China Bayles' Book of Days Read online

  Read more about home-crafted cosmetics:

  Jeanne Rose’s Kitchen Cosmetics: Using Herbs, Fruit, & Flowers for Natural Bodycare, by Jeanne Rose

  Every gardener knows under the cloak of winter lies a miracle—a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream.

  —BARBARA WINKLER

  JANUARY 11

  “What’s going on these days?” Amy’s sharp-featured face was pale and set. “Well, for starters, I’m pregnant.”

  I said the only thing I could think of. “Let’s have a cup of tea.”

  —A DILLY OF A DEATH: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

  Create an Herbal Tea Pantry

  China often says that there’s no puzzle that can’t be solved over a cup of tea, and she may just be right! Throughout recorded history, herbs have been used to brew beverages that clear our minds, lift our spirits, and heal our bodies. With very little expenditure, you can create your own original blends and stock your herbal tea pantry with your personal favorites.

  GETTING STARTED

  Set aside a cool, dark pantry or cupboard shelf, where you can keep your stash of teas and herbs. When you’ve created a favorite blend, put it into a lidded jar for storage. Keep notes on the blends you create, specifying the amount of herbs you use. Name your creations. (Chamomile Comfort? Lemony Luscious?) Nearby, cache your favorite teapot—or teapots, if you’re a collector! You’ll also want to have a tea ball (sometimes called an infuser) or tea strainer. For brewing tea from seeds, barks, or roots, a mortar and pestle are handy. And be sure to include a selection of pretty cups or mugs, so you can share your favorite teas with friends who drop in for a chat.

  When it comes to brewing herbal tea, there are few rules. You’ll have to decide how much to use and how long to let it steep. To intensify the flavor, use more herbs, rather than increase the steeping time. To sweeten or not to sweeten? That’s another individual decision. In China’s opinion, honey is always nice.

  Three of China’s favorite herb combinations:

  • Rosemary Renewal Blend: 2 parts dried rosemary leaves, 1 part dried juniper berries, crushed, 1 part dried mint, 1 part dried lemongrass

  • Lavender Luscious Blend: 2 parts dried lavender buds, 2 parts dried chamomile flowers, 1 part dried elder flowers, teaspoon powdered cloves

  • Mint Magic Blend: 2 parts dried peppermint, 1 part China tea, 1 part lemongrass

  Read more about herbal tea-making:

  A Cozy Book of Herbal Teas: Recipes, Remedies, and Folk Wisdom, by Mindy Toomay

  The path of the herbalist is to open ourselves to nature in an innocent and pure way. She in turn will open her bounty and reward us with her many valuable secrets.

  —MICHAEL TIERRA

  JANUARY 12

  Good bread never loafs around.

  Good bread never loafs around.—CHINA BAYLES

  Quick and Easy Herb Breads

  A loaf of hot bread is a welcome addition to the evening meal, especially in the winter. When you’re tired from a day’s work and in a hurry to get dinner on the table, preprepared products can make the task easier—and herbs make the bread special. Fannie Couch, the seventy-plus talk-show radio host at Station KPST-FM in Pecan Springs, has been collecting recipes from her Pecan Springs friends and listeners for years. Here are two of Fannie’s fast, no-fuss favorites.

  BETSY BLUMEFIELD’S BEST HERB BISCUITS

  2 cups baking mix

  1 teaspoon dried parsley

  ½ teaspoon dried thyme

  ½ teaspoon dried basil

  1 cup sour cream (low fat is fine)

  ½ cup melted butter or margarine

  ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese mixed with ¼ cup flour

  Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly spray a mini-muffin pan. Mix baking mix, herbs, sour cream, and butter. Dough will be sticky. Scoop into 24 balls and roll in cheese/flour mixture. Place in mini-muffin pan and bake for 15-18 minutes, until brown.

  LILLIAN LIPPENCOTT’S SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL HERB BREAD

  Lillian works at the dry cleaners in Pecan Springs and doesn’t get home until four on Saturdays. She says that if she puts out frozen dough to thaw in the morning, and gets started on it when she gets home, she has hot bread on the table by 6.

  1 1-pound loaf frozen white bread dough (follow package

  directions for thawing)

  2 teaspoons dried basil, or 4 teaspoons fresh, minced

  2 teaspoons minced dried rosemary leaves, or

  3 teaspoons fresh

  1 tablespoon minced chives

  flour for dusting

  Briefly knead thawed dough on lightly floured board. Knead in minced herbs until evenly mixed. Add flour as needed to prevent sticking. Shape into a smooth ball and place in a loaf pan. Cover, let rise until doubled in size, about 40 minutes. Bake in 375° oven until golden, about 35-40 minutes.

  Learn how Fannie Couch catches a crook—on the radio:

  “Fannie’s Back Fence Caper,” by Susan and Bill Albert, in Malice Domestic 3: An Anthology of Original Traditional Mystery Stories, edited by Nancy Pickard

  JANUARY 13

  In pre-Christian Ireland, the Celts celebrated this day as the Feast of Brewing.

  A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.

