365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
First Day Of Skunk Cabbage
Day 160: In my personal almanac, the First Day of Skunk Cabbage is one of the most major events of the year. It's a "moveable feast," arriving with an element of surprise when I see the first glimmer of yellow in the roadside bogs.
Y'see, Skunk Cabbage was my mother's favorite flower, and each spring, she would cut a single spathe, place it in a vase and allow its unique odor to permeate the house. There's a reason they call it "Skunk Cabbage," and trust me, one was plenty for my young nose. Later in life, I learned that the roots were edible (if perhaps a little too high in oxalic acid to be good for you in quantity) and in fact, I used to prepare the tuber like zucchini, adding tomatoes and onions for a medley. Perhaps that helped me accustom myself to the odor. While I still regard it as "skunky," it no longer offends my olfactory sensibilities as it once did.
Gustatorial adventures aside, Skunk Cabbage announces spring more surely for me than any field of daffodils or drift of crocuses. Spring, my friends, is truly here!
Labels:
almanac,
holiday,
Lysichiton americanus,
Skunk Cabbage
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