My thanks to a caller who had news about Liberty Tea, and also to Becky Townsend, who put me onto a website for the Challenger publication, with a full article on how the angry colonials coped without Bohea imported from England. Just about any herb or combination of aromatic herbs will make nice infusions. Bergamot, known as Oswego Tea, is well-known; gentle medicinals like chamomile and mint are also pleasant to drink for the flavor's sake. Native Americans used sassafras and some kinds of birch bark; also berry leaves and rose hips. What about bayberry and sweet fern? This being the case, perhaps the Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial could include a Liberty Tea tasting event?
My thanks to Barbara Rumsey and the Boothbay Region Historical Society, who have made available to us not only others' previous research on the War of 1812 period, but actual muster rolls from Fort Edgecomb.
Number 2 Job Hunt workshop will be this afternoon, Oct. 14, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The topic will be the Job Search itself. Remembering my own experience with unemployment lines, I advise anyone needing work, or more satisfying work, to join this meeting at the Newcastle Career Center on Academy Hill. The third and final workshop, about Interviewing, will be next Thursday, Oct. 21, same times. Call 563.2811 for information.
This Sunday, Oct. 17, the American Cancer Society's "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk will take place. Walkers should gather at the First National Bank in Damariscotta to register; the walk starts at 1:00 p.m. This event benefits ACS programs like "Reach for Recovery" which trains breast cancer survivors to help others with the disease. The Sieracki family of Cross Point Road will be among the Edgecombites participating! Come and cheer them all on.
The Center for Teaching and Learning Open House is on Sunday, Oct. 17, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. If you are interested in this award-winning alternative educational facility on Cross Point Road, call the school at 882-9706 or go to their website, www.c-t-l.org.
Travelers on the River Road may have noticed great changes to the Cameron place. We have removed the vast tangles of forsythia on each side of the driveway. Little forsythia shrubs, diligently pruned, are well enough, but I remember trying to trim them back in the ‘90s. Looking upward as I worked, I was overwhelmed by the strength of their growth, the outer branches bending in great parabolas to set roots, inexorably increasing the whole plant's circumference. "Help! I've been swallowed by a giant forsythia!"
They have been replaced with a couple different kinds of Japanese maple, a tree I have always admired. But we'll look kind of bald for a while. The young locust is the designated successor to that big old one that used to frame the house. We still have one of the original locusts on the southeast corner, and of course, the ash tree on the south side.
Last Sunday, Bruce and I morosely gathered tons of resolutely green tomatoes and destroying the vines. We're checking out recipes that take a lot of green tomatoes: chutneys, mincemeat (makes a good pie!), jams, relishes... Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas this year!
Hope you've had a fine Columbus Day break and have returned with renewed vitality and ambition to read about Edgecomb adventures from 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.