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Lammas Tide; the beginning of Harvest
Topic Started: Aug 1 2008, 05:10 PM (690 Views)
Vetch
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"It fell aboot the Lammas Tide, when the moor men win their hay" Posted Image
Anyone know Alex Campbell?



Um, anyway: today is Lammas/Lughnasadh, soon Kräuterweihe -- blessing of herbs, a catholic (probably pre-christian) custom.

Happy New Moon and good harvesting to all of you!


Enjoy!


Ah, and while I am at it: here's a Lammas song (imo) from the late middle ages, sung by yours truly, supported by harmonica-Paule, the one and only best song I ever recorded, some years ago.

Welfenlied


Lyrics:

Feucht wirds immer mit der Schwüle
die nimmt zu bis dass sie bricht
nach dem Regen wird es kühler
das ist so und anders nicht
ja die Kälte holt die Hitze
und die Dürre den Monsun
aber wenn dein Dach ein Loch hat
musst du da schon selbst was tun

Ach der einen hängt der Mund schief
und sie fragt dich wie es steht
doch du willst es ihr nicht sagen
dass es dir so wie ihr geht
Kälte lässt die Hitze treiben
wissend sie kommt wieder dran
doch von dem Weibe wird nichts bleiben
das sich nur treiben lassen kann

ob du fröhlich lebst in Frieden
deine Freiheit hast du auch
hat nicht der für dich entschieden
der es etwa anders braucht
drum vertraue nicht auf Götter
nicht auf Schicksal und Gericht
deine Tage sind kein Wetter
sieh dem Leben ins Gesicht

(No idea if I get it right, but I try)

Sultriness brings humidity
which lasts until it breaks
after the rain it gets cooler
that’s how it is, and not otherwise.
Yes, coldness comes for the heat
and drought comes for the monsoon.
But if your roof has a hole
you must do something about it yourself.

Woe, her mouth hangs askew
and she asks you how you are
but you don’t want to tell her
that you feel just like her.
Coldness lets the heat play along
it knows its turn will come again.
But nothing will remain of the woman
who lets herself drift along.

If you’re living happily in peace
and are healthy, too
has not been decided for you by somebody
who might need it otherwise.
So don’t trust in gods
don’t trust in fate or judgement.
Your days are not the weather.
Look life into the face!
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Aelith
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Thank You! that was wonderful.
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Neco the Nightwraith
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What fun! You have a lovely voice, Vetch-san.

:ot2 sorta...

Speaking of harvesting, in a sense, I have been baking bread from scratch and even making butter at home. When you look at it, buying the cream to make the butter is usually less expensive than buying the already made butter (depending, of course, on where you are; here in SR where the food prices are shooting up, it is more sensible to make your butter than to buy it). One pint of heavy whipping cream will get me about a cups worth (approximately) of butter, which I then mold in a small glass dish, so instead of the regular boring cubes of butter I get a cute (if slightly misshapen) round. :D

I haven't yet figured the total price to make bread from scratch, but I generally like it better than the store bought bread, as I know what goes into it, and I can make my own gourmet flavors if I wanted to (but apart from a few herbs and maybe some cheese or garlic, I usually make plain bread). And since it's just me I'm feeding usually, that one recipe makes me four round loaves of bread.

Apart from the reverting back to ze olde ways :P, I have been getting some very tasty cherry tomatoes off my plant out back. I also have hot chillies on the vine as well.
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Vetch
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Perfectly on topic, Neco-chan-san! :flower: Lammas: loaf-mass day, "feast of first fruits" (Wikipedia), first harvest. At the place where I celebrated the 8 festivities we called it "Schnitterin" (mower/reaper [f]), because now starts the harvest of cereals. And the baking of bread, of course!

I wonder how you churn the butter? Do you have a small butter tub?


Ah, and thank you so much for the praise for the Welfenlied, Aelith-ji and Neco-ji! :flower:
I am weak when it gets high, but fortunately not many high notes in that song.
Though much of the magic is made by Paule (a guy whom I met that day, we recorded one song, and I never saw him again).
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Neco the Nightwraith
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Quote:
 
I wonder how you churn the butter? Do you have a small butter tub?


Elbow grease. :rofl:

I put the cream into a quart jar and start shaking, since I don't have a churn or anything, and it's easier to clean up than the mixer. And it gives me something to do. :P

And I have noticed that different brands of cream make different butter. One made made a very yellow butter, whereas the other two (I've made three batches so far), have made very pale butters, but the third one was a softer kind of butter than the first one. I don't add salt to the butter, because I like it that way.

The butter is very good, and tastes even better handmade. :grin

It's an ongoing experiment.
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pence

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If you over whip heavy cream in a mixer, it turns to butter. If you buy the cream for whipped cream and it is too fresh it will turn to butter WITHOUT turning intowhipped cream Most disconcerting, when preparing dessert!
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Xheralt
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May I add my compliments regarding your voice to the rest? Observing Lammas Night is, I suspect, mostly by Pagans in the US. Although I do have a Catholic friend who observes Michaelmas/Candlemas, so other such feasts are possible in isolated quarters.
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arethusa
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I'll add to the felicitations on your lovely voice. Yes, Paule adds to the wonderful feeling of the song. It seems appropriate to the day, and the midwest weather we are having. I can see why the festival lost importance in the US. August 1 is not really harvest time for any grain, including the corn or maize that is the principal crop here. Still, I'd consider it a fine time to bake bread if the temperature and humidity would co-operate. I think the bread would rise beautifully, but baking it would be a misery for anyone in the house.
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Vetch
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Re churning butter:
I was wondering, because, as pence says, one can make butter (unintentionally) when trying to whip cream with the mixer.:flower: If that takes long I am thinking that one wastes a lot of electricity which adds to the cost of the the selfmade butter.
But the shaker is cool!

