Chapter 7 - 6
The farm garden was a blessing as well but when the weather stopped cooperating and cool weather brought harvest time near it no longer produced as bountifully as it had. Still, something was better than nothing and that’s what a lot of people were beginning to put in their belly … nothing.
As summer made its way into autumn I had to step up my foraging to help those on the farm in return for the help they had given us earlier. I would trade bushel for bushel … wild greens for the domesticated grapes that grew along the fence behind the farm house, persimmons for winter apples like Granny Smiths, black haws for hot peppers, you name it I did it.
I taught Cheryl, Ali, and Cindy to recognize wild edibles while Calvin’s mother and Aunt Lilah watched the younger three that belonged to Rudy. Aunt Esther was only slowly coming out of her shell but it wasn’t a pretty picture. The only one that could really get her to get up and get moving all the time was Sam who could wheedle her into a good mood almost without fail.
I never took anyone foraging up at the cabin. Part of it was selfish and I’ll admit it. I did not want people to get the idea that they could go wandering up there any time they felt like it. The ridge was our haven, sacrosanct. It was still pristine in a way that the farm and other places were not. There wasn’t trash and human flotsam all over, blowing in the wind. It even smelled better up there … even with the pungent cow dung and the occasional mess made by the geese. I felt freer at the cabin, not so tied to the mundane and minutiae of everyday living even though I worked like a dog just like everyone else. Up at the cabin I worked for myself, for my small family group, at the farm I felt like I was working for the greater good and sometimes I just didn’t feel like the “greater good “ was very appreciative of that fact.
It isn’t that those on the farm were nasty or condescending although they did seem to have some weird view of us being the poor cousins for some reason I never could fathom, but one that bothered me most was that they seemed to continue with the entitlement mentality. They were constantly talking about what the government should be doing to make things better, or what other people should be doing for “everyone’s” good. The conversation around the cabin was always how could we make things better for ourselves without relying on the help of others.
Even Rudy, as independent and ornery as he could be, would fall into the trap of expecting others to take over a problem every so often … like with the roads. Rudy wanted someone in the county to come out and fix them, I said not to worry about it so that it would be less likely that we got the casual visitor … or if he really wanted it fixed then fix it just in front of the farm and throw some gravel or dirt in the holes when they got too bad. No, Rudy wanted something out of the taxes he paid … something out of the system that he had been paying into for so many years. Maybe it was because I was less invested in “the system” by years and dollars but it always seemed to me that we were more successful when the government would just let us alone than when they came in to try and “help make things better.” Not everyone thought that way though.
An example of that was how everyone kept waiting for the grocery stores to reopen; they were eager for them to be open, some were even demanding they be opened and then given money so they could shop there. Not me. I knew I’d eventually need to trade for things beyond the farm but I was content with what we had right then and getting out to forage was like icing on the cake. And I was enjoyed it too; it was like nature’s grocery store only you didn’t need money, only the incentive to get out there and look. I looked plenty, and harvested plenty as well.
In the autumn what you can forage begins to change. I like the fresh greens and flowers of the spring and summer time but the autumn brought with it the things that helped prepare for winter; the plants change and if not the plants themselves then certainly the parts of the plants that can be used. For instance, wild mustard is no longer good for the green leaves or stems which have become too woody or bitter, but as the seed heads dry they are as good as the domesticated ones grown by larger commercial endeavors. And some of my favorites from that season couldn’t be found in most regular grocery stores … hickory nuts, sassafras, Jerusalem artichokes, paw paws, and persimmons.
One particular day I got fed up with the farm a little quicker than normal. Aunt Esther had been quick to criticize my rough appearance. “Brown as an Indian Del, that’s what you are. And look how you’re dressed. Someone could mistake you for a boy with your hair all up under that sloppy hat. What would your mother think if your mother could see you now?”
I thought to myself, “Considering you used to say roughly the same thing to my mother I doubt she would say much at all except to be quiet and mind your own business.” Of course I didn’t say it aloud. Aunt Esther had a gift for annoying me, but she could only make me mad if I let her.
