Kildonan Times issue 11 February 2001

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SOME MORE NEW FEATURES ON CLOVENSTONE'S WEBSITE

There are two new opportunities on the Guest Services Page on the www.clovenstone.com website. One is the Hunger Site. One click from the Guest Services Page will take you to a website that donates food to the hungry of the world. One click on their page from you, and 8 cups of food are donated, paid for by the site's sponsors, to the starving people.

The other similar opportunity is the Ecology Fund site. A click from you on this website's page will save a bit of wilderness or rainforest land. Again, this is free to you and the payment for the land is made by the website's sponsors.

Here's your chance to better the world. You can click on each of these sites once a day, no more, to make a contribution. It's a good daily habit to have.

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Medieval foods:

CRUSTADE OF CHICKEN AND PIGEON
Serves 6

225-350g (8-12oz) wholemeal or wholewheat pastry (depending on whether you want a top crust on your crustade)
1 pigeon
2 chicken joints (2 breasts or 2 whole legs)
150mL (2/3 cup) dry white wine
several grinds of black pepper
4 cloves
15 g (1/2 oz) butter
50g (2oz) mushrooms, roughly chopped
25g (1oz) raisins
3 large eggs
salt, pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Put the pigeon in a pot with the stock, wine, pepper and cloves and cook very slowly for an hour. Add the chicken and continue to cook for a further 45 minutes or till the meat of both birds is really tender.
Meanwhile cook the mushrooms lightly in the butter. Remove the birds from the stock and bone them. Cut the flesh into quite small pieces, mix it with the mushrooms and the raisins.

Roll out 225g (8 oz) of the pastry and line a 20cm (8 inch) pie plate. Spread the bird, mushroom and raisin mix over the pie crust. Beat the eggs with a fork and season with the salt, pepper, and ginger. Mix in 240mL (8 floz, 1 cup) of the cooking juices, and pour over the meat in the pie crust. If you want to have a lid, roll out the rest of the pastry and cover the pie.

Bake it in moderate oven(180C, 350F, Gas Mark4) for 25 minutes if uncovered, 35 minutes if covered.

Serve forth! warm with a good green salad.

For a more 20th century flavor-- double the chicken, leave out the pigeon, and substitute 25g (1 oz) chopped fried bacon for the raisins.

Note from Ruth: Pigeons being hard to come by, I guess you'd have to use all chicken. I personally, would leave in the raisins and maybe add the bacon, too.

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GLOSSARY

I have had requests for definitions of some of the words I use in the text. The identification behind each word in parentheses indicates either the word is derived from a similar word in an older language, or that the word is used today in that language. Also, there are some words in the book that I just plain made up out of my head- (identified as "mine.") If you want to know about a certain word, please email me at clovenstone@aol.com, or look it up in your dictionary.

haugh: (Scottish) piece of low flat ground beside a river

haver: (Scottish) 1. the oat, oats 2. to talk foolishly

havermeal: (Scottish) oatmeal

haversack: (German) a sack or case to carry supplies/provisions in.

hayward: in charge of hedges and fences at a manor

heath: like moor, with low, scrubby plants

hedgerow: a row of shrubs or trees put in to enclose or separate fields

henge: circle of stones

hind: (Anglo-Saxon) peasant, low class

hind: female red deer

hlystaner: a listener, a telepath (my coined) from Anglo-Saxon hlystan: to listen, to hearken

hoarfrost: hoar is Anglo-Saxon for gray or white (+ frost)

imprecation: (Latin) calling down curses upon, to invoke evil

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Literary Notes:

WHAT''S IN A NAME?

I have written, in another literary notes article, the names of the monthes and festivals in Kildonan. I didn't, however, explain where I got the names. So, that is the topic of this literary discussion. Remember that there are nine monthes in the Kildonan yeare, following Celtic tradition, and that the yeare begins with the onset of winter.

Wyntre-Monthe: Wyntre is a very old spelling of winter. It was used during the fourth and fifth centuries.

Byre-Daye: This festival, corresponding with the Celtic Samhainn, is celebrated on the first daye of Wyntre-Monthe. The beginning of winter is the time to bring in the animals from out pastures into the house or barn. Byre is an Anglo-Saxon word for shed or cow barn.

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Deorc-Monthe: It is the darkest time of the year, the time of the winter solstice. Deorc is a very old Anglo-Saxon word for dark.

Feill-Deorc: Candles are lit to drive away the dark during this Winter Solstice festival.

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Erthe-Monthe: This is the dregs of winter, the time of early land-clearing. Erthe is simply my made-up name for the parallel world of Erthe, the world of the gods of nature.

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Ebral-Monthe: Ebral is Cornish Gaelic for April. Remember that the Kildonan calendar corresponds with the actual weather. So Ebral would be in early spring, whenever lambing began and the ground was thawed enough for early planting of hardy crops.

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Bealltainn-Monthe: The time when it is warm enough to take the animals back to outer/high pastures.

Bealltainn: This is an important holiday historically in many cultures, and to most earth-centered religions today. Its flavor is similar to May Day celebrations, which derive from Bealltainn. Bealltainn marks the first day of summer. There are many variant spellings of the name; Bealtaine and Beltane are two of them.

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Wyllen-Monthe: The name is my made-up variant of "wool." This is the monthe of shearing and spinning. It would be the time of early summer.

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Sonne-Monthe: Sonne is another very old Anglo-Saxon spelling. It means "sun." Sonne-Monthe is high or midsummer.

SeumorFest: This is my own word. But it is not entirely original. The first century ancient word for summer was sumor. SeumorFest is the celebration of midsummer.

