Sassafras and Spring Tonics

50°f this a.m., or 10°C. Cloudy after a night of rain showers.

 

Have you had your cup of sassafras tea yet? 

Image from Wikipedia.com

It’s the time of year for spring tonics, and sassafras is one of the most popular cures for winter drabness. Old-timers around here will tell you that sassafras “thins the blood,” which was believed to help handle hot weather with less discomfort. Many people no longer drink sassafras tea because several creditable government reports warned that sassafras is carcinogenic. I am one of those living dangerously, imbibing sassafras tea eagerly as soon as the ground is thawed enough to dig the roots. Anyway, apparently I would need to drink about 10 gallons a day for months to have even a slight danger from sassafras, so I figure I’m safe.

Sassafras roots

If you heed the government warnings and shy away from sassafras, fear not. Spring greens are the ultimate tonic for the winter weary. And if your lawn is like mine, you have a salad garden right at hand. Violet leaves, daylily shoots, young plantain leaves, wild lettuce, sourweed, and many other old favorites are ready for the picking in the yard or along fencerows. Guidebooks can help identify the early greens, but an even better guide is an elderly neighbor who can pass on cooking tips and stories of the old days when everyone sought the wild “creasy greens,” one of the earliest and most delicious of the early greens. Also known as wild mustard and wild cress, this plant is abundant in abandoned fields in our area, often creating a sea of yellow when it goes to bloom. 

The variety of names given to some wild plants, like creasy greens, is astounding. I remember once telling a neighbor about my favorite wild green, lambsquarters. She said, “I’ve never heard tell of that.” 

“Why, it grows all over the place,” I said. “I can’t believe you’ve never seen it or eaten it.”

“Can’t say as I have,” she said. “What’s it look like?”

I began describing the plant that liked to grow in rich soil and was covered with silvery leaves that had a grainy feel. She shook her head. “Nope. Never seen anything like that.”

Later we walked out to her garden. There, growing along the garden fence was a lush patch of lambsquarters. “There!” I said. “You’ve got loads of lambsquarters!”

“Oh, that? Why that’s silvey. That’s a real good green for cooking. I didn’t never hear of it being called what you called it, though.” The difference between learning the plants from books, and learning them from someone who has a long and familiar acquaintance with the natural world around them.

My favorite spring tonic is one that I don’t drink or eat. It’s a song, lovely and lonely, sung in the deep of springtime woods when the air is soft and the night is young. It’s the whippoorwill, calling out a song of love and hope. That is, without a doubt, the very best medicine of all, for when the whippoorwill sings, the cold of winter is usually behind us., although this year the poor bird had to endure 30-degree nights on its return on April 17th. 

Yesterday, after 3+hours finishing up tilling the garden, I was more than ready to sit on the porch with a glass of my favorite spring tonic. Cheers!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Monday

39°f, or 4°C. Sunny, thin clouds. Rain expected tonight.

A few things currently blooming:

Volunteer columbine, which has scattered itself around my flowerbeds, much to my delight.

Late snowshoes, an oldtime variety I dug up from around an old house 50 years ago, but somehow they died out. So last year I found the bulbs online.

My clematis, about 30 years old, and has never gotten very big because it is under a maple, but it is always so pretty.

It stayed right chilly all day yesterday, finally reaching 50° by 5 in the evening. With the strong breeze, it made working outside a bit brisk. I wasn't out much, as my day was another that did not go as planned. Nothing big, just a series of things that needed to be done.

Like paperwork. How I hate it,  and how I let it pile up! I am determined to do better, so am trying to do a little every day. Yuck.

And mopping. The floors! How dirty they can get. We are in and out many times a day--i actually counted one morning and was astonished to find that we were in and out the doors 30 times before noon. So I mop regularly, especially the porch and kitchen, and yesterday I washed the rugs too and hung them.outside to dry. Our floors are pine, well worn. They need refinishing but I doubt we will ever do it as then we would have to be careful...and with the way we work, that just wouldn't happen. 

