Oh my gosh. I got interviewed on Rune Soup. Fan girl moment!

Check it out!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit an old friend of mine, and a great mentor, Jeff Gottlieb. He has been working on his amazing tiny homestead for the past 5 years, and I, being a terrible friend, haven't visited yet. We got to check out all the amazing things he's been working on, nerd out about net making and spoon carving, and oh so many other things. 

Jeff has been an educator for along time. He's an accomplished naturalist, a wigwam builder, a spoon carver, and a historic artifact reproduction extraordinaire. We met through the Earth skills Rendezvous about 7 years ago. Since then, his contagious smile, matter-of-fact teaching style and silly pun-filled sense of humor have made him indispensable. 

Jeff has been working on many things, but his Kudzy Kabin is perhaps his claim to fame. This adorable little house is not make of strawbale, its Kudzu bale. Imagine a home made from a plant so detested and deemed useless, invasive and otherwise hated. He has made the second one known in the US, though let me know if you've made one and I'm not aware. 

Still under construction, but it is so cute! The miraculous thing is, some of this clay was made with elephant dung. Can you spot the elephant head on the right side wall? 

Here, take a closer look. You can see the lovely red, Carolina clay and tulip poplar bark siding about the soon to be door. 

The inside is even sweeter. 

He told me about the stained glass window he and his mother made and we laughed about the problems of carving spoons inside. We are both guilty of making wood chips where ever we go. 

His lovely greenhouse he shares with a neighbor. 

Comfrey and day lillies. 

Wild food grows everywhere.

He has the sweetest mini-orchard full of plums, cherries, asian pears and much more. 

Tool Envy is a thing. And I have it.

Making dogbane cordage for net making. Jeff has woven huge dogbane nets as replicas for museums. Making replicas of historical, and pre-historical in some cases, objects is a source of fun and livelihood for him. I also teach net making now and I learned 7 years ago how to make cordage from Jeff. The passing and dissemination of these skills among and beyond our community is part of the reason I love it so much. 

The dogbane plant was a major source of fiber for First Nations people in our bioregion. It is my favorite of the fiber plants here in Appalachia. Notice all the little fibers waiting to be stripped out. 

Knapped blue glass arrow heads.

This association of the Linden with love and romance goes back farther than the Middle Ages to the Greeks. One could even say the Doctrine of Signatures destined this tree to be aligned with matters of the heart by bearing heart-shaped leaves.  It may have been one of the factors rendering it sacred to Venus. In Greek mythology Homer, Horace, Virgil, and Pliny all mention the Linden tree in their works. In Ovid’s telling of the old story of Baucis and Philemon, she was changed into a linden and he into an oak when the time came for them both to die. This association of the feminine with Linden and Masculine with Oak can be seen in other cultures as well, such as in Lithuania.

In the Slavic world, they believed the souls of women moved into linden and fir, and women’s graves were marked by a linden cross. In the Slavic Orthodox Christian church, limewood was the preferred wood for panel icon painting. Its wood was chosen for its ability to be sanded very smooth and for its resistance to warping once seasoned. In Poland, many villages have a naming practices influenced by or derived from "Święta Lipka", which literally means "Holy Lime". It is also the root for the name of the German city of Leipzig, taken from the Sorbian name lipsk.  The southern Slovenian village of "Lipica" means "little Lime tree" and has given its name to the Lipizzan horse breed, which if you've never seen are beautiful white beasts.
​
In Baltic mythology, there is an important goddess of Fate called Laima. The Linden is her sacred tree. She even dwells in a Linden in the form of a cuckoo. For this reason Lithuanian women prayed and gave sacrifices under Lindens asking for luck and fertility. It is said they treated these trees with respect and talked with them as if they were fellow humans.

In Biblical record, Mary Magdalene’s penance from Christ was that she “should have no other food and sleep on no other bed save one made of it’s leaves” ...“For Magdalene had loved much, and therefore her penance was by means of that which is a symbol of love”. It is no small wonder that this folk magical belief became entwined with a biblical story. But that is a thought for a longer article.

