China Bayles' Book of Days

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by Susan Wittig Albert


  As the days lengthen,

  So the cold strengthens.

  —WEATHER LORE

  JANUARY 18

  On this day in 1990, I began writing Thyme of Death, the first China Bayles mystery.

  If I’d known how the week was going to turn out I would have sent it back first thing Monday and asked for a refund.

  —THE OPENING LINES OF THYME OF DEATH:

  A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

  Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Crime: About China’s Books

  I created China Bayles because I was interested in writing about herbs, gardening, and mysteries. I had lived in Texas since the 1970s, and I was already growing herbs in my garden at Meadow Knoll, the thirty-one acres where Bill and I live in the Hill Country. China abandons her career as a criminal defense attorney (much as I left my own university career) and buys Thyme and Seasons herb shop, in Pecan Springs, Texas, halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Her best friend is Ruby Wilcox, a six-foot-plus flamboyant redhead who owns the Crystal Cave, Pecan Springs’ only New Age shop. China and Ruby would be good partners, I thought: China is the dry, sometimes cynical voice of reason and logic, while Ruby is a True Believer who always leads from the heart. I decided that every book would have a “signature herb” that would define the theme, and that I would include as much information about herbs as I could squeeze in without slowing the story. Here are descriptions of the first two books. You’ll find others throughout this Book of Days.

  THYME OF DEATH

  Life is good for China Bayles. She lives in a neat apartment behind Thyme and Seasons, she has some great gal pals, and she’s in love with ex-cop Mike McQuaid. But things go awry when China’s friend Jo Gilbert is found dead and China uncovers a stash of torrid love letters from someone who is now very much in the public eye.

  Thyme has been used for centuries to preserve and season food and as a cough remedy, a digestive aid, and an antiseptic. In the Middle Ages, the herb was thought to be an antidote against fear and nightmares.

  WITCHES’ BANE

  Halloween is supposed to be scary—but the holiday hijinks in Pecan Springs are hardly your everyday kids’ pranks. The all-around creepiness culminates in the Halloween-night murder of one of Ruby’s tarot students. Ruby becomes a prime suspect when a mud-slinging minister accuses her of New-Age witchcraft.

  Witches’ bane, wolfsbane, and monkshood are all names for the deadly herb aconite, said to be the creation of Hecate, the goddess of the underworld. Through the centuries, the herb has been used to kill wolves, poison wells, execute criminals, and commit murders. Its root has occasionally (and fatally) been mistaken for horseradish.

  JANUARY 19

  Today is National Popcorn Day.

  [Peruvian Indians] toast a certain kind of corn until it bursts. They call it pisancalla, and they use it as a confection.

  —BERNABE COBO, SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NATURALIST

  Popcorn

  Popcorn has been around for a lot longer than Super Bowl Sunday, movies, or the popcorn man in the park. The oldest popcorn ever discovered (more than 5,000 years old) was found in a cave in central New Mexico. Grains of viable popcorn—so well preserved that they can still be popped—have been found in ancient tombs in Peru. Today, the average American eats seventy quarts of popcorn a year.

  The menfolks at China Bayles’ house—her husband, Mike McQuaid, and teenaged stepson, Brian—put away more than their share of popcorn, especially during the long winter evenings. To cut down on the salt, China makes herbal popcorn sprinkles. For your next movie night or TV football game, put out those super bowls of popcorn with a variety of sprinkles in labeled shaker-top bottles, and let everybody choose. Each recipe uses dried and finely powdered herbs and makes about one-half cup. A great kids’ project—unique gifts, too!

  MIX-N-MATCH POPCORN SPRINKLES

  • Mama Mia Sprinkle: 2 tablespoons each of basil, thyme, marjoram, garlic powder. Serve with a shaker of Parmesan cheese.