Our house is lived in, comfortable. I doubt anyone but us will ever live here; when we are gone the place will probably be torn down and a new house built by whoever gets this place. Resale value isn't something we worry about although I know that sounds crazy. But this place, built 50 years ago by 2 people who had no idea what they were doing, has issues and inconveniences that most would not put up with--and that would be expensive to retrofit. So it will remain a place where you don't have to take off your shoes, you can put your feet up, sit in the kitchen and drink coffee or tea while I cook, and just relax. Not classy,  but homey.

What else yesterday? Let's see...Larry dug sassafras at last (after my determined reminders!). I had to show him the tree, and stayed on hand because I wanted him to be careful and not dig too many roots and hurt the tree. He can get overzealous sometimes. So I cleaned the roots and brewed the tea, which is now in a gallon jug in the fridge. Yum. Sassafras tea is considered a spring tonic by mountain folk.

What else was Larry up to all day? Weedeating,  getting our friend's tiller running, then a trip to town to pick up booth stuff from a picker. He was ready to stop by 6 and got the firepit going.

While he was in town I  brewed the sassafras tea and made a casserole for dinner--macaroni with leftover taco meat filling, shredded cheddar, sour cream with chives that we bought by mistake but have found quite nice, and leftover cooked kale. Believe it or not, it's delicious.

Then it was on to pricing a table-full of recent finds for our booths, a job I hate but must be done. 

One of our finds, a pitcher in the bubble pattern by Anchor Hocking,  from the 1950s,

and another, a 1958 Pyrex promotional casserole and carrier, in the pattern called "mod kitchen".

Then put the first coat of paint on a cabinet we got last week. And finally outside to pull a few weeds before joining Larry at the firepit to wind down the day. 

So not a bad day, and a few things pushed forward. Today, maybe I can finish tilling and do some transplanting I thought I would get done yesterday. Or will it end up as another this and that kind of day?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Cold!

30°f this morning, -1°C. Clear, frost here and there. I am sure some places in the state had a freeze last night.

Well, here we are back to winter. Well, not really, but it sure turned cold after last week's heat. I guess these big temperature fluctuations--50+ degrees in just a couple days--will keep us hardy, right? It sure keeps the wardrobe in an uproar, shorts one day, down jackets the next. Of course, I have seen people wear these together! Ah, our crazy modern times.

I spent a few hours on Facebook Marketplace Saturday night and yesterday morning, searching for a replacement garden tiller since the part we need to repair ours is unavailable. Finally I found one, exactly like ours except a few years newer and used very little. The young man who owned it said he tried having a garden for a couple years but had no time for it, so the tiller sat in his garage a couple years. At less than half the cost of a new one, this was a bargain. We have replacement parts too, always a plus.

So yesterday afternoon we drove halfway across the state to pick it up, after unloading an oak secretary desk and a smaller Mission-style desk from the van. Oak furniture seems to be getting heavier! Or is it just me getting older? Here is the smaller desk, awaiting getting its top refinished and a small piece of wood repaired. I think that is all we will do to it.

We stopped here for supper:

Was it ever a disappointment! If you advertise your place as having famous hotdogs, wouldn't you think you'd have amazing dogs? But no. The buns were mushy, the hotdogs cheap ones and tiny, the fries soggy and nearly burnt. And way overpriced! 2 hotdogs, one basket of fries and 2 soft drinks was $17.00! At Sherry's place in Ripley, 2 hotdogs--good beef ones on nice buns--are $6, drinks are a buck, and refilled for free. We have them occasionally, and they are delicious. I guess we're spoiled. The atmosphere was fun anyway, although the staff weren't the friendliest i have ever met, which is unusual for West Virginia. (By the way, I looked up "friendliest state" and Minnesota ranks #1, while West Virginia wasn't even ranked in their 1-50 rankings! Guess we don't exist. Not surprising, as many maps leave us out.)

Before we left our friend Jeff showed up to till the bigger gardens with his tractor, making short work of that job. So today Larry will get the Red Pontiac seed potatoes cut and ready for planting. We bought a 50# bag as it was cheaper than buying 25 pounds, and we will give half to Jeff for his garden.

So that was yesterday, not exactly the day we had planned, but a good day anyway. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.