Re Lammas: no harvesting at all?!? Not even John Barleycorn? Argh!
But if you have weeds in your garden/on your balcony/growing wild you might want to make a bundle or a wreath. Catholics on our countryside take those to the church to be blessed; a few freelance witches/pagans do the blessing themselves, and those herbs are said to have protective and benevolent powers then. :flower:

I love rituals like that. Those bundles/wreaths contain a certain number of weeds, 7, 12, 24, some even 777 (or so I read). Mine contains only 3. :grin That's all I got, being a city kid. Woodruff (not really a Lammas herb) from my windowsill, lavender from the yard (not very romantic yard between the block of flats where I live) and yarrow from the Denninger Anger, some meadows around here, very sweet, close to a big ugly street.
Posted Image

'Classical' weeds for Kräuterweihe are, eg.

* Inula
* Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
* St. John’s wort
* Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
* Tansy
* Achillea
* Mullein
* German Chamomile (I didn’t know we invented her!)
* Thyme
* Valerian
* Vervain (Verbena officialis)

(I copied this from my 43T account, so if s/o is over there, too, sorry for the 'double posting'. :flower:)



Re song: Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! I wish I had more of that quality. I mean, the singing is not really GOOD (too breathy) -- on the other hand I am practicing positive self talk (on 43T), so, um, :ty! I always knew I'd make it one day! :thnx
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the mule
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slightly :ot2 Vetch_ji The quote in your first post is from the Ballad of the Battle of Otterburn which curiously enough is where I was born

The spring is like a young lord that does not know his mind,
The summer is a tyrant of a most ungracious kind
But the Autumn is an old friend, who helps us all he can
And he sends the bearded barley to glad the heart of man

All among the Barley
Who would not be blithe
when the ripe and bearded Barley
Is smiling on the scythe

Ceohl Lammas!

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Vetch
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Ah, I didn't know the real name of that ballad.
You were born in Otterburn? I see. So you're the Floo'er o' Northumberland. :grin
I love that song, because of its sweet uprising melody. Even though they do kill the lord of the castle, I think. Perhaps it should be called 'The Raid of Otterburn'. (But the Jardines would nae wi him ride, and they rue it tae this day :grin)


I think I was born somewhere on your islands, too, once in another life... Sigh.

Lovely poems/songs! :star Thank you!





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the mule
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Vetch-ji, not really a raid, :grin At Chevy Chase Douglas was commanding a division of the scottish army numbering about 2000 archers, 400 men at arms and around 50 knights, Percy had around 8000 light foot (mainly conscript and levy) and the battle lasted over 6 hours. The scots were actually taken by surprise just before dawn but fell back into a prepared defense. The battle was much in Percy's favour until Douglas attempted a counter-attack on the English centre during which he was killed but the attack itself succeeded in routing the English centre and Percy was captured. The scots then retired over the border

Quote:
 
So you're the Floo'er o' Northumberland.
Why aye hinny, Aa varry sortainly am ye Knaa. :rose2:
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Kokipy

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I loved that! how nice to hear your voice singing, Vetch!

slightly :ot2 I've been making mozzarella with local farm milk lately. You can get a cheese making kit for about $25 on line, which has rennet tablets and a couple of other chemicals you need, and it is pretty easy, takes about 30 minutes, although I haven't yet quite got much flavor into it. But that will come, and mozzarella doesn't have a whole lot of flavor anyway. I am thinking about pulverising some of the tomatoes I am drying and mixing the powder into the cheese. Would that be wierd?
My daughter made butter in her kindergarten class, using the shake method. I think they might have had some marbles in the shaker, which could have sped things up? sounds like fun!
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Vetch
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Mule-ji: I see -- an ugly slaughter... I never really caught the lyrics of that song, the happy tune and some words I got made me think of a band of merry Scottish Gentlemen deciding to hop over the border one day, 'to catch them a prey'. :flower:

Even though I know nothing of history or geography I am still British, I am SURE! I know even less aboot German history. :flower:
Um and even though I had no idea what a hinny is... I looked it up and found they (and mules) are more intelligent than horses. :grin

All this made me dig in the cellar, find the old tapes, grab some songs to Comp and create a small site with them. This is probably illegal, but it is hard to find Alex Campbell recordings. I have no idea what album this is. Anyway, here anyone who's interested will find The Battle of Otterburn.

Kopiky-ji: So thank you! :flower:
And I am so impressed with all that self making! If you do that tomato mozzarella I wanna know how it turns out!
I never loved mozzarella for its lack of taste (I like tofu though. Weird.), until I tried some made of buffalo milk. Yea, I think it said 'Büffelmilch' on the package. Good taste.



Oh, and I am not to decide, but as I started this thread I hereby declare: any talk about self made foods and any talk about British history, songs, poems, ballads, horses and their relatives, and birthplaces is totally and utterly on topic here. Aye. :flower:
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griffinmoon
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Vetch nadi:
"Hinny" is also a Scots dialect for "honey" as in "my dear".
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