  • Creole Crazy Sprinkle: 2 tablespoons of paprika; 1 tablespoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil; 1½ teaspoons salt

  • Mexi-Corny Sprinkle: 2 tablespoons each of chili powder (mild, medium, or hot), parsley flakes, cumin; 1 tablespoon each of onion powder and garlic powder; 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, salt

  The Aztec Indians strung popped kernels of corn and made them into ceremonial headdresses, necklaces, and ornaments. These were worn in honor of their god, Tlaloc, the god of fertility and of rain.

  To learn more about popcorn, read:

  Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America , by Andrew F. Smith

  JANUARY 20

  Zodiac: Today or tomorrow, the Sun enters the astrological sign of Aquarius.

  The eleventh sign of the zodiac, Aquarius, an Air sign, is ruled by a pair of planets. Its first ruler was Mercury; its second, Uranus, discovered in 1781. A fixed sign (suggesting strength and resolve), Aquarius governs intellect and originality. Aquarians are intelligent, unorthodox, and inventive. They may also be detached and uninvolved.

  —RUBY WILCOX, “ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS”

  Herbs and Astrology

  Until a few hundred years ago, the idea of writing about astrology and herbs together would have seemed perfectly natural. In earlier times, people saw all things as parts of one coherent whole. They applied their understanding of one aspect of the cosmos—the planets, say—to all other parts: the plant and animal kings, for instance, or the human body. They called this the Law of Correspondences: As above, so below. As in the macrocosm, so in the microcosm.

  In this scheme of things, certain plants were classified as “belonging” to certain planets, and were thought to be useful to people who were born under that planet’s influence, or to people who suffered ailments related to that sign. In modern times, Aquarius is said to be ruled by the planet Uranus, but the ancients ascribed the rulership to Mercury, which also ruled the human nervous system, the respiratory system, and the shoulders, arms, and hands. The plants that belonged to Aquarius were those thought to be ruled by Mercury.

  SOME HERBS OF AQUARIUS

  • Skullcap. Skullcap has a long history of use in the Orient as a sedative and a treatment for Mercury-ruled nervous disorders, such as convulsions. Modern herbalists suggest it for nervous tension and PMS.

  • Lemon balm. Lemon balm makes a delicious tea that contains plant chemicals that gently relieve tension and stress and lighten depression. It is thought to lower blood pressure by causing a mild dilation of the blood vessels.

  • Lavender. Lavender provides a gentle strengthening of the entire nervous system. It soothes the nerves, eases headache, promotes healthy sleep, and relieves depression.

  • Other Aquarius herbs: hops, lady’s slipper, valerian, and passionflower, all of which have been traditionally used as sedatives and nervines.

  Read more about astrological herbalism:

  Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, by Nicholas Culpeper

  JANUARY 21

  According to some sources, the Celtic Month of the Rowan (January 21-February 17) begins today.

  Rowan-tree and red thread

  Hold the witches all in dread.

  —OLD ENGLISH SAYING

  The Magical Rowan

  Each of the thirteen months in the Druids’ lunar calendar was represented by a sacred tree with a traditional symbolic significance. This month, the tree is the rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia), known as the European Mountain Ash. The gods were said to feed on its red berries, and it was thought to protect against enchantment. The name rowan is related to the Norse “runa,” or charm, used for divination. Runes were inscribed on pieces of rowan, and the wood was used for magical wands.

  Traditional uses of the rowan tree persist through Europe even into modern times. In England, as recently as fifty years ago, farmers hung rowan wreaths on their cattle sheds to protect the animals from harm. Sprigs were hung over the doors of houses and worn around the neck to protect against evil
enchantments (the “evil eye”). In Wales and in Ireland, rowan trees were planted in graveyards. In Yorkshire and Lancashire, divining rods were made from rowan, and in Cornwall, people carried rowan in their pockets to ward off ill-luck. In Cumbria, butter was churned with a rowan staff.

  The rowan’s dense, hard wood is useful in crafts, as well, especially for fashioning bowls, platters, tool handles, and cart wheels. The orange berries are made into a tart, sweet jelly especially good with game, and into pies and wine. Medicinally, a decoction of the bark was considered a blood cleanser and was used to treat diarrhea, nausea, and upset stomach.