Ali, overhearing her mother, teased me about how I was never going to be anything to Mark but a nanny for his son if I didn’t do something to make him see me as a female. I wanted to tell her then he must be blind or an idiot considering the preceding day he’d been moving some supplies and my case of female stuff rained down all over his head from the top shelf where I had put them out of eyesight. Considering how red we both blushed I don’t think recognizing that we are two different sexes was a problem. And if that didn’t wake him up, me threatening to boycott cooking if I found the toilet lid up one more time surely must have.
Then Rudy started being foul and I was in no mood to put up with it as on top of everything else I was stressed myself because Daddy had had a bad night of fever and chills.
As soon as he started bellowing and belly aching at everyone how he better start seeing people make a little more sweat I kissed Aunt Lilah good bye and put Jessie back in his carrier and headed for the cabin. I could have popped off at Rudy but I’d learned which side my bread was buttered on. Rudy was a pain in the backside but he was instrumental in some of the creature comforts that I was providing for my family and I didn’t want to ruin the relative peace of the relationship.
Cheryl caught me as I left. “Don’t mind him Del. Please. Those town council people were out again early this morning demanding he donate more beef to their food program and when he wouldn’t, saying he hadn’t been paid for the last two after all their promises, they got nasty and said he’d take their IOU again this time or they’d start their own confiscation program and put him at the top of the list. He asked them what army was going to try that one on him or any other farmer out this way and they said they’d surprise him and maybe the townspeople would have something to say about it to his face. He told ‘em to bring it on and then some other really nasty threats were made and now he has to figure out how to guard everything 24/7 with just the people we have.”
“Cheryl, I know how Rudy is. I don’t blame him for being mad or stressed out; he’s got a load on his shoulders. And even at their most polite those council people make my skin crawl. They used to be nice folks as I recall them but I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them now. I’ll tell Daddy and Mark what is going on and maybe they have some ideas. They had mentioned taking out the gully bridge to keep people from just wandering up the way they have been getting into the habit of doing. I know they’ve brought down trees on the forestry road and took the cross ties out of the two bridges closest to us. What I don’t like is how Rudy lets it all roll downhill. Life’s not fair and that’s a fact but he doesn’t have to make it worse, especially not on the folks that are beholden to him.”
“Beholden? Are you talking about you Sugar? Because frankly you scare the jealous bejeebers out of Rudy.”
“What?!” I asked, laughing at the very idea.
“You’re that independent Honey. He just doesn’t know how to deal with it. He doesn’t agree with some of the things your father let you do; working so many jobs, homeschooling yourself, running the house since you were a little thing. He’s talked to me about it.” As I was starting to get mad she added, “The problem is now, nearly too late, he sees the good it has done. It hurts him to think of his girls being forced to work as hard as you did at their age … and are doing now. He wanted his kids to have a better life than he did growing up. I don’t know if you know or not but he had a hard life as a kid, about like mine which is why we understand each other. All of his plans for them are going up in smoke and it makes him confused and irritable to know if he doesn’t push them even harder than he already does he going to handicap them. He knows none of them are ready to stand on their own and there isn’t really anyone to take his place if something were to happen. Sam is too young, Calvin too useless, and John … well, John has his talents but being a father ain’t one of them. And what you are going through with your daddy … that just sends him to an all new level of hurt. He would like to talk to you about a lot of stuff but he has a hard time seeing a man his age going to a young woman your age for advice so he asks Mark but Mark doesn’t exactly trust Rudy I think, seems there is bad blood in the past.”
“Mark hasn’t been disrespectful, he’s thrown in with all of us!”
“Honey, from what I understand even Rudy says that is likely more than he should expect from Mark all things considered. And that’s another part of the problem. Rudy sees Mark and sees that he was wrong … badly wrong … and it makes him wonder if how he is handling things now is wrong too.”
