China Bayles' Book of Days (2 page)

China and I hope that you will keep this book where you can dip into it daily. We will be delighted if it sparks your own creative imagination and encourages you to create your own personal place in the green, growing world.

Susan Wittig Albert
Meadow Knoll, near Bertram, Texas

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have plenty of people to thank for the material in this compilation of herbal history, lore, recipes, craft ideas, gardening tips, and factual information. I did not invent this stuff, folks; I collected it from here, there, and yonder, as herbalists have done from the beginning. My sources are acknowledged throughout the book, and I am grateful to each one. Special thanks goes to the staff of the Herb Society of America for help in researching dates; to Carolee Schneider, Jim Long, Theresa Loe, and Kathleen Halloran for their special contributions; and to the many herb-lovers across the country who badgered me into sitting down to write. Peggy Turchette’s artwork enlivens the book with humor and charm. Thank you, Peggy!

As someone else has famously remarked, it takes a village. I have been writing for the same publishing house, Berkley Books, for nearly fifteen years, and continue to be both enormously cheered and humbled by the constant support I have received there. I am especially grateful to Natalee Rosenstein, who recognized the merit in my first “garden cozy” and has encouraged my work ever since. And to copy editor Pamela Barricklow, my deepest thanks. This was not an easy manuscript, and I appreciate her careful attention.

And of course to Bill, ever and always, thanks and love.

January February March

JANUARY 1

Love and joy come to you
And to our wassail too
And God send you a Happy New Year

—THE YORKSHIRE WASSAIL SONG

Wassail!

Wassail—the Old English word
waes haeil
means “be ye well”—is the centuries-old tradition of welcoming in the New Year by offering a warming (often spirited) drink to the friends and neighbors who dropped in. Over time, the spiced drink itself, which was sometimes shared in a common cup or bowl, became known as the “wassail.” Traditionally, it contained cinnamon, a spice that is native to Southeast Asia. Cinnamon traveled from the Orient to the West some seven centuries before Christ, and has always been enormously valuable. During the 1500s and 1600s, it lured Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders to the Far East, where the illegal sale of even a single stick of cinnamon was punished by death. Now, researchers tell us that as little as a half teaspoon of cinnamon a day may help diabetics reduce blood sugar levels.

Here is a Pecan Springs’ favorite recipe for cinnamon-rich wassail. You’ll always find it in a big glass bowl at Ruby Wilcox’s New Year’s Day open house.

RUBY’S SPICED CIDER WASSAIL

2 quarts apple cider
1 quart orange juice
1 quart apricot nectar
½ cup fresh lemon juice
6 broken pieces of cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole cloves
one orange, sliced thin
one lemon, sliced thin
whole cloves

In a nonreactive pan, bring to a boil the cider, juices, cinnamon, and cloves. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Transfer to a heat-proof punch bowl. Stud the orange and lemon slices with whole cloves and float them in the wassail. Serve in heat-proof punch cups. Makes about 4 quarts.

Learn the history of the spices we take for granted:

Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices
, by Andrew Dalby

Spices and Herbs: Lore & Cookery
, by Elizabeth S. Hayes

Our wassail cup is made of rosemary-tree,
So is your beer of the best barley.
—TRADITIONAL SONG

JANUARY 2

January may be called the digging month, as almost the only gardening operation that can be performed in it is digging, or rather trenching the ground.

—JANE LOUDON, INSTRUCTIONS IN GARDENING FOR LADIES,

1840

Beginning of Work Day

In Japan, where the second day of January is known as the “Beginning of Work Day,” it is said that any project begun on this day will be successful. Since I’m always looking for all the help I can get, this sounds like a good day to pull out the plant catalogs that have been arriving in the mail and start making lists of the new varieties I want to try out this year. The day may be dark and gloomy outdoors, but if I’m dreaming about butterfly gardens and fragrance gardens, maybe the rest of the winter will pass more quickly.

GARDEN PROJECTS

Some garden-related projects to start on this “beginning of work day”:

• Start collecting plant catalogs (if you haven’t already).

• Choose three annual herbs to grow that you’ve never grown before. A new variety of dill, maybe. Or anise hyssop, an herb with a delicious scent, or borage, which has an edible blue blossom and a cucumber taste. Read about them, and research seed sources.

• Choose three perennial herbs—native to your area—to add to your garden. Do some research to find out how they were used, for and by whom. Some ideas: echinacea, artemisia, lavender, witch hazel.

• Pick out three containers to fill with herbs for your patio or deck. Some possibilities: a half-barrel, a large terra-cotta pot, a planter box. What herbs will you grow in each?