  The rowan tree has been naturalized from Canada through the northern United States. In the language of flowers, it symbolizes beauty, hospitality, and protection.

  For more about the rowan and other magical trees:

  Tree Wisdom: The Definitive Guidebook to the Myth, Folklore, and Healing Power of Trees, by Jacqueline Memory Paterson

  Rowan in Ireland keeps the dead from rising. For the same good purpose it was planted in graveyards in Yorkshire and in Wales; and in the Highlands it was built into coffins and biers.

  —GEOFFREY GRIGSON, THE ENGLISHMAN’S FLORA

  JANUARY 22

  St. Vincent’s Day: St. Vincent is the patron of vintners.

  Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.

  —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, OTHELLO

  Natural Partners

  Wine and herbs have been paired since the beginning of human history. So on this day that celebrates the patron saint of vintners, let’s try a bit of herbal magic: turning a bottle of ordinary wine into a savory herbal wine. It’s as easy as making an herb vinegar! Here are three recipes to help you get started; after that, let your creative imagination play. Viva St. Vincent!

  CHARDONNAY WITH ROSEMARY, BASIL, AND GARLIC

  3 sprigs rosemary

  2 large basil leaves

  2 cloves garlic, peeled, quartered

  1½ cups Chardonnay

  Wash herbs and place them into a clean pint jar. Add wine and cover. Store in a cool, dark place for at least a week, or until the flavor suits you. Remove herbs. Use to marinate fish or chicken, wine sauce, or as part of the cooking liquid for rice or beans.

  BURGUNDY WITH THYME, MARJORAM, AND PARSLEY

  4 sprigs thyme

  4 sprigs marjoram

  4 sprigs parsley

  1 ½ cups burgundy

  Wash herbs and place them in a clean pint jar. Add wine and cover. Store in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks, or until the flavor is full and mellow. Use to marinate beef and ham, in making beef stew, vegetable soup, and tomato sauce.

  Read more about herbs and wine:

  Herbed-Wine Cuisine: Creating & Cooking with Herb-Infused Wines, by Janice Therese Mancuso

  Remember on St. Vincent’s Day

  If that the Sun his beams display

  For ’tis a token, bright and clear

  Of prosperous weather all the year.

  —TRADITIONAL WEATHER LORE

  JANUARY 23

  Today is National Handwriting Day.

  Think Herbal Inks

  Did you ever wonder what people used for ink before the ballpoint pen was invented? You’d be correct if you suggested berry juice (blueberries, cherries, poke-berries, strawberries) or chimney soot—the sort of thing that would definitely intrigue a forensic analyst. But the most important ink in Western history was made from oak galls and iron. Leonardo da Vinci invented with it; Van Gogh and Rembrandt drew with it; Bach made music with it; and the framers of the Constitution of the United States made history with it. This famous seventeenth-century recipe certainly involves a great deal of preparation.

  OAK GALL-IRON INK

  To make good ink. Take 5 ounces of the best Nuttgalls, break them in a mortar but not in small pieces, then put the galls into one quart of clear rain water or soft spring water, let them stand 4 or 5 days shaking them often, then take 2 ounces of white gum arabick, 1 ounce of double refined sugar, 1 piece of indigo and put in the same container and shake them well and let them stand 4 or 5 days more. Then take 2 ounces of good green copperis, the larger the better, and having first washed off the filth, put in to the rest and also a piece of clear gum, about as big as a walnut to set the colour and it will be fit for use.

  WALNUT HULL INK

  Try this easier Colonial American ink with your children.

  12 walnut hulls

  1 cup water

  ¼ teaspoon vinegar

  (This is smelly. Open your kitchen window before you begin!) Put the hulls into an old sock, tie securely, and hammer to break up the hulls. Empty into an old saucepan, add water and vinegar, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Pour into a small lidded jar and store in the refrigerator.

  LAVENDER INK

  When Victorian ladies wrote to friends, they often used scented ink. Lavender was a favorite.