  —CZECH PROVERB

  Beer: A Magical, Mysterious Brew

  Brewing has been part of human history for more than six thousand years. It is thought that the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by chance, perhaps when bread became wet. The earliest account of brewing pictures wheat or barley bread baked, crumbled into liquid, and fermented—a process involving natural yeasts—into a drink that is said to have made people feel exhilarated.

  Beer (sometimes thought of as “liquid bread”) has been an important foodstuff in many cultures, especially in places where the water was impure. People of all ages drank it throughout the day, and workers were often paid with jugs of beer. Some beers played an important part in worship, where they were considered to be the source of inspiration from the gods, and were ceremonially prepared and ritually drunk by priests, such as the Druids who celebrated the Celtic Feast of Brewing. Laws were frequently made to regulate the consumption of beer. For example, the Puritans were allowed to drink only two quarts of beer for breakfast.

  Hops (which add bitterness and aroma) were not added to beer until the seventeenth century. Instead, other herbs provided a more subtle, complex flavor: bog myrtle, yarrow, rosemary, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, anise seed, nutmeg, cinnamon, wormwood, sage, broom. And rather than barley or malt, some herbs—such as ginger, nettles, Saint-John’s-wort, and dandelions—were the primary ingredient of some delicious beers. Ginger beer was a much-loved nineteenth-century drink, in both England and America.

  MISS BEECHER’S FAMOUS GINGER BEER (1857)

  3 pints yeast

  ½ pound honey

  1 egg white

  ½ ounce lemon essence (lemon zest)

  10 pounds sugar

  9 gallons water

  9 ounces lemon juice

  11 ounces gingerroot

  Boil the ginger half an hour in a gallon of water, then add the rest of the water and the other ingredients, and strain it when cold, add the white of one egg beaten, and half an ounce essence of lemon. Let it stand four days then bottle it, and it will keep good many months—Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book

  Read more about herbal beers:

  Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation, by Stephen Harrod Buhner

  JANUARY 14

  When I was young, I said to God, “God, tell me the mystery of the universe.” But God answered, “That knowledge is for me alone.” So I said,

  “God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.” Then God said, “Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.”

  —GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

  Herbs, Gardens, and Mysteries
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  If it’s cold, gray, and dreary out-of-doors, it’s a perfect day to settle down with a wooly afghan, a cup of hot herbal tea, a plate of cookies, and something interesting to read. Of course, China’s herbal mysteries will be at the top of your reading list—right? But there are other herb and gardening mysteries you’re sure to find delightfully deadly and chock-full of garden lore. China joins me in recommending these favorites:

  THE BROTHER CADFAEL MYSTERIES, BY ELLIS PETERS

  Brother Cadfael is a fictional twelfth-century Welsh monk and herbalist, a brother in the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul, in Shrewsbury, England. Cadfael’s adventures are centered on life in the monastery, where he grows herbs and prepares them for their medicinal and culinary uses—as well as using his skills, knowledge, and sleuthing talents to solve murder mysteries. You might also be interested in Brother Cadfael’s Herb Garden: An Illustrated Companion to Medieval Plants and Their Uses, compiled by Rob Talbot and Robin Whiteman.

  THE LOUISE ELDRIDGE GARDEN MYSTERIES, BY ANN RIPLEY

  Louise Eldridge is an amateur gardener, garden writer, and garden-show host with a penchant for digging up dead bodies. Ripley’s fictions are filled with sophisticated, reliable gardening advice, arranged in separate essays throughout the novels. A few titles: Death of a Garden Pest, The Perennial Killer, Death of a Political Plant.

  THE CLAIRE SHARPLES BOTANICAL MYSTERIES, BY REBECCA ROTHENBERG

  Before her death in 1998, Rebecca Rothenberg wrote three mysteries featuring fictional microbiologist and plant pathologist Claire Sharples: The Dandelion Murders, The Shy Tulip Murders, and The Bulrush Murders. Lots of interesting botanical details are woven into the plots.

  THE CELIA GRANT MYSTERIES, BY JOHN SHERWOOD

  This ten-book series (which ended in the mid-1990s) featured fiftysomething British widow and horticulturist Celia Grant. A few titles: Menacing Groves, Bouquet of Thorns, Sunflower Plot, Hanging Garden, Creeping Jenny, Bones Gather No Moss.

  JANUARY 15

  Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.

  —MARSHA NORMAN

  The Magical New Moon of January

  January’s new moon—the first new moon of the first month of the new year—was thought to be full of magical powers. If you had lived in 1695, when people believed in such things, you might have followed these instructions:

  At the first appearance of the New Moon after New Year’s Day, go out in the Evening and stand astride the Bars of a Gate, or Stile (in Yorkshire they kneel on a ground-fast Stone), looking at the Moon, and say:

  All Hail to the Moon, all Hail to thee

  I prithee good Moon reveal to me

  This Night who my Husband (or Wife) must be.

  You must presently after go to Bed. I knew two Gentlewomen that did thus when they were young Maids, and they had Dreams of those that afterwards Married them.

