Author: Carol (Page 11 of 18)

Mistletoe

30 Décembre, Lundi (Monday)

29 degrees F

Sunny, Light NNW winds

Mistletoe for the new year! Au gui l’an nuef! This old French saying highlights ancient holiday mistletoe traditions in this season of Reveillon and La Guiannée-French Christmas and New Year festivities celebrated in the Illinois Country. These old customs bring with them the foods, music, and conviviality to be shared with family, friends, and the masked participants of La Guiannée. Tortieres, bouillon, croquignoles, pies, cakes, and homemade cordials are served in homes during the season, providing refreshment for the accompanying joyful music and dance, and a stolen kiss under the mistletoe.

Mark Catesby, Butterfly with Mistletoe and Mancaneel Tree, 1747

Mistletoe is an ancient parasitic evergreen plant named in seasonal lore since ancient times and has its roots both figuratively and literally in its association with the revered oak tree. From the time of the Greeks to the Druids, mistletoe, with its yellow green leaves and white berries, was thought to have mystical properties. People observed that the mistletoe plants, growing on the crowns of oak trees, retained their leaves while at the same time the oaks lost theirs. It seemed to be a remarkable phenomenon and the pervasiveness of mistletoe in customs throughout European holiday customs proves that mistletoe had a deep effect on people’s lives. Viscum album is the traditional mistletoe of literature and Christmas celebrations and it is distributed from Great Britain to northern Asia. Its North American counterpart is Phoradendron serotinum, which clinical trials show may be toxic to humans but birds enjoy the berries and seeds. It has been used as an herbal remedy in Europe and among Native Americans for hundreds of years.

Ancient Greeks believed mistletoe could impart fertility and thus, may bear the origin for the custom of kissing under the mistletoe ball during the holiday season. In France, mistletoe is a New Year tradition. The Illinois country preserves an almost lost French tradition, going from house to house on New Year ’s Eve and singing a song of the mistletoe:

La Guignolee (Guiannée)

Bonsoir le maître et la maitresse.

Et tout le monde du logis.

Pour le premier jour de L’annees.

La Guignolee vous nous deves.

Good evening to the master and mistress,

And to all the people of this household.

For the first day of the year,

You owe us the Guignolee.

First verse of the Saint Genevieve version,

Translation by Judge Wilson Primm

Dried long red peppers, bay leaves, flower seeds

Contained, in this darkest time of the year, are the moments to celebrate the bounty and coming light- filled days of the new year. Bunches of dried herbs have been hung in the rafters or stored in jars and tins along with the seed gathered in late fall.  These, with the dried and preserved fruits, berries, and vegetables are the preserved bounty used in holiday preparations to flavor and expand the feast table. The full joy of the garden is displayed in this season of Reveillon and La Guiannée. The seasoning of the meats, pies, cakes, and libations are made richer by what we grow in the garden, making lifelong memories. While readying the rooms and table for the holiday celebrations, gather the holly and the mistletoe, to color our homes and festivities with their ringing promise of “Bonne année et bonne santé!”   Good year and good health!

The Prairie du Rocher La Guiannée Society

The Prairie du Rocher La Guiannée Society will visit Fort de Chartres on New Year’s Eve around 8 PM. A nice fire will be lit in the fireplace in the Guard’s Room and refreshments will be available beginning around 7 PM and lasting until 9 PM. You are welcomed to the fort to see one of Illinois’ oldest traditions.

Information in this post was gathered from regional sources, including the Ida M. Schaaf Collection, Missouri History Museum Archives, St.Louis, Judge Wilson Primm, “New Year’s Day in the Olden Times of St. Louis”, and Frank H. Tainter, F.H. 2002. What Does Mistletoe Have To Do With Christmas?.