Medicinally, in Old Europe the tea made from the blossoms was used for headaches. In France “tilleul” (Linden Tea) was used often as a sedative drink. Taking a hot bath in the flowers was a remedy for insomnia and nervous irritability, which if you have ever smelled their sweet scent, sounds quite lovely. A distilled water of linden was also used for epileptics and even sitting beneath the tree was seen as helpful for the condition. Its flowers have also been known to make an excellent, clear honey.

The Basswood’s uses don’t stop there. It are also edible. The leaves make a lovely salad green when fresh in spring, as well as the new shoots and buds. The cambium is also edible, though this will will the tree if you endeavour to take a bite. Interestingly enough, the Ojibwa were the only tribe known historically to eat parts of the Basswood. Others very well may have,  but there is sadly no record of it. Us modern folks with proclivities to forage may actually eat more of the tree than the people of the First Nations did. However, the tree was a major source of fiber for certain tribes among the First Nations and that’s where the common name, Basswood, comes from as I mentioned above.

“Bass” is a corruption of “bast” which is a type of fiber. Green Deane tell us,

“The Indians soaked the bark for two to four weeks to loosen long fibers. They used the fibers for many of their needs: Bags, baskets, belts, fishnets, house mats, snowshoe netting, ropes, sewing thread and even suturing wounds. It was used where a lot of fiber strength was not needed. The Ojibwa ate the young buds raw or cooked as greens and they used the sweet sap, boiling it down to a syrup.”

Basswood is a remarkable tree with much more lore and useful applications, but we'll stop here. What have you done with Basswood or Linden?

​

*Snap shots of my fall so far...Wild violets, golden rod, rose hips, autumn olive, angelica, chestnuts, acorns*
...there is abundance everywhere... 

Spicebush, Lindera benzoin, the namesake of this business and blog, is clearly one of my favorite shrubby friends. Right now, if you live here in WNC, you'll notice the brilliant red berries dotting the female Spicebush shrubs you encounter. People ask me what to do with the berries frequently, and I wanted to quickly share a few ideas with you. But first from Monticello:

"American Indians made a tea from the bark of Lindera benzoin or spicebush as a “blood purifier” and for sweating, colds, rheumatism and anemia. Settlers used a twig tea to treat colds, fevers, worms, gas and colic and bark tea to expel worms, for typhoid fevers and a diaphoretic for other fevers. Stem bark extract strongly inhibits the growth of Candida albicans, a yeast organism normally found in the mouth, vagina and anus but which can grow out of control with a change in environment. The berries were used by the American Indians to make a tea for coughs, cramps, delayed menses, croup and measles and by the settlers to prevent gas and flatulence and colic. Fruit oil was applied to treat chronic rheumatism, bruises, muscles and joints. Leaves contain a small amount of camphor and can be used as an insect repellent. (Foster and Duke, p. 283)."

"Lindera benzoin was not mentioned the first edition of the United States Dispensatory (1833), an early official compilation of plant drugs and their preparations. The fact that it was omitted indicates that Indian applications were slow to catch on among European settlers who evidently preferred to use the hard honeycomb-like berries as an allspice substitute rather than as medicinal remedy. Spicebush was only briefly mentioned in the Dispensatory’s 2nd edition. (Lloyd and Lloyd)."

Spicebush Tea: Keepin' it Simple

Simply boil water, and pour over twigs and leaves of fresh or dried spicebush. The berries can be used as well, yet because of their oil content they go rancid if stored at room temperature. Store them in the freezer or fridge and use as needed. 

Feverbush Honey
 
​Spicebush is a diaphoretic, meaning it promotes sweating and is useful for colds, flus and of course fevers. It was a popular remedy for fever among Native folks and european settlers alike. One of it's folk names is "feverbush". 

Take well dried berries (never use wet material in honey infusions, it can spoil and promote mold). Gently warm honey, not to boiling, in a double boiler and add 1/4 c. berries to 1 quart of honey. Allow to warm and infuse on the stove top, occasionally stirring for 15-20 minutes. Pout into a clean jar and lid, allow to sit one week, occasionally stirring with  a clean spoon in the jar. Strain out the berries after one week, and store honey out of direct sunlight in a cool, dry place. Use 2 tablespoons of this honey in combination with other herbs for cold and flu like Bee Balm, Boneset, Mints, etc.