  —JOHN AUBREY, MISCELLANIES, 1695

  ENHANCE YOUR MAGICAL MOON DREAMS

  Ruby Wilcox (who has cast a magical spell or two in her lifetime) suggests that you enhance your New Moon dreams with a romantic herb mixture. This ancient practice is a form of aromatherapy.

  RUBY’S MAGICAL NEW MOON DREAM PILLOW BLEND

  ½ cup dried rosemary

  ½ cup dried rose petals

  ¼ cup dried lavender flowers

  ½ cup dried lemon verbena

  ½ cup dried mint

  4-5 whole cloves

  1 cinnamon stick, broken

  Mix all ingredients. Tuck into a muslin bag and place inside your pillowcase or under your pillow. If you want a stronger, dreamier scent, add a few drops of essential oil (rose, lavender, or verbena) to the mix.

  Learn about dreaming and dream pillows:

  Making Herbal Dream Pillows—Secret Blends for Pleasant Dreams, by Jim Long

  In winter, when the moon’s horns are sharply defined, expect frost.

  —TRADITIONAL WEATHER LORE

  JANUARY 16

  Pleasure for one hour, a bottle of wine. Pleasure for one year, a marriage; but pleasure for a lifetime, a garden.

  —CHINESE PROVERB

  Fruit, Herb, and Spice Liqueurs

  These wonderful drinks had their beginnings in medieval monastic gardens and stillrooms. Many are easy to make, but they do take time to age. If you start now, you’ll be offering your liqueur to guests at your summer outdoor dinner parties, spooning it onto ice cream for a delightful hot-weather dessert, or adding it to the marinade for your holiday duck.

  ROSE GERANIUM BERRY LIQUEUR

  2 pints blackberries or raspberries

  1 cup fresh rose geranium leaves

  4 cups vodka

  ½ cup white wine

  Syrup:

  1 cup sugar

  ½ cup water

  Combine the berries, geranium leaves, vodka, and wine in a wide-mouth jar with a tight-fitting lid. Steep for one month in a cool, dark place. Open and crush the berries slightly with a potato masher and steep for another 4-5 days. Strain, pressing the juice from the berries, then filter through a coffee filter or double layer of cheesecloth. To make the syrup, bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Cool. Add half the syrup to the liqueur; taste, then continue to add and taste until it is as sweet as you like. Pour into a bottle, cap it, and age for three weeks in a cool, dark place. Makes about 1 ½ quarts.

  SPICED PEAR LIQUEUR

  8 ripe pears, juiced (about 4 cups juice)

  2-inch piece gingerroot, peeled, sliced

  1 whole nutmeg

  1 cinnamon stick

  4 cups vodka

  ½ cup white wine

  Syrup:

  2 cups sugar

  1 cup water

  Combine the pears, gingerroot, spices, vodka, and wine and proceed as above, steeping for 5 weeks. Strain, filter. Make the syrup and add as above. Bottle and age for about 4 weeks.

  Read more about making liqueurs:

  Cordials from Your Kitchen: Easy, Elegant Liqueurs You Can Make & Give, by Patti Vargas

  JANUARY 17

  Today is Blessing of the Animals at the Cathedral Day.

  I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

  —JOSEPH ADDISON, 1672-1719

  Just for the Birds: From Susan’s Journal

  One of my great delights in the winter is to watch the flocks that gather around the bird feeders that my husband, Bill, has built at Meadow Knoll, our 31-acre corner of the Texas Hill Country. Most days, I can look out my kitchen window and see a dozen different kinds of birds, all feasting together in harmony. (Well, relative harmony, that is, until one of the bird bullies—a jay, or a red-wing blackbird, or a big white-wing dove—shows up.) The bird seed is their staple diet, of course, but I always put out generous servings of my homemade bird pudding.

  JUST-FOR-BIRDS PUDDING

  ½ pound lard

  1 cup crunchy peanut butter

  ½ cup raisins

  ½ cup sunflower seeds

  ½ cup mixed bird seeds

  ¼ cup honey or molasses

  about 3-4 cups cornmeal

  Soften the lard and peanut butter brieflyin the microwave to make it easier to mix. Add raisins, seeds, honey or molasses, and as much cornmeal as the mixture will absorb. I keep this in the refrigerator and soften it in the microwave when I’m ready to put it out. I “butter” it directly onto tree branches and place big dollops of it on the tops of bird feeders; it will, however, stain tree bark. You can also freeze it, cut it into square blocks, and insert the blocks into suet feeders.

  OTHER WINTERTIME TREATS FOR BIRDS

  • Hang strings of popcorn from tree branches, or scatter popped corn with the other seeds in the feeder.

  • Many of summer’s flowers will provide dried seeds for tasty winter treats for birds: sunflowers and coneflowers, especially. Store them in mouse-proof tins or in the freezer.


  • Punch holes in a mostly-empty orange or grapefruit half (leave some for the birds!) and hang from a tree branch.

  • Be sure your birds have plenty of fresh water—and keep the ice clear so they can get to it.

  Read more about being a bird’s best friend:

  The Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible: The A-to-Z Guide to Feeders, Seed Mixes, Projects and Treats, by Sally Roth