China Bayles' Book of Days

by Susan Wittig Albert

  • Calendula (Calendula officinalis). This is not the French marigold, but the old-fashioned pot marigold found in cottage gardens. Antiseptic and antifungal, it is used in salves to heals wounds and in tinctures to treat athlete’s foot and ringworm, and cold sores. Internally, it has been used to treat digestive problems. (See July 22)

  • Hawthorne (Crataegus oxyacanthoides). Perhaps the best and certainly the safest tonic remedy for the heart and circulatory system. The tea has been used to ease stress and insomnia.

  • Other Leo herbs. Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is another heart-toning herb whose Latin name suggests its connection to Leo. Saint-John’s-wort has a symbolic connection to the heart, perhaps because of its bloodred sap; to dream of your true love, pick it at Midsummer’s Eve and hang it over your bed. Angelica is used to make a stimulating, aromatic tea. Bay laurel is a symbol of victory and triumphant achievement.

  It [Angelica archangelica] is an herb of the Sun in Leo; let it be gathered when he is there, the Moon applying to his good aspect; let it be gathered either in his hour or in the hour of Jupiter: let Sol be angular: observe the like in gathering the herbs of other planets, and you may happen to do wonders.

  —NICHOLAS CULPEPER

  JULY 24

  Daylily Delights

  The daylilies are blooming in my garden now, and on the sunny bank of Pecan Creek, where they mix and mingle with native grasses in sunny profusion. The garden is home to the colorful hybrids, but the daylilies along the creek are the old-fashioned orange ones—not so impressive as individual blooms, perhaps, but en masse, a delight.

  THE MEDICINAL DAYLILY

  This beautiful perennial has been valued for centuries in Chinese and Japanese medicine, where it is considered antibiotic and diuretic, and used to treat for urinary tract disorders, vaginal yeast infections. John Gerard (The Herbal, 1597) was the first to mention the name daylily, which refers to the fact that the blooms stay open for a single day (although you’ll find as many as a dozen blooms on one stalk). Gerard recommended the plant’s use (like that of true lilies, with which it was confused) to cool inflammations.

  THE CULINARY DAYLILY

  But it’s in the kitchen that this plant shows its stuff. Sautéed or stir-fried, the buds taste something like asparagus; serve them with pasta, other vegetables, and poultry. Add the fresh flowers to salad, soups, or vegetables, or dip in batter and fry like a fritter. Stuffed with a delicate seafood salad, the flowers are nothing short of stunning. Dried, the flowers are used in stir-fries and soups; in Oriental markets, the dried buds are sold as “Golden Needles.” The fresh tubers are crisp and nutritious, with a nutty taste, and can be added raw to salads or boiled or stir-fried and served as a side dish. (Always check for possible allergies before you eat a new vegetable, and never consume anything that may have been sprayed.)

  GINGERY DAYLILY BUDS WITH RICE

  2 cups daylily buds

  1 tablespoon oil

  2 shallots, finely minced

  1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

  1 tablespoon fresh chopped Italian parsley

  1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

  1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

  1 tablespoon water

  2 cups cooked rice (a mix of wild and brown rice is nice)

  1/3 cup slivered almonds

  Steam buds until tender (10-15 minutes). In heavy skillet, heat the oil. Add shallots and sauté for about a minute. Add ginger and parsley and cook, stirring, 1-2 minutes more. Add vinegar, tamari, and water. Stir to mix. Toss in daylily buds. Serve over hot rice, topped with slivered almonds. Serves 4.

  Read more about daylilies and other edible flowers:

  The Daylily: A Guide for Gardeners, by John P. Peat Flowers in the Kitchen, by Susan Belsinger

  JULY 25

  Today is the feast day of St. Christopher, the patron saint of (among many other vocations) fullers.

  Fullers and Teasels

  You don’t meet many fullers these days, but when cloth was made by hand, fulling (fleecing, or raising the nap of a fabric) was an important part of the cloth-making process. It was the messiest part of the process, actually, for in past centuries, it involved washing the cloth in human urine (a rich source of ammonia) and dusting it with fuller’s earth. The cloth was then rewashed and suspended to dry on double-ended hooks in a frame called a tenter—the origin of the phrase “on tenterhooks.”

