Faith, Folklore, and Friends

If you have the great opportunity of walking in the woods today, look closely.  I'll bet you can find some blood root.  Look for stark white petals poking up through brown leaves. bloodroot (ˈblʌdˌruːt)  ---noun    Also called: red puccoon; a North American papaveraceous plant, Sanguinaria canadensis, having a single whitish flower and a fleshy red root that yields a red dye.  ~ World English Dictionary The Ponca Indians of South Dakota and Nebraska used bloodroot as a love charm, rubbing the juice on the palm of a young bachelor. The Micmac Indians (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick) used the same plant both as an aphrodisiac and as an abortifacient. ~Daniel E. Moerman, Native American Ethnobotany Many wildflowers which we have transplanted to our gardens are full of magic and charm, while others are full of mystery.  In childhood I absolutely abhorred Bloodroot; it seemed to me a fearsome thing.  I rememb...

Today, it is cold and tiny drops of ice are falling, enough to whiten the deck.  It is a day of earaches and stuffy noses and hiding under quilts. What could you do on a day like this?  Order seeds, of course. From my favorite seed company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, we're getting some variegated lettuce and some herb seeds.  We always order one thing we haven't grown before; this year it is Plum Granny.  Remember when they would be at the end of  Grandma's garden? They were bland and we didn't eat them, but they were so pretty and smelled fabulous.  Time will tell. Ordering seeds: its what I do on cold, dark days in the middle of January.

There's no way you can make good corn bread dressing without sage. My mother never grew oregano, rosemary, or basil.  She didn't have clumps of chives or thyme.  But like most all the people we knew, she had sage growing in a garden corner.  You had to have sage to season  pork sausage and Thanksgiving dressing. This is what real sage looks like--not that powdery stuff that comes from the store.  This fresh sage is so pungent that a little goes a long way.  Two chopped leaves are plenty for a big pan of dressing.  It tastes so much better than the canned powder. This sage has been growing in a container by the garage for three years now.  We have had a hard freeze already, and it is fine.  It can be dried by picking the leaves off and storing them in a dry place, but I can see no reason to do that because it stays green all year here. I'll be happy to share a leaf with you if you want to try the real thing in your dressing to...

There is nothing better than homemade bread.  The second best thing is how the house smells as it is baking. I make bread from several different recipes, but I needed to use up some buttermilk today.  This is how I make buttermilk/honey bread.   Pour 1/4 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.  Add 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 tablespoon yeast, about the same as one packet.  I buy yeast in bulk at Sam's; it is much cheaper that way.  Let it proof for 5 minutes. Heat 2 cups of buttermilk until it is warm; NOT boiling. This is 1/3 cup honey.  We use local honey made by a friend.  I have found that some of the honey at the supermarket has corn syrup added. 1/4 cup butter, melted just enough to be liquid and warm. 1 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon baking soda (or sody, as some folks call it). Add the buttermilk, honey, salt, and soda to the yeast mixture and mix together. This blue Kitchen-Aid mixer was my Christmas gift las...

Thanks to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and all the other sponsors listed on the sign, Florence has its first and very popular community garden. Hub, who needed volunteer hours to complete his Master Gardener certification, did a lot of work helping build these 4' x 8' raised beds. There are approximately fifty raised beds, and all of them are full. The raised beds were constructed using pressure-treated lumber, then filled with compost, some of it consisting of decomposed trash from ginning cotton.  Soil tests were done, then lime and commercial fertilizer were added. Each bed was irrigated. First choice of the beds was given to veterans; then to people who do not have access to land to grow a garden; people who are physically unable to garden traditional, non-raised bed gardens, and   those economically unable to build a garden. Unfortunately, there was not enough for everyone who wanted one. There is a large variety of plants, and alm...

  We planted some Sweet Annie several years ago, and it comes back every year.  We love it in our garden; it is beautiful growing and  useful, too. Actually, it is behind the fence next to the drainage ditch, but it is still part of our garden.   Sweet Annie , Artemisia annua , is also known as sweet wormwood or sweet sagewort.  Like all the artemisias, the smell is sweet and strong.  In these photos, the Sweet Annie is behind the beautyberries.    Its strong odor deters insects, and has been used for hundreds of years in linen closets and pantries and places that need a little freshening up.    Many years ago, I made a wreath of the stems to put in the basement to look good and smell good.  Ten years later, there was still a faint smell to it.  This year, Hub and I made a new one.     It is hanging in the basement, and you can smell it as soon as you walk downstairs.  I'm lov...