Aunt Rosies

If nothing else, he could be assured of good smelling breath.Photos are from Plant Files. I learned to use it much like a pea shooter, and that always impressed them. Some folks in the northeast planted lovage for its roots, too, which they candied and...

My golden hands, mustard yellow hair, and tan nails got a lot of attention. I knew immediately that I had seen something I was not supposed to see, so I put the Mason fruit jar full of homemade chicken soup hard down on the table, held on to the asphidity...

I was in the Little Room.Being the principal's daughter did not have its privileges. I scampered back up the bank and ran lickety split back to the classroom. I do remember sitting outside on the little porch in my muddy clothes for the rest of the school...

I used to know all of them and what purpose they served, but until I am reminded by a scent or by a blossom, I don't always remember. An example of that was bitter dock and sorrel.

We covered it then, and let it cook for 3 or 4 more minutes until all the sugar crystals had dissolved from the sides of the pan. As it began to set, we scored it into small squares with a knife, then when it was cold, we cut along the lines.

I have a lot of errant footfalls when I am around mountain mist.I also use it dried in potpourri, stirring it often just for the memories it provides, and I have sprigs of it sitting around in small vases collecting dust, and beneath the dust, there lies...

Oval toothed leaves grow in opposite pairs along the stem, which culminates in a cone shaped, branched cluster of small tubular bright yellow flowers from June through September. Avila, PharmD, published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2004, with...

Being the little smart aleck as usual, when he held up the picture of the black swallowtail, my hand went straight up and proceeded to wave madly in his face. Then she told Ninna. When I was growing up, we called the mid day meal dinner and the evening...

There is also the idea of mixing herbs with regular tea. Try blending it with a few lavender flowers, rosemary, or spearmint leaves. First, fill your teapot with hot water to warm it, meanwhile bring a kettle of fresh water to boil.

If scum forms, scoop it off. We dried them between screens on her back porch. The honey is soothing but it also tempers the tartness of the raspberry leaves. Strain them into a container and add one to three teaspoons of honey.

The men had mentioned it to my daddy, so everybody knew how Goldie had conned her way into getting a telephone. I hate to waste my money on potions, so I baked you a cherry cobbler as payment if I end up with a debt."I had to bite my tongue.

I looked from one grandmother to the other, thinking I might cry. I grew up in a family of hand quilters. I had to listen to that until I finally started school.I must have been home from school for awhile because I went to the next quilting bee, again...

I took the dyes that Aunt Bett had taught me to make and painted pokeberry rouge on their cheeks and lipstick on their lips. We didn't have much money, but my mother could always come up with exciting gift ideas.

I thought my hands were on fire, and by this time so were my back, my neck, my head and whatever else the burdock burrs had affixed themselves to. There were no children who lived near me and I was entertained by all my older relatives, but I had the...

She didn't wear it anyway. It is a native of Europe, and is naturalized in eastern North America. I can tell you truly, the star thistle is indeed a trap for bare feet. I only know it stopped my progress occasionally when I was running across a field...

I must also cut from the middle of the patch outward, and then only every fifth plant, no more, no less. Not only did this drink act as a mild sedative, but it also was good for treating colds and sore throats.

When I finally caught my breath, and she had calmed me down enough so that I could tell her what I saw, I got one of the longest lectures of my life from that sweet little old woman.

If the feather dissolves, lye is ready.LYE SOAP (remember, this is enough for an extended family to last a year. Our country was still recovering from WWII, and money was scarce, but we had Old Pied the milk cow, a few chickens, several shared garden...

It's like when you sleep, your body gets the rest it needs to grow another day. It wasn't the foot of snow that bothered me, it was the fact that I was craving strawberries in the dead of winter.

When Aunt Bett and I gathered it, she would shave the bark, then spread out the shaved pieces on screens in the sun, but if the weather was not appropriate she often placed the bark in her warm attic before the weather turned cold.

I was using some of his photos for this article, and in talking with him he told me this story about his Aunt Monica. And I truly thought it grew out of the rocks in the cave. She told me that she had, then I asked her why she hadn't gone the rest of...

She didn't seem to like the idea of being a bride because when I draped the crochet tablecloth over her head and around her body, then crowned her with the wreath of flowers, she took off like a mad dog and raced up the mountainside with that table cloth...

I can hear Aunt Bett now: "He ain't got no sense, reckon he thinks them Laudy, Laudys gonna hep, but they won't hep iffen he don't git up offen his knees an' hep her git that water'." Her cures were laced liberally with a sprinkling of good common sense.Aunt...

I seen him a layin' thar in his own bed, white as a sheet and as near to death as I ever seen. I really didn't recognize the seeds, but I went ahead and planted them in a very large container along with a few other things.

Solitary children create a world of their own. This is what I believed. Even the tiniest living thing has a reason to be. And those very large things that I could not see? Silly Joe Devlin could tie my kitten's tail in a knot, and there was nothing my...

The beans in the pan, still in their pods, were my responsibility. Somewhere during that first hour, a big chunk of salted fat back or perhaps a ham hock, or even a hank of country ham was placed in the simmering beans.

I didn't know what to do about cleavers then, and I really don't know now. They even prescribe a tea made from the entire plant for kidney stones and bladder problems. But as soon as my daylilies appear, I forget my best laid plans of last summer and...