LL-L "Delectables" 2005.05.02 (03) [E]

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From: Thomas Byro <greenherring at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Delectables" 2005.04.30 (05) [E/LS]

To Jonny & Tom McRae:

Poke is Phytolacca americana.  Virtually all parts of the plant
contain a deadly poison, the exception being the young shoots but one
is cautioned to discard any shoots whose stems contain any sign of
reddening.  The berries are supposed to be edible and in fact look
delicious.  However, the seeds also contain the poison.  In my
opinion, the plant should be left to the Amish, Indians and perhaps
Japanese fugu eaters.

Tom Byro

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From: Arthur Jones <arthurobin2002 at yahoo.com>
Subject: "Delectables" 2005.05.01(07) E/App/G

Hails Dalaulandarjeis!

Heather wrote:
>Mutton suet is what's traditionally used in
plumpudding.

Then, Ron wrote:
>That mutton suet thing was "silly";
further, that your mother had used it in certain
dishes possibly under the influence of eastern
forebears...

My Appalachian (Irish immigrant, a true Fenian
lady)grandmother taught me the song once popular in
West Virginia and Virginia:

"An ye want to git te heaven,
let me tell ye how to do it:
Just grease yore feet in mutton suet.
Slip out of the Devil's hand,
And slide on over to the Promised Land.
Go easy,
Go greasy.

Down in the wildwood, sittin' on a log,
My hand on the trigger, my eye on a hog
   (wild boar).
I pressed that trigger and the gun went zip,
And I grabbed for that hog with all of my grip.
Eatin' hog eyes,
An' I love mountain oysters (pigs' testicles)."

Does this mean that West Virginians were referring
back to an Eastern European origin?

About this time each spring, my grandmother also took
me "a-rampin' with her, i.e., picking wild garlic that
grows in the hills. Pungent, powerful stuff. Takes the
gamey edge off of possum, groundhog or squirrel meat.

Ramps also grow in Brittany, the name for them in
Breizh/Breton being "ramp".

There is a Ramp Festival each spring in the eastern
West Virginia village of Helvetia. Snuggled in the
mountains, Helvetia is --or was originally-- a colony
of Swiss immigrants, most of them from the Berner
Oberland. In 1961, I visited them and recorded many of
their old songs. Some had come to America as late as
1948. Strangely, I and a few others noticed that,
under the influence of American English, the second
sound shift of Alemannic had begun reversing itself
faintly--- giving them voiced final consonents such as
Rad (wheel) with a "d" voiced ending.

I kept up with the colony until I left for Europe in
1963. When I next visited, Helvetia had been
"discovered" by artsy-fartsy makers of crafts and
trinkets out of New York and California, who
commercialized the whole place. The Schwyzertuetsch
disappeared, the Toggenburger goats left, the spirit
evaporated. Unfortunately, this is a typical process.

Like the old song, "I can't help but blame your going
on the coming of the roads."

Thanks for the "Schmalzy" topic! Did we ever decide
which is best: Griebenschmalz, Gaenseschmalz,
Entenschmalz, oder Talg? Oder Cholesterinschmalz?

All het beste,

Arthur

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