  That’s where the teasel came in. The name is from the Anglo-Saxon taesan, to tease. The stiff, spiny flower heads were fixed to a cylinder that revolved against the cloth, raising the nap. The teasel was grown for the purpose, and there was a substantial demand. As late as the 1920s, one woolen manufacturer was using 20,000 teasel heads a year. In 1530, the Worshipful Company of Clothmakers was granted a new coat of arms, which featured a prominent gold teasel. It still does.

  The root of the teasel was used medicinally, according to Nicholas Culpeper, as a cleansing herb and eyewash; an ointment made from the roots, he adds, is good for warts, cankers, and fistulas. The plant was used as a protection against witches, who apparently didn’t much like its sharp spines.

  A teasel might be an interesting plant for the garden, if you could have just one. However, a single teasel plant can produce some 2,000 seeds. If even ten percent of these germinate (half generally do), you’re in trouble.

  Cut thistles in June, they’ll come again soon;

  Cut in July, they may die

  Cut in August, die they must.

  —ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LORE

  JULY 26

  The recorded history of the genus Capsicum begins with Columbus, who undertook his voyage of discovery in search of (among other things) black pepper. Columbus did not find what he was looking for, but in many people’s opinion, he bit into something much better. He became the first European to blister his tongue on a hot pepper.

  —CHILE DEATH: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

  Chile Death: About China’s Books

  Chile Death began with something I saw on television back in 1997, about the legal liabilities that restaurant owners face when their patrons are allergic to something in the food. The specific case under discussion involved a fatal peanut allergy—a perfect modus operandi for murder, it seemed to me, especially since the book I wanted to write involved a chili cook-off, and the victim was one of the judges. What if he was allergic to peanuts? What if the murderer knew this? And just how hard could it be to slip a peanut into one of the chili samples the judge had to taste?

  The previous book in the series, Love Lies Bleeding, is a dark story that ends with McQuaid being very seriously wounded. In fact, when Chile Death begins, he is depressed at the prospect of long-term therapy—so I wanted a cheerful book. A funny book, actually. And there is something undeniably funny about chiles. I seem to have been a little defensive about this, for in the Author’s Note, I feel compelled to quote George Bernard Shaw: “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”

  Bill’s habanero peppers are fruiting just now, in pots on our deck. He dries and powders these very, very, VERY hot peppers and concocts a salsa that is hot enough to melt teeth. The recipe goes something like this, although it varies from batch to batch, depending on how he’s feeling at the moment.

  BILL’S INCENDIARY SALSA

  2 tomatoes, chopped

  1 carrot, grated

  ½ onion, chopped

  4 canned chipotle peppers, minced

  3 cloves garlic, minced

  ¼ cup chopped cilantro

  some vinegar

  as much powdered habanero as you dare

  Throw everything into a bowl and stir violently. Serve with chips. Stand by with a fire extinguisher and a box of tissues.

  Read more about chiles and chili:

  Chile Death: A China Bayles Mystery, by Susan Wittig Albert

  Great Bowls of Fire! Hot and Spicy Soups, Stews and Chiles, by Dave DeWitt

 
; JULY 27

  Today is Take a Plant for a Walk Day.

  You don’t have a garden just for yourself. You have it to share.

  —AUGUSTA CARTER

  The Merryweathers’ Passalong Plant Sale

  Every few months, the Merryweathers get together and trade plants. The plant swap is quite an occasion, as you might imagine, for most members’ gardens are full of passalong herbs. For example, old Mrs. Barnscape got her Egyptian walking onions from Alice Gomme, who traded them to Letty Funk for a root cutting of angelica, which Letty got from her cousin in Indiana. Unfortunately, the angelica didn’t survive the Central Texas summer, which made Alice very sad, because she’d always wanted an angel in her garden. She had to console herself with some comfrey that Al Hottes gave her, with a warning. “Keep it in a pot on the porch,” he said. “Once those roots go down, you’ll never get them up again.”

