~ MRS. SHARP'S TRADITIONS ~ NOTE: The entire text below is taken directly from the book Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions. I cannot take credit in any form for the ideas and creativity on this page unless so noted. The book is written by Sarah Ban Breathnach and is currently out of print. If you can find a copy (the softcover version is called Victorian Family Celebrations), definitely grab it and run…and DON’T lend it to a friend because you’ll probably never get it back! The madcap month of March arrives -- the last of winter and the first of spring. There is not question about the fun the family will share this month -- a maple-sugaring-off party, St. Patricky's day, fairy wayside walks on the first day of spring, the planning of the children's garden, making a pussy-willow wreath, and the planting of our living Easter basket. In the annals of great Victorian seasonal rituals, one of the pleasures of springs past was the gathering of sap and the making of maple syrup. After the syrup-making was finished, it had to be tested. A grown-up poured some of the hot syrup onto cold, clean snow where it congealed and became like taffy. After the sugar-on-snow appetizer – which tradition said had to be eaten with plain cake doughnuts and sour pickles – everyone gathered for a feast of pancakes, baked ham, and maple-syrup trimmings. Mrs. Sharp’s family holds a "Maple-Sugaring-Off Party" – at least in spirit – with a dinner party composed entirely of recipes using real maple syrup. Mrs. Sharp’s traditional menu features: New England Baked Beans Maple Syrup Sweet Potato Souffle Maple Graham Bread and Butter Maple Custard Maple Syrup Mousse Maplenut Ice Cream For party favors, all children receive maple-sugar candy that has been poured into little molds shaped like maple leaves and log cabins. Mrs. Sharp hosts a "ceilidh" on St. Paddy’s day to which you’re all invited. A "ceilidh" (Gaelic for dance and pronounced kali) is a gathering of family and friends to hear traditional Irish music, do a bit of step-dancing, eat thick slices of soda bread slathered with butter, drink cups of strong tea or other liquid refreshment, and engage in the Irish indoor sport of conversation. The favorite topics of Irish conversation are remarkable achievements, particularly their own. So before hosting our ceilidh, the Sharp family bones up on St. Paddy’s Day braggadocio with an entertaining chronicle "confirming" those claims. It’s called The Big Book of American Irish Culture, edited by Bob Callahan. But the heart of any ceilidh is Irish music, of which there are two distinct types: energetic dance tunes or lamentful narrative songs, usually ballads. In recent years, an abundance of traditional Irish music has been brought to these shores; probably the best known Irish musical group is The Chieftains, whose music is exhilarating, authentic and accessible. Any of their ten albums will begin and end your ceilidh on the right note. Irish dancing works up an appetite, so at Mrs. Sharp’s party there is an abundant spread. The Irish are not known for their cookery, but only because authentic Irish "receipts" have been passed down orally. This culinary oversight has ben remedied with a charming book, Malachi McCormick’s Irish Country Cooking. Most of the recipes are over a century old, and their presentation nourishes the soul as well as the body. That’s because each recipe introduces an entertaining reminiscence of an Irish childhood in the 1940s and 1950s, with a dash of proverbs, poetry, and historical trivia about Irish food and culture. MRS. SHARP’S COLCANNON 1 lb new potatoes, peeled 4 leeks (or one bunch scallions), chopped 1 small cabbage, chopped milk (just enough to moisten potatoes) 3 tablespoons heavy cream 2 oz butter (1/2 stick), softened 1 teaspoon ground thyme salt and paper (to taste) Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook potatoes until tender. Slowly saute the chopped leeks and chopped cabbage separately until soft and limp (but not brown). Mash the potatoes with a hand masher, then add the leeks and milk and mash together until smooth. Next mash in the cabbage, adding the heavy cream, butter, and thyme; blend well until smooth and fluffy. Season with salt and pepper. Put this mixture into an ovenproof dish and place under broiler to brown. If the colcannon is prepared up to the point of browning ahead of time, reheat covered with foil in a 350 degree oven for a half hour. Uncover and brown under broiler. Serves six. MRS. SHARP’S FAVORITE IRISH SODA BREAD 4 cups white flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1 ½ cups sour milk Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center. Add sour milk and stir together with a wooden spoon. The dough should be thick but not too wet. Turn dough into a floured surface and form with hands into a round loaf. Place the loaf into a cast-iron frying pan or heavy round casserole dish that has been "greased" with butter. Score the top in the form of a cross with a wet knife. Bake for 40 minutes. Bread should cool for an hour before serving. NOTE: Soda bread is daily fare in Ireland, made fresh for breakfast and tea. If the loaf is made with whole-meal wheat flour, it is known as brown bread; if made with unbleached white flour, it’s Irish soda bread. Authentic Irish soda bread is made with sour milk, not buttermilk, or milk soured by adding vinegar or lemon juice. To sour milk, simply leave it out overnight. SEARCHING FOR SHAMROCKS ~ The day before St. Patrick’s Day, the children search for shamrocks. Earlier Mrs. Sharp had obtained little pots of them at the florist and "planted" the green clumps in the brown earth, where they’ll easily be discovered. Once all the children have found their bit of green, we’ll make shamrock corsages for everyone with green, orange, and white bows. On St. Paddy’s Day, the children will find lucky shamrock sandwiches (cut with cookie cutters) in their lunch boxes. After school, they invite their friends over for a treasure hunt, looking for the Irish leprechaun and his pot of gold in the backyard. Although not one leprechaun can be found, the children do discover small mesh bags of gold-foil chocolate coins!Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day can help remind everyone that when we search the world over for the end of the rainbow, we often find the pot of gold in our own backyard! Often modern parents ask what is the main difference in raising children today and when Mrs. Sharp was a young mother in the 1890s. The most obvious answer is television, which has all but killed the art of self-amusement as Victorian children knew it. But the main difference is that today’s children and their parents are not familiar with nature lore, folk tales and the fairy tradition that was so much a part of Victorian childhood. A century ago, every child and Mother knew the magic that was to be found in the fields, woods, backyard, and nursery, for the fairies lived openly amongst us. We had pillow fairies, birthday fairies, garden fairies, wayside fairies, fairies of every description. Parents, please! This spring, do yourselves and your children a favor and invite the fairies to make their homes near yours. A marvelous way is with the books by famed English children’s illustrator Cicely Barker, creator of the classic Flower Fairies series, first published in the 1920s. (Kris’ note: The Flower Fairy books have been reprinted into a book entitled The Complete Book of Flower Fairies .... you can view books by Ms. Barker available for purchase at Books.com by clicking here). These books are enchantment themselves. Miss Barker, an accomplished botanical artist, instructs young and old readers on how to discover fairies in their flower or plant homes through verse and full-color portraits. Next, take a woodside spring outing. Granted, you may not "see" the fairies as Miss Barker did on her nature walks, but you’ll be able to see the flowers that the fairies care for. We gather our armful of pussy-willow branches to take home (you can also gather them at the florist or supermarket) to make a spring pussy-willow wreath. Simply lay the branches, piece by piece, on a wire form as a base and secure them with florist’s wire, curving and overlapping as you go. Next attach a festive bright bow with long streamers, which will gaily whip in the March winds if you hang your wreath on your front door as Mrs. Sharp does on the first day of spring, to welcome the new season of joy. While Mrs. Sharp is making her wreath, the children make pussy-willow pictures. Here’s one: Draw a picket fence. Next line up a row of cats sitting on the top ledge of the fence by gluing on four or five catkins (the furry part of the pussy willow). Complete your "cats" by drawing their ears and long tails on the paper. Start growing two weeks before Easter. Take a brightly colored basket and layer the bottom with gravel or small pebbles. Add a couple of inches of potting soil and sprinkle on fast-sprouting rye grass seeds. Keep the soil moist and place the basket in a warm, sunny spot with a plate or dish under it catch any seepage. In a week, the basket will be lined with living grass. When it is several inches high, tuck in some figurines: chicks, lambs, and bunnies into the basket along with dyed or painted wooden eggs. In March, dear Reader, frost still blankets the ground the early morning, but this is the best time to begin planning the children’s garden. To get everyone in the proper mood, we read aloud the classic The Secret Garden. As the children bring back to life a forgotten and overgrown garden, its revival becomes a metaphor for their own restoration. Help your children discover the Magic with a garden of their own. Let the little ones begin with the seed catalogues, scissors, paste and paper. Let them plot their garden on paper. It doesn’t matter whether they choose flowers that cannot grow in your part of the country; you will get a glimpse of the type of garden they have their hearts set upon. Then you will be able to better assist them in planning a garden that will at least capture in spirit what they dream about in their imagination. For inspiration as well as information about beginning a child’s garden, may Mrs. Sharp recommend an encouraging primer for parents called A Garden for Children by Felicity Bryan. Included in this book are many helpful suggestions as well as designs for theme gardens based on children’s literature, including, of course, a "Secret Garden." One last note: buy your children the best small-size tools you can afford – children are very earnest gardeners; if they do not have the right equipment, they will become discouraged. Bring home a bouquet of daffodils. Cut off the blossom of the daffodil, leaving a very short stem. These little stems will become the dancer’s hat when you turn the blossom over. To make the flower stand up, push three wooden toothpicks up firmly into the center of the flower. Spread the toothpicks like a tripod to make the flower stand alone steadily. After you have made several dancers, gather them together as the "daffy down-dilly ladies just come to town" in their fancy capes and pretty gowns. Place them in a tin tray and gently tap from underneath and the dancers will begin to move. For daffodil animals, gently peel away the outer petals, leaving the short green stem and the long flower cup. Hold the cup sideways so that the stem becomes the animal’s head and long green nose; insert four wooden toothpicks for legs. I don’t have much more to add, so will end this update by sharing with you some of the Simple Abundance "Joyful Simplicities for March." ~~Bring home a daffodil bouquet to brighten up your home. ~~Get some bare branches for forcing: cherry, crabapple, forsythia, birch. Cut the ends sharply on a slant. Place the brances in a sunny spot and watch spring arrive indoors! ~~Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! (March 17) ~~Observe the first day of spring (March 21) ~~If the blues strike, find some quiet time to play your favorite music. If it’s "danceable" get up and move! ~~Gather some pansies and primroses and let their bright little faces cheer you! WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?
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