57 degrees F

Sunny, 19 mph NW wind

Bluff in the American Bottomland

November’s arrival brings the first hard frosts of autumn, settling along the bluffs and bottomland of the Illinois country. The varied warm colors of fall are now muted, the slightest breath of wind cause the forest leaves to drift to the ground, like a robe discarded. Time to prepare for the winter ahead, the cold and wind will soon overtake our daily concerns.  Garden vegetation is now brown and shriveled; the frost leaves its mark on whatever it touches. Remaining growth in the jardin is slowed to all but the hardiest of plants. Turnips, black radishes, and bush peas cling to life alongside many of the herbs as the garden season comes to a close. Autumn’s crop was very meager as the late summer heat and drought played havoc with the fall plantings. The rain and cooler temperatures arrived too late to provide meaningful relief to the struggling vegetation. It is time to clear the beds of the remaining debris while amending and replenishing the soil before the onset of winter. White and purple globe top turnips and the early blood beets cling to life, growing ever so slowly until the inevitable freezing cold temperatures will also bring their season to an end.

Our attention shifts from preparation to subsistence, an adjustment that the residents and travelers through this country have long recognized as accompanying the changing weather. Jean-Bernard Bossu on the eve of his 1751 journey wrote, “We are planning to set out for Illinois territory at the beginning of November. Since it is late in the season and we still have three hundred leagues to go, we run the risk of being stopped by the snow and of having to spend the winter in route. We have to stay here for a while until we can prepare enough biscuits for a trip made long by the currents and the north winds which we will have to buck at this time of year.” *

Hundreds of years have passed since the writing of this letter and the dangers of winter are as real now as they were then. We now have modern conveniences to help sustain us in the cold months ahead, but it still remains prudent to heed the pulse and pace of the season. The approach of winter with its cares and concerns also heralds the upcoming holidays and their celebrations. Their activity will brighten our shortest days with the warmth and conviviality of those we welcome and hold dear. Family and friends will gather on Friday afternoon, November 29^th through mid-afternoon, Sunday, December 1^st ,  as l’habitants and local Milice will be in residence at Fort de Chartres in honor of the fall and winter celebrations. A turkey will be roasted in the hearth along with other dishes of the 18th century while breads and desserts will be baked in the stone bake oven.  Participants will engage in a number of out-door activities including informal shooting contests, testing the skills of the local Milice. Visitors are warmly welcomed to join us in our annual celebration! And if our paths do not cross over the next few months, enjoy the winter celebrations and dream of the bounty held within the promise of the New Year.

Announcement: The Winter Rendezvous heralded the arrival of a new publication showcasing three friends explorations into the domestic cookery of the Illinois country, Recettes, Receipts, Recipes, Culinary Arts of the Illinois Country. The Fort de Chartres jardin potager and bake oven have long been the muse for my friends Antoinette Hancock, Renea Davis, and myself. We have begun a journey recording our culinary research and published an autumn edition booklet, the first of four seasonal publications. We thank all of those who stopped by our bake oven demonstration at the Winter Rendezvous and purchased a copy of this first edition. This publication is now available for purchase online through Dave Horne’s Fort de Chartres Store website . We appreciate this opportunity and hope you will support our efforts!

Autumn Color

14 Octobre, Lundi (Monday)

65 degrees F

Cloudy, 5 mph ESE wind

Les récoltes d’Octobre

Autumn is a season of both last and first harvests in Upper Louisiana. The jardin potager(kitchen garden) vegetables will soon bear to fruition the fall crops of beans, lettuces, peas, radishes, and turnips. With temperatures cooling, preparations begin for next year’s garden by clearing and amending the soil held within the raised beds. The leaves of the forest have rapidly begun wearing their autumn colors ranging from gold to red, signaling the slowing of our daily garden work. As we near the first frosts, the stillroom tasks of seed saving, herb drying, and vegetable preserving will soon slow. Stepping away from the garden and its tasks, the orchard and forest beckon with additional crop opportunities, with many native nuts and fruits ready to be harvested. Noted in the travels of accounts of Upper Louisiana, the Illinois country in colonial times offered a varied selection of fruit and nut trees, both cultivated and native.  Jean-Benard Bossu’s account in his Travels in North America, 1751-1762, recounts this bounty. First he gives mention of the fruit of the native persimmon and pawpaw. He further describes:

Mocker Nut Hickory, Michaux

There are many orange and peach trees. Oranges and peaches are so plentiful that colonists let them rot on trees. There are black nuts, or hickory nuts, and walnuts. Just as in Europe, there are fair sized ones that are good to eat and others, as big as a fist, which are bitter and have a very thick, hard shell. The pecan trees bear nuts which are long, like almonds, but more delicate in flavor. The Indians make oil of them which they use in corn meal mush.*

Once finished gathering or harvesting in the garden and forest, we take our produce into the kitchen. Our choices are to use immediately or preserve. This Saturday, a discussion and demonstration of the 18th century Art of Preserving, Conserving, and Candying will be presented, with my friends Antoinette Hancock and Renea Davis. Meet us in the Fort’s store building at 10 AM, a free event venturing into past colonial preserving techniques. Autumn produce in pudding and cake receipts are delicious ways to use extra fall produce; regional and eighteenth-century cookbooks abound with recipes. Newly added autumn recipes are listed on the 2013 Recettes page of this blog.

Autumn Pudding

The fall season is a wonderful time to travel the Illinois country, as many communities celebrate the autumn season. Additional events at Fort de Chartres this fall include a Bake Oven Certification Class on Saturday, October 26, and the Winter Rendezvous and Woodswalk, November 2 & 3. For more information about these events, visit the Evénements page. Explorez l’automne dans la région de l’Illinois.

* Jean-Bernard Bossu, Jean-Bernard Bossu’s Travels in the Interior of North America 1751-1762, ed. and trans. by Seymour Feiler (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962)

Nasturtium, lavendar

6 Septembre, Friday

88 degrees F

Sunny, 5 mph S wind

The women tend the poultry yards and gardens. Interested in maintaining the later, their delicate hands do not shrink from cultivating it themselves. Straw hat on the head, spade and cultivator in hand, sometimes they prepare the soil for the seeds or nourish the budding plants; sometimes they attack the voracious weeds that would choke out the vegetables destined to fill the cellars, in which they last throughout the winter. – My Account of Upper Louisiana, Nicholas de Finiels, 1797

This account echoes through the passage of time, acknowledging the eternal truths in a gardener’s life. One nurtures the crops, while trying to gain the upper hand against the elements and weeds that threaten to overtake one’s garden. Certainly the consequences in the colonial garden were imminently more disastrous then in our demonstration garden; the lack of produce would have directly affected the survival and finances of one’s family.

None the less, the challenge must be won to have a successful garden-the recent heat and drought in the Illinois country have certainly restricted progress. Watering the beds that are still producing has become the priority while working the soil and seeding for the fall season continue at a slower pace.  Purple eggplant and Long Red Cayenne peppers continue to thrive and produce, while the first of the watermelons are ripening. The Long Anglais cucumbers, and the various varieties of summer squashes and beans have been producing well this season but for the last three or four weeks. Earlier in the summer, it had been cooler and wetter than our norm. But alas, the recent heat and lack of rain have slowed production and taken its toll. Soon these beds will be cleared for the fall planting of the cool autumn crops of lettuces, peas, and winter radishes. A few beds recently were planted with Lacinato kale and Early Wonder beets, White Egg and Purple Globe Top turnips. The gardener’s endless cycle of soil preparation, planting seed, while nurturing and harvesting continues as the fall approaches. This cycle, in our colonial past and in the present, provides comfort in its regular rhythm and helps us understand and make sense of our environment, and our place within it.

Ancient Watermelon

This Saturday, September 7, 10 AM-Noon, the work in the jardin potager continues, preparing the beds for the fall planting. The season’s first melons have been picked and as usual, the available jardin produce, recettes (recipes), and seeds packets will be available to share.  Hopefully, the recent warm temperatures have sweetened the watermelons. Stop by for our 7 Septembre Heirloom Produce Saturday. Sample, and share in our garden adventure! The next Heirloom Produce Saturday will be October 19.

Next FdC Heirloom Produce Saturday, August 10, 10 AM-Noon.

Wild Bee Balm blooming in the medicinal herb bed

Much work to be accomplished in the jardin preparing for the fall season. Shake of this past week’s gloomy weather and stop by and visit-some produce, plants, seeds, and recipes available. Heirloom herbs, vegetables & fruits currently in season-including Cucumber and Summer Squash.