Ghorroji (go-ro-jee)
"Green makes you dream, blue makes your stew, and red makes you dead!"
A Staple Crop
The ghorroji plant is a common sight both across the mist-shrouded plains of the Gray Expanse as well as in northern farming communities. Native to the lowlands of Bethra and Naruk, this colorful fruit provides succor, remedy, and poison alike while being nearly impossible to eradicate. Three varieties of ghorroji are widely cultivated over the rest, known mostly by the color of the fruit they bear. Thanks to their myriad uses and relative ease of cultivation, ghorroji plants appear in many family crests and local legends. Several small towns in Naruk hold ghorroji festivals, in which farmers compete to see who can grow the largest and most potent ghorroji fruit.Many Hues, Many Uses
Blue, the most popular of the common varieties, is a somewhat tasty and nutritionally dense fruit that can be prepared in a number of ways. Blue ghorroji fruit are prominent in Narukkai and Bethran cuisine, so much so that local taverns can serve nothing but ghorroji-based dishes and still have a full menu. While the skin of the fruit is blue, the uncooked inside is a pallid white that becomes a rich purple when heated. To the woe of clothiers, this purple does not translate to a dye; its deep color is merely the byproduct of the fruit's water-essentia interacting with the fire-essentia of the stove.Green ghorroji fruit can be juiced and distilled into a potent painkiller with mild antiseptic properties, though it is known to give imbibers vivid and unsettling dreams. Most homes in the Gray Expanse have a bottle of green ghorroji extract in their pantries for daily first aid. Many claim the juice (in various states of fermentation) has an array of other health benefits, ranging from increased vigor to enhanced eyesight and clearer skin. While none of these claims have been definitively substatiated, most healers from the Concord of Light agre that extensive use of green ghorroji should be avoided.
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