liked this botanical illustration by Köhler

Prunus dulcis - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen (wiki)
Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen - List of Koehler Images

We love almonds and have been scoffing them by the truckload over winter.  Then we became aware that we knew next to nothing about them, apart from the fact that they are the origin of both 
marzipan and cyanide, which is intensely poetic. 

I was long ago treated to a rapturous account of Spanish marzipan boutiques by someone who viewed them as some sort of sacred miracle and humanity's greatest exploit.  He believed implicitly in the goodness and glory of marzipan and when I think about it, there are worse things, aren't there?

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