  The passalong plant swap has proved a roaring success for the Merryweathers, but they have had to make a few rules, since there are inevitably a few people who take advantage. Here is the latest version:

  1. Put your plant in a pot. Do not bring it in a paper bag, a cardboard box, a napkin, or an old shoe.

  2. Do not bring a buggy plant. (Leave your aphids at home!) Do not bring a plant with dormant bindweed seeds in the soil, ready to germinate with joy when they are settled in their new home.

  3. Do not bring a plant that is at death’s doorway.

  4. Your plant must have roots. (Do not stick an un-rooted cutting in a pot and call it a plant.)

  5. It is not okay to bring 10 garlic bulbs and take home 10 pots of herbs.

  6. There’s no limit on the number of plants you can bring. Just be sure to label each one, correctly, please. Nobody wants to take home a hardy perennial, only to have it give up the ghost at the first kiss of frost. Put your name on it, too. Your REAL name.

  7. Bring fresh seeds in a sealed, labeled envelope. The fair exchange is 25 seeds for a plant, NOT 5! (You know who you are.)

  8. Do not bring seeds that nobody took last year. Do not bring seeds that people can rake up off their lawns: mesquite seeds, acorns, or grass seed.

  9. If you bring a garden bully, for heaven’s sake label it BULLY. Some people are silly enough to give bullies a home, but they at least ought to be warned. (A bully: Any plant that hops out of the bed the minute your back is turned.)

  10. No trading in the parking lot. No insider trades. And no wire tumbleweeds.

  To learn more about taking plants for a walk, read:

  Passalong Plants, by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing

  JULY 28

  Beatrix Potter was born on this day in 1866. She wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other immortal books for children. July’s theme garden is a Peter Rabbit Garden.

  My news is all gardening at present, and supplies. I went to see an old lady at Windermere and impudently took a large basket and trowel with me. She had the most untidy garden I ever saw. I got nice things in handfuls without any shame, amongst others a bundle of lavender slips . . . and another bunch of violet suckers.

  —BEATRIX POTTER, LETTER TO MILLIE WARNE, OCTOBER 12, 1907

  A Peter Rabbit Garden

  A Peter Rabbit Garden would be a lovely project for you and your children (or grandchildren) to share. It could be a container on the deck or a corner of your garden, or a larger area with a piece of garden art in the middle: Peter himself, perhaps, or a wheelbarrow with his coat on it. You might want to put a little wooden fence around it (like the fence around Mr. MacGregor’s garden), or perhaps a low stone wall, such as the one that Tom, Moppet, and Mittens sat on in The Tale of Tom Kitten. And certainly you’ll want to read Miss Potter’s “little books” (as she liked to call them) and pick out the flowers you see growing in the pictures she painted with such care—some of them in her very own garden at Hill Top Farm.

  PETER’S PLANTS

  These plants are all mentioned in the Little Books. These would all be appropriate for Peter’s garden.

  MISS POTTER’S GARDEN

  Miss Potter’s garden at Hill Top Farm included a great many herbs and flowers, many of them passalong plants. “I have been planting hard all day—thanks to a very well meant but slightly ill-timed present of saxifrage from Mrs. Taylor at the corner cottage.” In the hedgerows, she found violets, daffodils, primroses, wild strawberries, and wood anemones, and wall-rue fern from an old bridge. She completely redesigned the garden, making it what it into a beautiful cottage garden brimming with color and fragrance.

  Read more about Miss Potter:

  At Home with Beatrix Potter, by Susan Denyer

  The Tale of Hill Top Farm: A Cottage Tale Mystery Featuring Beatrix Potter, by Susan Wittig Albert

  JULY 29

  Today is the feast day of St. Martha, the patron saint of homemakers, housewives, and cooks.

