Lexicon:Modern/Vaesk

Vaesk
Stage	Modern CLT
Pronunciation	/ˈvaɪsk/
Part of speech	Noun
Etymology	from Middle vāskē; origin obscure Native to Teraell
Related words	Graen, Gechwyn, Ireis, Talvi, Thearwy

Vaesk — the terrace grain of Clearhold. A native mountain grass, inedible until fermented.

Notes

Small, dark, slow, and low-yielding, and it will crop at an altitude and in a cold that nothing else tolerates. It is the reason Clearhold can feed itself at all. Alone among the grains of the Known World, Vaesk has a wild ancestor, and it is still growing on the upper slopes above the terraces. That grass is bitter and will make a person violently ill. What is farmed is the tolerable variant, selected out of it over generations, and even that must be fermented before it can be eaten. Every child in the valley is taught which is which before they are old enough to wander. The ferment is not a matter of taste but of safety, and Clearhold treats it accordingly. The Registrars hold the timing, the temperature, the vessel and the sequence on record to the Maerk, and departing from them is not a question of a poorer flavor. Vaesk sold beyond the valley goes out already prepared; no Clearhold merchant will sell it raw to a person who does not know what they are buying, and the refusal is a matter of Station rather than of law. It leaves the valley only in small quantities, chiefly to households that acquired the taste while sitting examinations.

Native to Teraell, and hard in the way native plants are — the tissue lays down mineral as it grows, so the leaf is stiff and faintly glassy and a blade dulls on it.