Other Awesome Recipes from Around the Blogosphere:

Spicebush Acorn Jelly

Spicebush Ice Cream with Sour Cream
​
​Mugwort Spicebush Stout Recipe

Making Spicebush Flavored Milk or Cream for Custards and Desserts

Black Locust trees have had practical significance since before the arrival of Europeans on our continent. It is believed that First Nations people moved this useful tree from the mountains to the coastal plains for its excellence as bow wood. The wood's rot resistance also made is indispensable to build the first buildings of James Town during the height of colonization. The flavonoids in it's heartwood make it able to resist rot for up to 100 years! It is still used to line the colonial beds in the gardens at Williamsburg. So loved was this tree it was exported to Europe where its beautiful, sweet smelling flowers made it a favorite ornamental and even lent its flowers for use in perfumery.

Some say the Black Locust even helped America to win the War of 1812, for our boats used locust nails, rather than the oak nails of the English. This caused the English ships to fall apart more easily as they sustained cannon fire, while the American ships held fast. It remains to be seen how true this is rather than a fancy of historical folklore, but never the less, it is a testament to the tree's intense strength. 

Because of its rot resistance and density, it was used to build support beams in houses, handrails, fences, tool handles, ships and watercraft, excellent firewood, and any wooden structure exposed to the elements.  

The wood is not the only useful part of this beautiful tree. The flowers are edible and taste like fresh sweet peas. In Japan they are battered and fried, while in Romania, a fragrant, delicate jam is made from the blossoms. You can also brew with them and use them in meads and wines. Here's a great wine recipe from Southern Forager. I eat them fresh in salads every year.

 What can I make with it?

Practical: 

Flowers: Eat them! Brew with them! Wear them in perfume!

Wood: Handles for tools, excellent bows, mallets, hammers, and pegs for timber frames. It also makes lovely combs.

Magical:

Thorns can be used for piercing in spell work (do not pierce yourself! It can get easily infected!!), wands for similar uses to Blackthorn. Ritual combs and hair pieces, durable stangs.

​

Hickory wood is our next magical tree we will look at. I've talked about Hickory before, two years ago: ​Hickory Dickory. I mostly focused on the edibility and a little of the lore, so check it out for more information about eating hickory nuts, making nut milk and making the bark syrup, yum! I want to focus now on this dense, hard wood and it's many uses.

Hickory wood is hard. But it is not only hard, it combines attributes of strength, toughness, hardness and stiffness. These properties make it useful in unique ways because no other wood possessed these characteristics like Hickory does. 

Hickory, or Carya glabra,  has 12 native varieties in North America. It is common, but not very abundant species of hickory in the oak-hickory forest association in the Eastern U.S. and Canada. The earliest record of human interaction of Carya species comes from archeological excavations from the Early Archaic (8900-8700 yr BP) at Modoc Rock Shelter, Illinois. Humans been hanging out with hickory for a long time.

There are many  records of First Nation's usage of Carya species made by the first European explorers. Strachey (1612) reported a Native American myth of the afterlife which involved hickory. It said that hominy corn and "pokahichary" (hickory nut milk) was served by a diety to spirits traveling after death to the rising sun. It is important especially in that our word "hickory" is derived from the word "pokahichary" of their language. 

The use of hickory nut oil is mentioned by Bossu (1771, p. 348), who also observed that the Indians cooked pancakes in nut oil (p. 230). William Bartram (1792) reported "ancient cultivated fields" of hickory west of Augusta, Georgia:

"Though these are natives of the forest, yet they thrive better, and are more fruitful, in cultivated plantations, and the fruit is in great estimation with the present generation of Indians, particularly juglans exaltata, commonly called shell barked hiccory. The Creeks store up the last in their towns. I have seen above an hundred bushels of these nuts belonging to one family. They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid; this they call by a name which signifies hiccory milk; it is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially homony and corn cakes" (p. 38).(1)

It is used for tool handles, bows, wheel spokes,carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, golf club shafts (sometimes still called hickory stick), the bottom of skis, walking sticks and for punishing switches. Paddles are also often made from hickory. It is dense and has some give. This property of hickory wood has left a trace in some Native American languages: in Ojibwe, hickory is called "mitigwaabaak", a compound of mitigwaab "bow" and the final -aakw "hardwood tree". 