  ¼ cup lavender blossoms

  1 bottle ink

  cup water

  Crush herbs and place with water in a nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes, watching to be sure that the water does not completely boil away. The scent is ready when the liquid is brown. Strain, and discard the leaves. Add 4 teaspoons to a bottle of ink.

  JANUARY 24

  January is National Soup Month

  My plate of flautas arrived, sizzling hot, with a pottery bowl of beans on the side, redolent with comino and the slightly resinous epazote, a traditional Mexican herb used to reduce flatulence. It makes the enthusiastic bean-eater more socially acceptable.

  —INDIGO DYING: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

  Black Bean Soup

  There’s nothing heartier and healthier than a hot soup for lunch or supper. This recipe for Frijoles de Olla (Beans in a Pot) comes from Carl, who owns the café in the small town of Indigo. You can meet him in Indigo Dying.

  Carl’s soup features black beans, garlic, and epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides), a Mexican herb with carminative properties. (This is a polite way of saying that it reduces flatulence.) Epazote also has a resinous flavor, and can be omitted. You’ll find the fresh herb in Mexican food stores, and the dried herb in large supermarkets, or you can easily grow your own. If you are lucky enough to have Mexican oregano (Poliomintha longiflora) in your garden, substitute it for regular oregano.

  FRIJOLES DE OLLA FROM THE INDIGO CAFÉ

  4 quarts water

  1 pound black beans, washed, picked, and soaked

  overnight

  2 onions, sliced

  12 whole cloves garlic

  salt to taste

  2 teaspoons fresh minced oregano, or 1 teaspoon dried

  1 ½ teaspoons cumin

  2 sprigs fresh epazote, minced, or 1 teaspoon dried

  Garnish: chopped cilantro, chopped tomato, sliced green

  onion, chopped jalapeño pepper, sour cream, grated

  Monterey Jack cheese

  In a large pot, bring the water to a boil. Add soaked beans, onion, and garlic. After an hour of cooking, add salt, oregano, cumin, and epazote. Cook for another half hour, or until beans are done. (Beans are cooked when you can easily mash one against the roof of your mouth with your tongue.) Puree about 1 cup of the beans (use your blender); return pureed beans to the beans in the pot. Serve in pottery bowls, garnished with sour cream and grated Monterey Jack cheese. Serve other garnishes in small bowls.

  Read more about soups, including bean soup:

  Book of Soups: More Than 100 Recipes for Perfect Soups, by Mary D. Donovan

  JANUARY 25

  Today is the birthday of Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scotland’s most loved poet.

  O, my luve is like a red, red rose,

  That’s newly sprung in June.

  O, my luve is like a melodie,

  That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

  —ROBERT BURNS

  Celebrating Robert Burns

  On Burns’ birthday, of
course, the most suitable dish is a haggis. This large, round sausage was traditionally made of deer heart and liver and sheep’s blood, boiled in a sheep’s stomach, and served in thick, hot slices. If your family would not appreciate this delicacy, you could honor this day with traditional Scottish oatmeal gingerbread, rich in spices. Oats were among the basic Scottish food staples; oat was used medicinally (as a nerve and uterine tonic) and as a softening poultice.

  OATMEAL GINGERBREAD

  ½ cup butter or margarine

  ½ cup granulated sugar

  2 tablespoons black treacle (molasses)

  1½ cups flour

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  ½ cup oatmeal (make this by whirring rolled oats in your

  blender)

  ½ cup brown sugar, packed

  1 teaspoon powdered ginger

  ½ teaspoon cloves

  ½ teaspoon cinnamon

  3 tablespoons milk

  1 large egg, beaten

  Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 7-inch baking pan with wax paper and spray with a nonstick spray or grease with margarine. Heat the butter, granulated sugar, and treacle together in a saucepan until the butter has melted. Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl and add the oatmeal, brown sugar, and spice. Add the melted butter mixture and the milk, then stir in the egg. Stir until blended. Pour into the lined pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire tray.

 

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