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Gaedrian-Monthe: Gaedrian is an Old English word for "gather." This is the time of year to gather herbs, nuts, berries and other wild foods for the coming winter.

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Hydref-Monthe: Hydref is just a name I made up. It is the last monthe of the Kildonan calendar.

Feill-Haerfest: Haerfest is again an Old English word. It means "harvest." This is the Harvest Festival.

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HERBS

n my discussions of herbs in all the issues of Kildonan Times, I present only general information. It is not intended to be a guide for the use of the herbs. If you wish to use any of the herbs described in Kildonan Times, consult a herbalist or a definitive guide book to using herbs.

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lemon balm: If you plant lemon balm in your herb garden, or anyplace else, stand back quickly! This plant is exremely fast-growing, and can be a five foot tall bush before you know it. It can take over your garden. I have a lemon balm right now that is sneaking up on my purple petunias. (Petunias? you say. Remember, I live in Florida.)

Lemon Balm is mostly grown for culinary uses, but also has some very good medicinal properties. The chopped leaves flavor many dishes, oils, vinegars, and liquers. Lemon Balm tea is refreshing and relaxing. The light lemony scent of the leaves is also a favorite in potpourri and herb pillows.

"Balm" is a proper name for the herb. It soothes headaches, indigestion, and nausea. It is an antidepressent. Crushed leaves clean and heal wounds.

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barley: One doesn't think of barley as an herb. Barley has been cultivated and used for a food since man first added grains to his diet. It is a staple food in the land of Kildonan. A bowl of cooked barley with milk and brown sugar is one of my favorite hot breakfasts. And I'll bet you've had beef barley soup recently.

But think back a bit. Haven't you read or heard mention of barley-water for invalids, people with stomach and throat problems, and small children? Barley-water is a source of non-irritating nutrition, good for the stomach. Mixing barley-water with milk is even more nutritional. Cooked barley made into a poultice is good for external sores.

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flax: Mention flax, and the first thing that comes to mind is linen fabric, made from the long fibers found in the stems of flax. Linen has been used from very early times as a fabric.

Linseed oil comes from flax. Hot pressed oil is used for wood finishes and artists' medium. The mineral-rich cold pressed oil is a traditional medicine for sore throat, constipation, and gall stones. It is also used for cooking.

The ground seeds are used for flour. It is often an ingredient in multi-grain breads. They ground seeds, taken with water, are an excellent remedy for constipation. A word of caution, though. Too much flax oil or seed taken internally at one time can be poisonous.

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My basic herb reference books for the herbs I use either for food or medicine in Clovenstone and Stones Seven are: The Herb Book by John Lust (Bantam Books), Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden by Robin Whitman (Bullfinch Press) and Herbs by Lesley Bremness (DK Publishing).

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A FEW THOUGHTS FROM THE EDITOR (me, Ruth)

Tonight I made a soup sort of dish with Brussels sprouts, pasta and beans in broth, seasoned with fresh oregano and fresh basil from my garden. Ah-h, herbs. The very word "herbs" conjures up warm and fuzzy homey feelings—sort of like apple pie and crocheted doilies.

I looked up "herb" in my dictionaries. An "herb" is defined as a perennial plant whose blossoms, leaves, stems, and/or roots are used for food or medicine. Particular emphasis is placed on the premise that herbs do not have woody stems. Well, either someone is confused or the definition has become generalized in modern times. My "herb" books list grains and trees, shrubs and annuals as "herbs" also. The modern usage must be, then, any plant of which any part is used for food or medicine.

Whatever. I like herbs. I eat them. I use them in some folk medicine practices. I like them because they grow without a fuss. Stick them in the ground and they grow. My kind of plant. I pop them in the ground wherever I have a bit of space. It's entirely unorganized and random. That's why the lemon balm is overtaking the petunias. Herbs are pretty and many of them, like sage and coriander, smell good. I bunch basil, oregano, and rosemary around my front porch, hoping folks will be greeted with wafting spicy smells when they come to the door.

Some weeds, now graced with the name of "herbs" are good food. When I lived in the North, I used sorrels (also good for rashes and boils), common mallow (also good in skin ointments and cough syrups), and other leafy "weeds" in salads and casseroles all summer. Mallow is a good source of vitamins A, D, and D. Early spring "fiddleheads" on ferns were and are a delicious staple spring cooked green in Michigan and Maine. People pickle them, too. I've never done that. I just eat other people's pickled fiddlehead ferns. Some varieties of ferns are used in cough syrups and for asthma. We also fried and salted the very early milkweed pods, before they got fuzz in them, for a kind of natural chip. I'm not sure why. They weren't very good. Milkweed is used for kidney and gallstone problems.

When spring comes, stick an herb or several into the ground. They'll reward you by growing profusely and making a green place for you. When you need a pick-me-up, just bury your face in your basil or rosemary and breathe deeply. A feel-good thing will happen to you.—sort of like apple pie and crocheted doilies.

R

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WEBSITES TO EXPLORE

This is a monumental website. The owner of the site has been gathering, since 1995, every bit of information that he can about mythology and folklore world-wide, and publishing it in his online encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Mythica. Go to this site. You can find out everything you ever wanted to know about creatures of folklore and mythology!

http://www.pantheon.org/myth
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Here is another site with an encyclopedic amount of information about things Celtic in the US, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall. It's a fun site to explore.

http://www.conjure.com/celtic.shtml
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And, as always, tell your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends about Clovenstone. Give them an adventure!

Good Fate Be Yours —
Ruth

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