Poppy Seed Watch LIst

Years ago as a kid we enjoyed bakery items with poppy seeds. Poppy-seed kolatches and poppy-seed cake with custard filling were two unforgettable treats. All made from scratch and made at home.  Once opened poppy seeds were kept in the ‘spice’ cupboard in a mason jar to keep them fresh. I don’t remember how big a bag we would buy of poppy seeds, they were just always in the cupboard.  Poppy seeds even came to the rescue  once as fake lava in a project for Girl Scouts – how is that for versatile? So recently when I came up with a recipe for poppy-seed torte I just added poppy seeds to my grocery list. Hmmm, the market where I usually shopped had only three small spice containers each weighing .06 of an ounce! Yikes, I needed an entire cup! I went to yet another store, and another store and none had any larger containers of poppy seed, and some actually had none at all.  Finally I asked a store clerk who acted a bit odd after hearing my question, as though I were asking for something secretive. She led me to the manager and he told me most stores in the area quit stocking much poppy seed. He went on to tell me that one evening before locking up at 11 p.m. he noticed some trash in the spice aisle. He went down the aisle and several containers of poppy seeds sat opened and empty on the floor. Rght next to those containers sat an opened litre bottle of drinking water. How bold! Evidently some individuals like the effect of ingesting tons of poppy seeds at once. So now bulk bags of poppy-seed are hard to come by – at least locally. You can order 8 ounce and larger bags online but my son teased me if ordered large quantities I would be on the  Poppy Seed Watch List! I must admit the lady at a small town grocery store gave me an odd look when I bought poppy seeds twice in one week while trying to accumulate the necessary eight ounces for my recipe! Oh my, I can just imagine what she will be telling her friends at Card Club!