That was more to think about that I had room for in my head at the time but I promised to at least remember it and try and cut Rudy some slack when he got like he did. I thought I was being considerate to get out of there and not cause an argument. I suspect even then that Cheryl had a soft spot for Rudy but I wasn’t sure if Rudy was aware of it or returned it in any way. I expect it would be a risk to start a relationship with a woman when your ex-mother in law lived under the roof you were taking care of.
Trudging up to the cabin I would stop and pick things here in there and put them in the poke sack I routinely carried. Mark and Micah were on the porch drinking the switchel I had left for them.
“Del, what did you say was in this stuff?” Micah asked making a face.
“If you don’t like it, don’t drink it,” I responded, not much in the mood for complaints.
“It’s good, just bites back a little.”
“Del?” Mark asked, catching that I was having an attitude.
“Rudy was in a mood and I was too tired to excuse him of it.”
“Why? What did he say to you?” Mark asked, always prepared to think the worst of Rudy no matter how much he tried to fight it. I wasn’t going to give him the excuse to go defend my honor as I didn’t find that as flattering as some girls might have.
“Nothing … really Mark, it was over something else. Is Daddy around, I don’t want to have to explain it twice?”
The man in question slowly made his way out to the porch, showing as much gray in his face as he now did in his hair. “What’s up Honey?”
I explained about the town council and even Mark felt sympathy for Rudy’s position when I had finished. “Mr. Nash, you want Micah and I to go down and see about pulling down those bridges this side of the cross road? We can dig more on the tunnel when we get back.”
“I reckon you better son,” Daddy sighed with regret knowing he was in no shape to help or even visit Rudy and trying to help him calm down.
As Mark and Micah stood up to go down to the farm I went inside to fix Daddy some powdered blackberry to help with his stomach.
Mark stopped and turned to me hesitantly. “Del?”
“Yeah Mark?”
“I know I said that I’d take Jessie this afternoon …”
“Don’t worry about it. Getting the farm secured is important. Besides, I’ve got all of that stuff from yesterday that needs processing so I’ll be staying here at the house.”
Daddy sat on the porch sipping his home brewed medicine … I had dried and powdered some of the blackberries that I managed to get to before the birds … a teaspoonful of the powder in some cool water, and he would sip on it. Other times all he wanted was my special brew chamomile tea. I thought how I just wished I could get him to eat more.
I lucked out and Jessie was ready for a nap. I put him down and put up the baby gate on Mark’s bedroom door and then went downstairs and got the black haws first to make Black Haw Butter. It isn’t a very sweet condiment but it is very good. You simmer two quarts of black haws for thirty minutes and then use a sieve to press the pulp out so that you have two cups of pulp from the two quarts of fruit. To the pulp you add a half cup of sugar, a quarter teaspoon of ground allspice, two teaspoons of ground cinnamon, and half a teaspoon of ground cloves and then simmer that until it is smooth and spreadable. You put that into prepared jars … you’ll wind up with about five half-pints … and then process appropriately.
I also did a batch of wild grape butter that is nearly seasoned the same way except there is ground ginger in that one and more sugar. I then made some homemade raisins by putting bunches on the solar dehydrator.
I was at it through lunch and into the early afternoon … ground cherry jam, persimmon jam, black walnut conserve, wild grape conserve, elderberry and sumac jelly, bee balm jelly, spearmint jelly, mint syrup, violet syrup, spiced burdock roots, spearmint relish, apple and black haw chutney, mint vinegar, and garlic vinegar. I also started some candied burdock, persimmon chews (Micah and Sam were both partial to these), and sassafras brittle (something that I was fond of).
I was using a lot of sugar but didn’t see any alternative. Sugar is one of the best preservatives there is and I had to take full advantage of it while I had it to use. I knew that come the spring there would be a chance to replace our sweetening with boiled sap and just had to put faith in the fact that God would provide what we needed in the future so long as I used the resources we already had wisely.
