Page 42 - AreaNewsletters "Nov 2021" issue

Thanksgiving Vegetables
What’’s on Your Table?
Thanksgiving menus are as variable as the population, and each house will be different. Some traditions are probably common across many meals, though—and can make for great
avenues of perhaps uneM
ashed potatoes are usually thought of as a Thanksgiving mainstay. Potatoes were introduced to Europe from South America in the late 1500s—despite their “late” arrival a few lively superstitions surrounded them rather quickly. According to Richard Folkard, author of Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Published 1884), “a Potato carried in the trousers pocket is a sure charm against rheumatism so long as the tuber is kept there.”1 If the potato had been stolen, so much the better. Potatoes were also suspected of causing leprosy and various skin ailments, though later, were deemed (when mashed) an excellent remedy for both burns and frostbite.2 Perhaps the boldest potato claim is this: “A luminosity, powerful enough to enable a bystander to read by, issues from the common Potato when in a state of putrefaction; this was particularly remarked by an of cer on guard at Strasburg, who thought the barracks were on re in consequence of the light that was emitted from a cellar full of Potatoes.”1 While this seems unlikely and very unpleasant to test, you could instead enhance your holiday season’s scienti c air by using a potato, a penny or bit of copper wire, and a galvanized nail to power an LED.3 The copper and zinc from the nail and penny are essential, the potato serves
November 2021 • Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters”
xplored and distracting conversation. To your health and happy discourse!
as an acid source—so a lemon (and many other fruits or veggies) would work too.
Potato can also be a verb, meaning “to provide withpotatoes,ortoplantwithpotatoes.”4 An1862 Harper’s Magazine said, “The bread is buttered, coffee creamed, and meat potatoed, with jokes and laughter.” This creation of a verb from a noun seems pretty obvious. At least until you get to “carrot.” If you make carrot into a verb, you get “to treat [fur] with nitrate of mercury.”5 I’ll take something that’s been potatoed over carrotted any day, at least on my dinner plate!
Incidentally, neither the vegetal nor the vestimentary carrot should be confused with this symbol ^. It’s a “Caret,” which comes from the Latin verb Carere, meaning “to be in want of”. Caret literally means “it’s missing [this].” That it looks like an upside down carrot is a complete coincidence. Carrot and Caret. For more information than you can stomach on the former, you absolutely must pay a visit to the World Carrot Museum, which conveniently enough exists virtually, at www.carrotmuseum. com. Perhaps your Thanksgiving could include music played upon the carrot, which is “a thing.” Then your dinner party caret absolutely nothing.
The Cranberry was formerly more glorious than a purplish table decoration. The Druids collected them for various ceremonial purposes, and the
ceremonies extended to the harvesting. “These
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H O ME & G A R D E N