Civil War Recipes & Remedies
Deep South Publishing
P.O. Box 272
Topton, NC 28781

The Power of Nature’s Medicine
Deep South Publishing
P.O. 272
Topton, NC 28781

Planting By The Signs

A number of the books are available at Serenity Shoppe, Andrews, NC
828-321-3907

An exerpt from the book explains it better.

“Several years ago, I decided to revisit my family’s old home place, where I grew up. As I traveled the back country roads, the years melted away and memories from the past came flooding in.

I was saddened to find that the house and outbuildings were no longer standing, but as I walked the grounds, I suddenly caught a whiff of fragrance, and there, at the base of an aged pecan tree, in jaunty relief, were the jonquills my mother and I planted when I was six years old. In jubilation, I dashed over to them and kneeling down in a childlike posture, I inhaled their pungent sweetness. I remembered, as if it were only yesterday, how she and I nurtured the small bulbs because Grandma had brought them to us.

Grandma was a very special lady of the South. She shared her South with people, embellishing its history with her own version of folklores and traditions. She romped the South Georgia and North Florida woodlands with me, teaching me the quiet delight of finding wild violets and showing me how to softly suck nectar from yellow-gold honeysuckles.

She was my father’s mother, and she taught him well. My father pointed out to me the sweet warm corn as it was drying. He gathered red clover with me from the fields and instructed me on the making of clover tea. But perhaps best of all, he spent at least one day ech November taking me and later my children, to an old-fashioned cane grinding. It was always a frosty cold day which made the huge syrup vats with their hot bubbling juices even more inviting to stand by and watch. And we always took home a few bottles of that special brand of smooth Southern comfort.

Next entry, I will share with you about all of my North Carolina kin.

Corn is primarily grown for animal feed and for human consumption. For animal feed, it is grown, let stand to dry on the stalk, and harvested, where it can then be ground up for chicken scratch, mixed with molasses for hog/cattle feed, etc.

For human consumption, we like it fresh as corn on the cob or used in products as moonshine, cream corn, corn syrup, etc.

But to deal with an extended sale of the crop, we also use just about all parts of the corn plant, except for the root.

As we gather the fresh corn ears, and strip it down, or shuck it, we set aside the shucks, spread them and let them dry. (Spanish/Mexican folks use them green or dry to wrap certain food items in for steaming).

We also make corn cob jelly from the freshly cut ears, scraped down for making cream corn.

When the shucks are completely dry, we use them to make corn shuck dolls, flowers, wreaths and then sell them at craft shows in the Fall.

We also use the silk of the corn for our doll hair and some folks claim they use the silk for medicinal purposes.

Then closer to Halloween and Thanksgiving, we sell the stalks and foliage for decorations to stand alone or with a surround of pumpkins.

Many mountain folks, also make corn cob pipes out of the cob.

So you see, from our planting of corn, we can have many sales.

The cell reproduces exact replicas of the parent plant and that one little peice of plant can theoretically produce thousands of plants.

The reason I approve of tissue culture and its concept is that from a single gathering of Native Plant material (some sensitive and some endangered) large amounts of that plant can be produced in a very short time as compared to the more traditional and conventional propagation methods/practices.

Understanding it even better, is that seeds are of a sexual reproduction process and each seed has its own genetice makeup whereas tissue cultured plants are micro propagated cuttings genetically identical to the mother and all of the daughter plants.

The tissue culture method would save our mountains of being stripped of so many of our native medicinal plants and by accepting and playing a part in this “new” way of harvesting/gathering/farming, tissue culture labs and growing plots would provide many job opportunities and economic growth for mountain folks.

Bobbie hosts the Serenity Shoppe on each Wednesday afternoon and invites folks to stop by. She would be delighted for visitors to watch as she paints some of her beautiful note cards and she encourages questions and explains some of her techniques.

This month, I will tell you of a plant that we use each and every year and we have for hundreds of years. It is what we call mountain touch me nots, so named because when the seeds are ripe, if you touch them they explode everywhere. Not to worry, they are very small and if harvested into a brown paper bag held underneath the stems, they make an excellent topping for home made cookies, tasting a little like walnuts.

And for the hunters needing game for the table, touch me not, is a favorite food of grouse.

The main reason we use this plant also called jewel weed or mountain impatien, is to stop the itch and spread of poison oak/ivy. Gathered in early summer, (usually June here in western North Carolina), the stalks are heavy with internal moisture and this juice when rubbed on the are of skin affected with poison oak, soothes the itching and helps promote healing.