Baseball bats were once also made of hickory, but today, as we read about in Part I,  they are more commonly made of ash. Yet hickory is replacing ash as the wood  for Scottish shinty sticks ( camans). Hickory was even extensively used for the construction of early airplanes!

Hickory is not just known for it's usefulness in object making, but also as a fuel source. It is an excellent firewood, because of its high energy content. Hickory wood is also a used type for smoking cured meats. In the Southern United States, hickory is popular for cooking barbecue, as hickory grows abundantly in our region, and adds a distinctive flavor to the meat. Hickory is also sometimes used for wood flooring due to its durability in resisting wear and character. Hickory wood is, however, not noted for rot resistance, so care must be taken if using it on outdoor building projects by having good over hangs or finishing the wood well.

Because of this propensity to decay when exposed to sun and water, it was never used in ship building, but, because of its dense nature, it was employed in cask building as hoops. It was also used to make fishing rods, furniture, musket stocks and rake teeth. The Cherokee used it to make many things, from finishing baskets to corn beaters, blowgun darts, and arrow shafts. The wood ashes of hickory were used as to skin corn and make hominy. The ashes combined with  salt and black pepper were also used to cure pork. 

I use hickory bark bast for stitching up tulip poplar bark baskets. It makes a fine cordage and stitching materials, as well as a thin strip of wood to go around the tops of the basket. The bark also makes a fine yellow dye when fixed with alum, while the twigs and leaves give a browner shade. 

As I mentioned in my previous post about Hickory, much of the lore surrounding Hickory trees relates to their uses in weather prediction. Examine your Hickory nut shells; the thicker the shell, the harder the winter to come. It is said here in North Carolina that if the leaves of a hickory are a pretty yellow in autumn, the next harvest will be a rich, golden one. In Missouri, to find out if your love has been true, burn a hickory fire. If it burns clear and steady, they have been true. If not, well, what you do is up to you.

Some use the hickory buds to alert them as when the last of the spring frosts have past. Because hickory is slow to bud, they generally appear after the danger of frost in spring. They said in Ohio, "plant your corn when the hickory buds are as big as a crow's beak". They would wait until the buds were about an inch long and then plant their corn to ensure the earliest, yet most reliable corn harvest. 

Carolina wives were said to prevent their husbands from straying by driving a hickory stub into their doorposts: so long as the slow rotting hickory peg is whole, their husbands shall be true. In Alabama, cleaning your teeth with a hickory twig was supposed to keep your teeth from falling out. They also prescribed the ashes of the wood mixed in water for a fever. 

What can I make with it?

Practical:
​
Bark: Lashing for baskets, weaving material for chair seats, cordage, fiber.

Wood: Tool handles, bows, arrows, mauls, mallets, bats, walking sticks, hockey or lacrosse sticks and furniture. I've carved fine spoons from the green wood and they turned out lovely, so any small utensil would be suitable. The wood chips make a preserving smoke and add a pleasant flavor to meats. 

​Magical: This wood is slow to grow, signifying an alignment with the virtues of patience and perseverance. It also produces a pleasant smoke and can be used as an incense in rites of steadfastness, perseverance and staying the course as well as to increase courage and improve resolve. Wands of this wood would be suitable for all purposes of strong will and sand to a fine shine and toughness, as well as spoons destined for these magical uses. 

Sources:

(1)http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/carya/species/histsp.htm
​
Animal and Plant Lore. Fanny D. Bergen. 1899.

Heath, Francis George. Tree Lore. London: C.H. Kelly, 1912. Print.

Johnson, Jerry Mack. Old-time Country Wisdom & Lore: 1000s of Traditional Skills for Simple Living. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur, 2011. Print.
​
Valentine, Rudolph 2001. Nishnaabemwin Grammar, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p.485).

Watts, Donald. Dictionary Of Plant Lore. Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2007. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). 

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay in the Folkloric Wood Series, but lots of classes being taught and projects underway. We'll continue with our regular program as soon as possible.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by none of then New World Witchery's Cory Hutcheson. What a sweet, kind person. I really had fun talking with him. So if you're curious to learn more about your wacky author, check it out. Or if you want to hear a bit more about the plant lore, rewilding and earth skills scene in Appalachia... Click the link below to hear the episode and check out the rest of their amazing site. Thanks New World Witchery!

​The Espisode.

​