Jessie had been up long enough that he was starting to get impatient to get outside again and frankly I’d about had it being cooped up as well.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah Sweatheart?” he said from the rocker on the front porch where he could sit and listen to the radio.
“I’m going to take Jessie and go foraging; see if can I get the last of those Amaranth seed heads and maybe collect some more of those pawpaws. Dinner is ready if the guys get back before I do,” I told him.
“Ok Baby Girl. Watch yourself and get back before the first lightning bug starts its engine, you hear?”
“I will Daddy,” I assured him.
Daddy wasn’t really telling me what to do, more like asking me to be careful and letting me know when he’d start getting worried; he just couldn’t stop sounding like a concerned father despite the fact that I was grown.
I guess I had been out about two and half hours and was on my way back when I heard Micah’s sharp alarm whistle … that and an animal calling whistle are the only two types of whistles he has ever learned to make. The first two times I whistled back they couldn’t hear me … they were making so much noise in the underbrush. Finally they stopped long enough for me to whistle back and Micah knew to stand still until I could figure his location.
He and Mark were off the path I had taken by quite a bit and looking extremely concerned.
“What?! Is it Daddy?” I asked nearly worried to death and breathless from jogging with Jessie on my back and my foraging basket in my hand.
“No, but it ain’t good,” Mark said. “Micah, can you take the bag and I’ll get Jessie. Your dad is probably worried sick by now.”
On the way back to the cabin they told me that they had just finished dropping the second small bridge when Calvin came running with news he’d just heard on his ham radio.
“We thought it was just another rumor,” Micah said, huffing at the heavy load I had turned over to him. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we were traveling a regular speed but we were practically jogging and I still didn’t know what they were having the heebie jeebies over.
Mark said, “You know how Calvin is. He is a real drama king, I thought he was just crying wolf again but if he was I noticed he’d scared himself silly this time. We get back to the farm and find Rudy had shut everyone out of the room he is using for the radio equipment and everyone was stepping light.”
“Yeah, Sam said he’d never seen his dad look like that and that he’d radio’d up to Daddy and they were both listening and trying to analyze what they were hearing.”
“I tried to get Rudy to explain but he told me to head back to the cabin that your dad would fill us in but that we needed to git,” Mark told me trying to talk over Jessie’s complaints of being jostled so roughly. “There was a look in his eyes I didn’t think I’d ever see there. He was scared Del and just barely covering it up and as we started back up to the cabin I heard him ordering the boys to put all the animals in the barn that would fit and to corral the rest of them up the best they could. That was enough for Micah and I, we started jogging only when we got there your dad was frantic because you were still out foraging.”
Micah couldn’t hold it back anymore, “They bombed the UN Del … somebody has gone and done it. There was some kind of big session going on with all the member representatives there except for the President of the UN whose plane got stuck on some kind of trip over in West Africa.”
“Wait!” I made them stop. “What do you mean they bombed the UN? A car bomb? A pipe bomb? A …”
Mark interrupted me, “A dirty bomb Del. It was a small one from what little bit is coming out … but it was definitely a radiological one and it was centered in the UN complex itself. There are also reports of attacks against several of our nuclear reactors. A bunch of places in Pennsylvania, Crystal River and St. Lucie in Florida, a couple of places in Illinois, Palo Verde in Arizona and I can’t remember but several more places. Reports keep coming in. So far the attacks reported have failed but your dad is worried this could be the tipping point we’ve all been waiting for. Now come on.”
We all jogged and I swear if there weren’t tears in Daddy’s eyes when he saw them practically dragging me back.
“I don’t know if this is it or not. I’ve got the animals in the shed and fed and watered the best we can. The geese are shut in under the house. Grab what you can and let’s get down to the basement. I may be jumping the gun here but I’d rather be safe than sorry. We’ll leave the antenna out as long as we can but I want it detached when the radio isn’t in use. Let’s move,” he said … right before falling to his knees in a near faint.