  Housekeeping with Herbal Vinegar

  Every now and then, Fannie Couch (talk-show host at Radio KPST-FM in Pecan Springs) talks housekeeping. Today, in honor of St. Martha (no, not that Martha) she invited people to phone in their tips for using herbal vinegars. Fannie’s top five choices each won a bottle of Fannie’s homemade lavender vinegar:

  • Emily Thackway says she polishes her mother’s walnut table with a soft cloth moistened with a mixture of 3 tablespoons linseed oil, 3 tablespoons malt vinegar, and ½ teaspoon lavender oil. “Mama would be proud,” Emily says.

  • Fannie’s cousin Minnie Watson gets the mildew off her shower curtains with full-strength vinegar, mixed with a few drops of lemon essential oil.

  • Minnie’s daughter-in-law Agnes makes her own floor cleaner. She pours cup of liquid soap into a bucket, adds ½ cup white vinegar and ½ cup herbal tea (she likes peppermint, for the clean smell). She fills the bucket half full of water and mops her floor. “Clean as a whistle,” says Agnes. “Gets the germs, too.”

  • Hank Litton’s wool jacket reeked of Bubba Harris’ cigar smoke after Saturday night’s poker game. Lila filled the bathtub with hot water, added two cups of vinegar and a cup of strong rosemary tea, and hung the jacket to steam. She reports that it passed the sniff test.

  • Mae Ruth Robbins had ants in the kitchen. “But I fixed ’em good,” she crows. “I made me up a cup of real strong tansy tea, mixed it with a cup of vinegar, and sprayed ’em. Figure if they’re brave enough to come back, I’ll hit ’em again.” Go for it, Mae Ruth!

  VINEGAR OF THE FOUR THIEVES5

  Take lavender, rosemary, sage, wormwood, rue, and mint, of each a large handful; put them in a pot of earthen ware, pour on them four quarts of very strong vinegar, cover the pot closely, and put a board on the top; keep it in the hottest sun two weeks, then strain and bottle it, putting in each bottle a clove of garlic. When it has settled in the bottle and become clear, pour it off gently; do this until you get it all free from sediment. The proper time to make it is when the herbs are in full vigour. This vinegar is very refreshing in crowded rooms, in the apartments of the sick; and is peculiarly grateful when sprinkled about the house in damp weather.

  —MARY RANDOLPH, THE VIRGINIA HOUSEWIFE OR,

  METHODICAL COOK, 1860

  JULY 30

  In some years (not all) today is Deviled Egg Day.

  Some Divine Deviltry

  No doubt about it, deviled eggs are perfect for picnics, barbecues, and the Sunday church social. The tradition of stuffing eggs goes back to Roman times, while the word deviled came into use around 1800 to denote food prepared with piquant seasonings, such as cayenne and mustard. China says that Brian, McQuaid’s son, wolfs down three or four of her Classic Devils without taking a breath.

  CHINA’S CLASSIC DEVILS

  6 hard-boiled eggs

  2 tablespoons mayonnaise

  1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

  1 teaspoon cider vinegar

  2-3 leaves of fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

  white bulb of 1 green onion, minced

  green leaves of onion, thinly slice
d, opened out to make

  rings

  freshly ground black pepper

  salt to taste, or Savory Blend (August 29)

  paprika for garnish

  Halve eggs; scoop yolks into a small bowl. Mash well; add mayonnaise, Dijon, and vinegar. Stir in minced onion and chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fill egg white halves, using a table knife

  or small teaspoon. Sprinkle with paprika and sliced green onion rings. May be doubled or tripled to serve a gang.

  To jazz up those Classic Devils, try these herbal additions, or experiment with your own:

  • Red-Hot Devils: ½ teaspoon grated horseradish; 1 teaspoon minced cilantro; pinch cayenne; pinch chili powder; 1 small jalapeño pepper, finely chopped. Reserve half the jalapeño for garnish.

  • South of the Border Devils: 2 tablespoons sour cream; ½ teaspoon cumin; 1 clove garlic, minced; 2-3 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese. Garnish with pimentos.

  • Pesto Devils: 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil, 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme; 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley; 1 clove garlic, minced. Garnish with a caper in a green onion ring.