Mountains“, “The land of milk and honey” “Candy-land” etc.- More about a couple of those from me another time, perhaps.)

But, now, I must digress, because ‘pasta’ in general is such an ancient idea it might be impossible to pin point the exact genesis of “spaghetti based plants!” (Similarly its difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of macaroni-based art! Though it is likely at least modern, as mass produced pasta didn’t begin to popup on grocery shelves until the mid-19th century!) – I suppose i drew this as yet another topic for any fellow supposed “crypto-botanists” out there to consider. (…I also drew it because I met a teen the other day who didn’t know of the song!)

Before you ask; No. Currently I have no serious plans to draw or write in depth on the FSM, and please don’t even get me started on food related forecasts!! Well, we will see what i decide do, But for now, I think that’s enough said for one biography; can i get a “RA-men”?

[Art sticker by @SamKalensky (yo! that’s me!) part of my ‘Fearsome Critters‘, ‘Foodlore‘ & ‘Bonsai‘ collections! follow and support for many more!]