• Start a garden journal. Aim to record your planting and harvesting, as well as the way you use your plants and the enjoyment they give you.

In the yeare that Januarie shal enter on the Thursday the winter shalbe long and most part drie and the yeare shalbe very holesome.

—ERRA PATER

JANUARY 3

Here in this place I’ll set a bank of rue,
sour herb of grace;
Rue, even for ruth, shall shortly here be seen . . .
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, RICHARD II

The Language of Flowers

Using plants as symbols is a human habit that dates back to classical times. The term
poet laureate
, for example, comes from the Roman practice of awarding their favorite poets with a coronet of laurel leaves. Napoleon used the violet to represent his promise to return from exile, while his followers wore violets in their lapels to symbolize their faithfulness to him. And “there’s pansies,” Ophelia says, in Shakespeare’s
Hamlet
, “that’s for thoughts.”

But it was in nineteenth-century England where the romantic, ingenious, and secret “language of flowers” became most popular, and “floral dictionaries” were all the rage. Women and men who wanted to be successful in society were expected to know that a sprig of balsam meant “I am impatient,” while an ox-eye daisy blossom meant, “I’ll wait forever.” They also had to know that if a flower was presented upside-down, its original meaning was contradicted, and that “Yes”—ah, the mystery and promise of that word!—was implied by touching the flower to the lips.

Throughout the China Bayles Mysteries, I often use the language of flowers to add depth and significance to the story. In
Lavender Lies,
for instance, China comments that dyer’s bugloss (
Anchusa tinctoria
) was used as a rouge, which (in a time when women did not “paint”) gave the plant the meaning of untrustworthiness. In
Rueful Death
, the herb rue often stands (as it does in Shakespeare) for
ruth
: pity, compassion, mercy, as well as for repentance and remorse.

SOME FLORAL MEANINGS

• catnip: I am intoxicated with love.

• clover: You are lucky.

• dandelion: I find your presumptions laughable.

• honeysuckle: I would not answer hastily.

• Jacob’s ladder: Come down off your pedestal!

Learn about the language of flowers:
Flora’s Dictionary,
by Kathleen Gips

JANUARY 4

Today is the tenth day of Christmas, and in Celtic tradition, the end of the solstice celebration. The twelve days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day and end on January 6, Epiphany.

We had a great cake made, in which was put a bean for the King, a pease for the Queen, a clove for the Knave, a forked stick for the Cuckold, a rag for the Slut.

—HENRY TEONGE, 1676

Twelfth-Night Cake

In most English and European households, the Twelfth-Night Cake was baked a day or two ahead of the merry celebration that concluded the holiday season. This eighteenth-century recipe will give you an idea of the work involved. Cakes like these were mostly baked in the kitchens of the gentry. Villagers (most had no ovens) usually made their cakes as puddings, which were boiled in a pot hung over the fire.

TO MAKE A TWELFTH-NIGHT CAKE

Put two pounds of butter in a warm pan and work it to a cream with your hand; then put in two pounds of loaf sugar sifted; a large nutmeg grated; and of cinnamon ground, allspice ground, ginger, mace and coriander each a quarter ounce. Now break in eighteen eggs by one and one, meantime beating it for twenty minutes or above; stir in a gill of brandy; then add two pounds of sifted flour, and work it a little. Next put in currants four pounds, chopped almonds half a pound; citron the like; and orange and lemon peel cut small half a pound. Put in one bean and one pea in separate places, bake it in a slow oven for four hours, and ice it or decorate it as you will.

—ELIZABETH RAFFALD, THE EXPERIENCED ENGLISH

HOUSEKEEPER, 1769

THE TWELFTH-NIGHT BEAN

The tradition of the bean and pea came from medieval France, where, if you got the bean, you were crowned King of the Bean and everyone had to do as you directed. It’s said that Mary Queen of Scots brought the custom to England, and added the pea. Whoever got the pea shared the throne with the king. Other items might also be hidden in the cake: If you got a clove, you were a rogue; if a twig, you’d best look to your spouse’s virtue; if a bit of rag, your morals might be in question.

EASY TWELFTH-NIGHT CAKE

If you don’t have time to bake a traditional Twelfth-Night cake with 18 eggs and a gill of brandy, buy a fruitcake, insert whatever items you choose, and frost it to conceal your skullduggery. Wreathe your cake with rosemary and bay, traditional decorations.

JANUARY 5

Today is Twelfth Night Eve, when the last Yule fire was traditionally lit.