What's that spicy smell in Park Slope?

August 27, 2008 4:40 PM

There's something in the air around here lately - Park Slope, Brooklyn - that smells a lot like cloves or clove oil, and a bit like pipe tobacco. It came on strong yesterday afternoon and is still drifting around today.

At first I thought it was a neighbor smoking something really strong, but it's too big for that. Then I thought of the spice processing plant on the other side of Prospect Park, but I used this as an excuse to visit the Botanic Garden today and it was definitely a cinnamon-coriander day at the plant.

posted by moonmilk to grab bag (7 comments total)

Possibly clove cigarettes?
posted by kidbritish at 4:56 PM on August 27, 2008

wind blowing from spice plant
posted by patnok at 5:07 PM on August 27, 2008

time to bathe your dogs!
posted by lia at 5:34 PM on August 27, 2008

No ideas here, but I definitely smelled a strong clove cigarette smell yesterday in Park Slope, so yer not crazy
posted by boots at 6:09 PM on August 27, 2008

Not quite clove cigs - I know that smell well from going to school at Berkeley! And this smell filled the whole neighborhood.

I checked out the spice plant and it was exuding cinnamon, not cloves.

And the dogs smell like nachos.
posted by moonmilk at 7:08 PM on August 27, 2008

New York just has mystery smells sometimes. Often they're never explained.

Just pray it isn't a new strain of Northrax.
posted by SpiffyRob at 6:45 AM on August 28, 2008

Here's an answer from the Brooklynometry blog! It's a weed-killer used on the cobblestones around Prospect Park. It's supposedly harmless, which is a nice change from the scary yellow-dyed stuff they sprayed in previous years, accompanied by hundreds of big warning signs.
posted by moonmilk at 1:09 PM on August 30, 2008