By: Alkelda,
on 3/24/2008
Did you read Adrienne's recent post about the book called The Egg Tree, by Katherine Milhous? If not, here it is. The post spurred me on to make sure that this year we would indeed have our own egg tree for Easter. Here is a photo of me as a little girl standing by the family egg tree: Egg tree 1980 Here is the egg tree now with some of those same eggs from childhood: Egg tree 2008 I
By: Mike,
on 1/13/2008
By: Rebecca,
on 10/31/2007
Andrew Smith, editor of the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, wants to make sure you know what you are getting into this Halloween. In the post below Smith helps us understand the history of the holiday which inspires both cute bunny and naughty nurse costumes.
On the evening of October 31, an estimated 41 million children aged 14 and under, dress in costumes, and go house-to-house yelling, “Trick or treat.” Halloween derived from a Celtic holiday called Samhain, which celebrated the end of summer. Christianity established November 1 as All Saints Day, and its “eve” was celebrated the night. Halloween traditions were brought to American by Irish immigrants in the mid to late nineteenth century. (more…)
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By: Sara Lewis Holmes,
on 8/23/2007
-and you know this-
Have you ever eaten a cob of corn
cold, wrapped up the day before
because you couldn’t bear to throw away
such goodness, even though–and you know this–
corn is never the same
the day after.
You unwrap it anyway,
don’t heat it, don’t salt it, don’t butter it, don’t even
sit before you bite. Not much taste–you knew that–but oh!–
how crisp!–like raw snow–and you remember
your mother, lecturing produce
clerks on why the thinnest ears were the sweetest,
and how she shucked each ear
at the store, just to be
sure, and
rubbing–this was your job–the stubborn silk
from those ears before they were plunged
into boiling water laced
with a tablespoon of sugar and
sticking little wooden skewers
like shark’s teeth into the ends
of the cob, so as not to burn
your fingers and
rolling the corn over a whole
stick of butter, melting
corn tracks into its back–
bad manners–but your mother
allowed it, and
eating the corn in pre-counted rows, or messy
patchwork fashion, or round and round
like a buzz saw, or in races
with your brothers, and
fishing the trash
later for the one lost
skewer and (much later)
growing your own corn in a miniature
matrix of a garden in
and your daughter baptizing
herself in the dirt as you stroked the emerging
tassels of finger-thin cobs and
marveling that night at her breath,
which as she slept, was the exact scent of new
corn, and how you were high on it, inhaling
in the dark, and finally, you remember
that you are eating this
cold ear of corn,
not heated, not buttered, not salted,
but straight, like vodka,
and it feels like a dangerous act
as if it were forbidden–
and you know this–
to eat corn this way. You resist
kissing it before
you begin.
----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)
Your egg tree is lovely! I love that you have that photo from your childhood. So sorry about the broken egg, but it sounds as if you may have made one or two to replace it.
We hang eggs (of the plastic variety) every year from the little Japanese maple in the front yard. Even though I've read Milhous, I never thought we were participating in the Egg Tree tradition somehow. I guess we are, too!
Goodness, you and Lucia look alike!
We had an Easter tree once or twice, but mainly we tried to make our eggs look like they should go into nests... because we always managed to knock down the branch!
I'm commenting again to ask, Isn't that Jenny you're holding in the first picture? I loved Jenny. She had dark hair like I did (do). My (blonde) daughter plays with Jenny now; she loves her just as much.
Anamaria: That is indeed Jenny (renamed Laura)! I was trying to find a Jenny reference online, and haven't yet. Later, I also had Mandy (renamed Mary), and then found a somewhat battered Mandy in a yard-sale-- Mom helped mend her, and she became a "cousin." Somewhere in my father's attic lie all three dollies plus many more. Sigh.
That's lovely that you decorate your Japanese maple.
TadMack: It's uncanny, isn't it? Some of the newborn photos are hard to tell the difference except for the lighting. As far as knocking down the branch, there's a good reason the tree is on the mantlepiece.:) The cats could still in theory get to it, but so far, so good.
You were a darling little girl.
My mom keeps an egg tree. I need to get going on making eggs for ours. The blowing intimidates me.
Suzanne: Thanks! Blowing out eggs is actually quite satisfying as long as you're not in a hurry. Be sure to puncture the yolk with the needle because sloshing the egg around won't break it.
What wonderful pictures.
My MIL makes the most gorgeous hand=painted cascarones in the world.
I had a Mandy doll. I still have Baby Ann.
for some reason, i kept reading the caption of the first photo as "egg tree, 1890" and i couldn't tell if you were kidding or if you were staging an "old fashioned photo" or what. seriously--i think i read it 5 times before i realized that it was my EYES that were wrong. I'd believe you if you told me the photo was from 1890, but I didn't think you (or the doll) were that old!