The last few years there has been chatter regarding a maple syrup smell that blows into the west side of Manhattan occasionally. Suddenly the streets will be filled with the sickeningly sweet smell of pancakes and waffles, calls flood the city's 311 information line, all my friends who live on the West Side update their Facebook statuses to inform us that the smell is back, and a few end-of-the-worlders have predicted that this is chemical warfare and/or concentrated air pollution intended to kill us all (Man, if we're going out that way, I really hope it smells like maple syrup and not the numerous other smells I associate with mass annihilation).
Fret no more my friends, for the conundrum has been solved!
It's Fenugreek!
It seems across the Hudson River (where Pilot Sully so agilely landed the airplane--I just can't get enough of this story--anyone else?), in that state my dad lovingly referred to as "the armpit of the East," there is a fenugreek processing plant. Every so often, when the timing is right, the wind will blow a gust of fenugreek over into Manhattan which smells strangely like maple syrup.
When I heard this on NPR last night, I was not at all surprised. I nursed Alexandra for over a year, but I was never one to make an over-abundance of milk. I took fenugreek every day as recommended by my friend Julia, and, as a side effect, my armpits smelled like maple syrup for a year. I got used to it, but my sweaters still have a bit of that sweet smell to them that even the harsh chemicals of the dry cleaners can't get out. I can't believe that with all the nursing mothers out there and a store called "The Upper Breast Side" that we didn't figure this out earlier.
Our Nancy Drew skills are very lame, ladies.
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