Life, Interrupted

I remember both cutting down trees and buying pre-cut trees. But we bought from local businesses who offered trees as part of their seasonal service. It was nothing like the industry of today. Huge swathes of Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, and smaller competitors are out there investing in the boom or bust business of tree farms. I remember seeing more than one dead tree farm, especially in Texas. You have to keep watering those baby trees, or they can burn slightly, ruining the tree. You have to harvest them carefully, wrap them so you can get them to their destination intact--and you need to keep the mountain in one piece as you do it. It takes about eight years to grow a Christmas tree.

Trees are now harvested with helicopters and it's a fast, risky business. A tree farm has 35 days, period, to make all the income for their year. Everything else is expense.

Read on and see how the business works.

Although the earliest presidents did declare days of Thanksgiving and gratitude, Thanksgiving as we now it is more recent. At the urging of Sarah Josepha Hale, Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving halfway through the Civil War, and it has reoccurred as a theme ever since, finally being named into law (first the fourth Thursday, then the last Thursday). But what did they eat at those early Thanksgivings?

Some things on the menu don't even exist anymore, like Passenger Pigeon. Venison would have been there, and corn--real corn, not "corn" in the European sense covering all commonly used grains. (Though we probably would not recognize the varies of corn present. They would have been flint corn, multicolored and tasting quite different.) Wildfowl, too. Stuffing was probably diced onions, herbs, and shelled chestnuts. Being close to the shores, the first European settlers undoubtedly ate shellfish.

Beans, squashes, root veggies--the Wampanoag ate well, and taught the colonists a lot. I'm guessing that Allie would have had a mixture of old and new on her family's table, the remnants of those great early foods as well as the precious addition of wheat, sugar, dried berries, and so on. No shellfish in her part of the country, though. Too much travel time even from Lake Michigan, and at the time of Kindred Rites, she didn't know about the advantage practitioners had in this regard.

But the foods we often think of as staples at Thanksgiving are mostly from the mid-nineteenth century. Read on.

I wish you good nights with dear friends, warm food well-prepared, family close at hand.

A few surprises, a few traditions, and more than a few delights.

I hope this Season was memorable for all the right reasons, and that it is but a shadow of holidays to come.

Thank you for reading, and buying, and encouraging. I hope to reward your patience soon!

I don't know if I'll have time to stop in again before the weekend, so just wanted to say Happy Holidays! All of them! May you spend them with people you love who love you. I'll be with family for Christmas, and I hope with friends for New Years'. Be well and stay warm, everyone!

Toy, curiosity, food? Big Cat Rescue offers pumpkin attacks with big cats!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/10/27/funny-pictures-big-cats-pumpkins-part-2/

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just finished assembling the cake rounds covered with parchment paper as I prepare for the de-panning of the pumpkin spice cheesecake. (Clearly de-panning is not a word -- or a common one.) Book View Cafe's blog has my first post on my until now silent journey of macrobiotics. Also, part two from "Feather of the Phoenix" is up on Book View Cafe. This last is not a permanent link, so stop by today, or you'll need to look under Kimbriel for it!

Remember -- our goal is to have new material every day. Enjoy!

And liquid meds sipped (next macro post!) to the de-panning and the bird I hope they're cutting at Oliana0's house.

The Equinox passes by, as well as the other special days of spring. I won't try any languages I don't know -- Babelfish has some curious blind spots, as in, masculine pronouns, among other things. Also -- the direct translation of the word I used last year for "risen" actually reverts as "increased". Which is great for bread dough, but not for resurrection.

Wishing you a lighter heart this year, and an upward path that challenges but does not exhaust.

Αυξημένος πράγματϊ

Whether you are celebrating the Risen Son of the Hebrew God, the return of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre/Eastre, the Vernal Equinox, the arrival of Spring and rebirth in general, or just want to increase the fertility of your garden, this day is for you.

Wishing everyone health, wealth and happiness in the year to come.

Hope your weather is good enough for a walk in the April morning -- go soak up some sun!

Google has done its usual fun thing with their logo, take a look!

And...this snip from AP is my idea of continuing credit hours:

"APPELSCHA, Netherlands (AP)
Dutch witches are getting a tax break. A court has ruled that the cost of witchcraft lessons can be taken as a tax deduction. Learning to cast spells and brew potions doesn't come cheap. Margarita Rongen runs the "Witches Homestead" in a northern province. Her witchcraft workshops cost more than $200 a weekend or more than $2,600 for a full course."