Garden Folklore

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Garden Folklore

• Vegetables have played significant roles in the
  culture of many societies
• Ideological and spiritual uses
• Pseudo-scientific explanations

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Ideological Spiritual Uses

• Beliefs and superstitions used to explain natural
  phenomena
• Alliums general ability to ward off demons and
  disease like Plague and Scarlet Fever
• Have genuine ______________________ and
  _________________ properties
• Sources of cosmological explanation
• Native American stories using ____________ to
  explain the creation of the world

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Ideological Spiritual Uses

• Idols and spiritual characters in ceremony
• ______________________ used in harvest ceremonies
  of New Guinea

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Ideological Spiritual Uses

• Jack O Lanterns
• Irish myth of a drunkard named Stingy Jack who
  played tricks on the devil in life
• When Jack died, he wasnt allowed into heaven or
  hell, but the devil gave him a piece of coal to
  light his way through limbo, which Jack carried
  in a hollowed-out turnip

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Ideological Spiritual Uses

• Jack O Lanterns
• People in Britain, Scotland, and Ireland carved
  faces into turnips, potatoes, and other
  vegetables to scare away wandering spirits like
  Stingy Jack
• Immigrants brought the legend to the U.S., but
  pumpkins were found to be much easier to carve

We are carved to scare away spiritsnot a soul
around us! Ha ha haHappy Halloween!!
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Pseudo-science folk remedies

• Doctrine of ________________
• 16th Century Herbal used as a holistic medical
  text
• Plant characteristics provided guidance to what
  disease they could cure

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Doctrine of Signatures

• Old mans beard hanging lichen moss containing
  usnic acid thought to prevent hair loss

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Gardening and Folk Traditions

• Lore passed down as knowledge of ways to sow and
  cultivate plants
• Correlations of spiritual or religious events
  with gardening practices have been passed down
• Planting potatoes on Good Friday
• Which plants grow well together
• The 3 Sisters - Corn, Beans, and _____________

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Nightshades Darker Side

• Mandrake
• Contains __________________ alkaloids which cause
  euphoric sleep
• Used by ancient Egyptians as anesthetic
• Thought to resemble a human and let out a deadly
  scream when pulled from the ground

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Nightshades Darker Side

• Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium)
• Contains scopolamine very hallucinogenic
• Name derived from event in Jamestown, VA in 1676
  when British soldiers ate leaves in a salad and
  went mad for 11 days

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Nightshades Darker Side

• Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade)
• Extremely ________________
• Applied dermally or on genital membranes by
  witches to produce a feeling of flying