China Bayles' Book of Days (61 page)

• Ginseng (
Panax ginseng
). The Chinese value ginseng above most other herbal remedies, using it as a general tonic, restorative, and aphrodisiac. Research suggests that ginseng combats stress and fatigue and may counteract the effects of toxins.

• Southernwood (
Artemisia abrotanum
) and other artemisias have been used to cleanse the body of intestinal parasites.

• Black cohosh (
Actaea racemosa
) and blue cohosh (
Caulophyllum thalictroides
) are traditional remedies for regularizing the menstrual cycles.

• Aloe vera regulates the bowels and has a laxative effect, cleaning the liver and kidneys. Used externally, the gel (which contains allantoin) helps to heal and regenerate tissue.

• Dong Quai root is a general tonic for menstrual cramps, irregular cycles, and menopause. It is also used as a blood purifier.

• Other Scorpio herbs include squawvine, senna, false unicorn, saw palmetto, cascara sagrada, and cramp bark.

Many thousands and thousands of perils and dangers beset man. He is not fully sure of his health or his life for one moment . . . but the Creator of Nature who has placed us amid such dangers has mercifully provided us with a remedy—that is, with all kinds of herbs, animals, and other created things to which He has given power and might.

—ANONYMOUS FIFTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN PHILOSOPHER

OCTOBER 24

Ramadan takes place about this time.

Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, when Muslims celebrate the revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad. Time is spent in spiritual reflection, prayer, doing good deeds, and visiting with family and friends. During the month, Muslims fast during the daylight hours. When the new moon signals the end of Ramadan, the community shares a celebratory meal. Traditional foods include this cookie, filled with dates and nuts, which is eaten throughout Ramadan. Another traditional fruit is the pomegranate (see October 9).

RAMADAN DATE-NUT COOKIES

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon powdered anise seed
¾ cup of sour milk (add one tablespoon lemon juice or
vinegar to ¾ cup milk)
2 cups oatmeal

Filling:

1 8 oz. package dates, finely chopped
¼ cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix filling ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Set aside to cool. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Mix flour, baking soda, and anise seed. Add alternately with milk to the butter mixture. Stir in oatmeal and mix to a thick dough. Roll the dough on floured board to ¼-inch thick and cut with a 2-inch round cookie cutter. Place one teaspoon of filling in the center of a round and cover with another round. Use a fork to seal the edges. Bake on a parchment-covered cookie sheet for 15 minutes, or until golden. Dust with confectioners sugar.

OCTOBER 25

Today is World Pasta Day.

My idea of a quick and scrumptious dinner is a pot of al dente spaghetti dressed lightly with chopped fresh parsley and a full-bodied olive oil and served with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, hot herb bread, and a tossed salad—a meal which takes all of about fifteen minutes to throw together. By the time the pasta pot was boiling, the sauce was bubbling on my old Home Comfort gas range and the air was rich with the summer fragrance of tomatoes and basil.

—MISTLETOE MAN: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

Herbs and Pasta

World Pasta Day? Sounds like an invitation to a pot of spaghetti or a steaming dish of any of the wonderful pastas available in the supermarket—or your own homemade pasta. (For a special herbal treat, add 3 tablespoons of your favorite chopped fresh herbs to the pasta dough before you shape it.) And try this fragrant tomato sauce that’s a favorite with McQuaid and Brian.

CHINA’S CHUNKY TOMATO SAUCE

½ cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups tomatoes (about 4, peeled, seeded, and chopped)
4 ounces chopped fresh mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt or Savory Blend (August 29)
3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
½ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onions are soft, stirring. Add the tomatoes, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, basil, and salt and cook 5 minutes more. Serve over hot pasta, with grated cheese.

More Reading:

Pasta,
by Anna del Conte

Discussions about the history and origins of pasta are sometimes acrimonious. Who thought of it first? The Italians—or the Chinese? . . . It is claimed that macaroni in Italy goes back to Etruscan times, which would pre-date the Chinese noodle by about 500 years.

—REAY TANNAHILL, FOOD IN HISTORY

Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it.

—UNKNOWN

OCTOBER 26

“Hey, China, what’s that you’re planting?” Ruby Wilcox asked.

I patted the dirt firmly around the base of the plant and straightened up. “It’s gingko,” I said. . . .

Ruby bent over to peer doubtfully at the plant. “That dinky little twig is gingko? It’s got a heck of a lot of growing to do. The last gingko I saw was a tree. A big tree.” She looked up. “Taller than this building.”

“Give it time,” I said with a grin, and picked up my shovel. “Like about 500 years. I started this little guy from a cutting, and it’s got some growing to do.”

—“AN UNTHYMELY DEATH,” IN AN UNTHYMELY DEATH AND
OTHER GARDEN MYSTERIES

Ginkgo: A Very Old Tree

According to scientists, the fossil record tells us that
Ginkgo biloba
is one of the oldest trees on earth: its ancestors were alive some 225 million years ago. This is reason enough to plant one in your yard—but if you need more incentive, listen to this:

• In China, ginkgo has been used for thousands of years to treat coughs, diarrhea, venereal disease, cancer, urinary ailments, and impotence.

• Current ginkgo research in the U.S. and Europe is focussed on ginkgo as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. Gingko appears to improve blood circulation to the brain and enhance short-term memory.

