Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 21, 2008 11:39:37 GMT -5
Squash Blossoms
Besides basketfuls at a picking; we also gathered squash blossoms, three to
five basketfuls at a picking; and they were a recognized part of our squash
harvest. On every squash vine are blossoms of two kinds; one kind bears a
squash, but the other never bears any fruit, for it grows, as we Indians say, at
the wrong place among the leaves. We Indians knew this, and gathered only
these barren blossoms; if we did not they dried up anyway and became a dead loss,
so we always gathered them. These blossoms we picked in early morning while
they were fresh, but not if rain had fallen in the night as the rain splashed
dirt and sand into the blossoms, making them unfit for food.
The blossoms we took home in baskets. On the prairie there is a kind of grass
which we Indians call "antelope hair." We chose a place where this grass
grew thick and was two or three inches high, to dry the blossoms on. They were
taken out of the basket one by one; the green calyx leaves were stripped off
and the blossom was pinched flat, opened, and spread on the grass, with the
inside of the blossom upward, thus exposing it to the sun and air. A second
blossom was split on on side, opened, and laid upon the first, upon the pedal
end, so that the thicker, bulbous part of the first - the part indeed that had
been pinched flat - remained exposed to dry. This was continued until quite a
space on the grass was covered with the blossoms.
They remained all day drying. In the evening I would go out and gather them,
pulling them up in whole sheets. Splitting them open and laying them down one
upon another, caused them to adhere as they dried, so that they lay on the
grass in a kind of thin matting. I always began pulling up the blossoms from
one side of this matting, and as I say, they came away in whole sheets. We put
away the dried blossoms in bags, like those used for corn. These bags were
made with round bottom and soft-skin mouth that tied easily. Bags were usually
made of calf skin. In my father's family we always put away one sack full of
dried squash blossoms for winter. (BBW)
Besides basketfuls at a picking; we also gathered squash blossoms, three to
five basketfuls at a picking; and they were a recognized part of our squash
harvest. On every squash vine are blossoms of two kinds; one kind bears a
squash, but the other never bears any fruit, for it grows, as we Indians say, at
the wrong place among the leaves. We Indians knew this, and gathered only
these barren blossoms; if we did not they dried up anyway and became a dead loss,
so we always gathered them. These blossoms we picked in early morning while
they were fresh, but not if rain had fallen in the night as the rain splashed
dirt and sand into the blossoms, making them unfit for food.
The blossoms we took home in baskets. On the prairie there is a kind of grass
which we Indians call "antelope hair." We chose a place where this grass
grew thick and was two or three inches high, to dry the blossoms on. They were
taken out of the basket one by one; the green calyx leaves were stripped off
and the blossom was pinched flat, opened, and spread on the grass, with the
inside of the blossom upward, thus exposing it to the sun and air. A second
blossom was split on on side, opened, and laid upon the first, upon the pedal
end, so that the thicker, bulbous part of the first - the part indeed that had
been pinched flat - remained exposed to dry. This was continued until quite a
space on the grass was covered with the blossoms.
They remained all day drying. In the evening I would go out and gather them,
pulling them up in whole sheets. Splitting them open and laying them down one
upon another, caused them to adhere as they dried, so that they lay on the
grass in a kind of thin matting. I always began pulling up the blossoms from
one side of this matting, and as I say, they came away in whole sheets. We put
away the dried blossoms in bags, like those used for corn. These bags were
made with round bottom and soft-skin mouth that tied easily. Bags were usually
made of calf skin. In my father's family we always put away one sack full of
dried squash blossoms for winter. (BBW)