• Gingko may be useful in treating macular degeneration, cochlear deafness, and peripheral arterial disease.

If you’re thinking of adding a gingko to your landscaping, be sure you have plenty of room: it can reach a height of 100 feet, with a 20-foot girth. Choose a male tree, to avoid the squishy fruit of the female trees. Plant in well-drained soil and stake it until you’re sure it’s going to grow straight. Water regularly until it’s about 20 feet tall. It will grow about two feet a year, and defy insects and disease. In autumn, its ornamental, fan-shaped leaves will turn a beautiful gold.

GINKGO NUT PORRIDGE

Take one cup of rice and 10-15 ginkgo nuts, cook in 2.5 cups of water over slow heat, until tender. Remove ginkgo nuts, blend rice until creamy, then add ginkgo nuts. Warm and serve. Add honey, butter or olive oil to taste. (Reprinted with permission from Hobbs,
Ginkgo, Elixir of Youth
)

More Reading:

Ginkgo, Elixir of Youth: Modern Medicine from an Ancient Tree,
by Christopher Hobbs

OCTOBER 27

God designed Osage orange especially for the purpose of fencing the prairies.

—JOHN A. WRIGHT, EDITOR OF THE PRAIRIE FARMER, 1850

Hedge Apples: From Susan’s Journal

Here at MeadowKnoll, we have only one hedge apple tree. Growing at the edge of the woodland, it drops its fruits into the grass at the edge of our little marsh. But when I was a child in Illinois, every hedgerow was full of these graceful trees. And at this time of year, the trees were full of hedge apples, which made dandy ammunition for the farm boys in our area. The hedge apple fruits are about the size of a grapefruit and heavy. If you’re hit by one, by golly, you’ll feel it for a while.

This tree, native to Texas and Oklahoma, was named in 1818:
Macula pomifera,
in honor of the American geologist William Maclure. The common name, Osage orange, reflects the orange color of the bark and wood, which was much used by the Osage Indians who lived between the Arkansas and Missouri rivers. Their Osage orange bows were so widely respected that the tree was called
bois d’arc,
and a well-made bow might bring as much as a horse and blanket in trade. The Comanches made a decoction of the root to treat eye infections, and the Kiowa used the wood to make the staff held by the singer in the sacred peyote ceremony. The Pima used it to tan leather and to make a lovely yellow-orange dye—and so have I.

When the settlers came to the Plains, they used the trees for fencing, planting them close together, so that the thorny branches formed an effective barrier. The trees have a long life, in part because the wood contains an antifungal agent that makes it rot and insect resistant. So when barbed wire began to reshape the prairies, Osage orange was in demand as fence posts—as well as for wheels, mine timbers, and railroad ties.

My grandmother, who grew up on a Missouri farm in the 1870s, gathered hedge apples and stowed them in the cupboard to keep out the cockroaches. If you have roaches and hedge apples, it’s worth a try. You might also try growing your own tree. Soak the fruit in water for a couple of days, then break it up. Planted now, the seeds should germinate next spring.

For another view of the hedge apple, read:

The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms
, by Connie Barlow

So much do the savages esteem the wood of this tree [the osage orange] for the purpose of making their bows, that they travel many hundreds of miles in quest of it.

—MERIWETHER LEWIS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1804

OCTOBER 28

Today is the beginning of the Celtic Month of Reed, according to some sources.

That worthy Prince of famous memory
Henry 8.
King of England, was wont to drinke the distilled water of Broome floures, against Surfets and Diseases thereof arising.

—JOHN GERARD, HERBAL, 1597

The Bonny, Bonny Broom

Scotch Broom (
Cytisus scoparius
) is a perennial shrub, growing six to ten feet tall, that served a variety of important household purposes. In its native England, it was used to make brooms, wattle fencing, and baskets; in Scotland, it was used as a roof thatch. The flowers produced a yellow and green dye.

Broom was also thought to have magical properties, for its golden pea-blossoms were sacred to the sun god Belus. While the plant is toxic, the young petals are somewhat safer and were once used to produce an intoxicating narcotic drink. Roasted, the seeds substituted for coffee. Medicinally, the tops were infused as a treatment for dropsy (congestive heart failure) and kidney and bladder complaints.

In bloom, the plant represented plenty and abundance. According to
The Modern Herbal
, the flowers were used for house decoration at Whitsuntide, but if you used broom for a “menial purpose” at that time, you could find yourself in trouble: “If you sweep the house with blossomed Broom in May, You are sure to sweep the head of the house away.”

The wild yellow broom is highly invasive, and you don’t want it in your garden. But look for some of the hybrid cultivars in beautiful colors of red, maroon, and orange. You might want to try pickling them, following a recipe from 1736:

MRS. MCLINTOCK’S PICKLED BROOM BUDS

Gather your Broom-buds about the first of May, pick them clean, sew a Linen Bag, put them in, lay them in a strong pickle of salt and Water, let them lie 5 or 6 Days, change the water every Day, boil them in salt and Water, till they be as green as Grass; then take as much wine Vinegar as you think will cover them, with a little Nutmeg, Cloves, Mace, Ginger; boil all with your Vinegar, and drain the Buds clean from the Water, and put them among the Vinegar, and let them boil awhile; so bottle them up.