Dvoeverie-stitches

Master Post

Peasant girl in heather with sickle and basket. 1900 painting by Emil Zschimmer

Though this blog started as a place to showcase my devotional stitching to honor my ancestresses, over the last few years the babky (my Moravian grannies) have been pulling me in all sorts of directions. I’ve never really called myself a witch, though I think it is assumed by a lot of my readers because of the work I do, and I’ve gotten kind of lazy and use it as shorthand a lot (especially in tags) because it’s easy, but I tend to think of myself as a cunning woman and over the last couple of years a novice kořenářka (simplest definition would be root/herb woman, but so much more).

Antos Frolka (1877-1935)

My practice revolves around foraging and preserving wild plants, honoring the animals that I share the land with, honoring the calendar customs and folk Catholicism (that is often only a mask over older pagan customs) of my Moravian ancestresses, and YES—I still stitch! It all falls under the overarching umbrella of ancestor veneration.

Kroatische Stickerin, 1920, Othmar Růžička

Who were the Kořenářky?

Foraging on these Four Acres 2025

My Herbal — Mostly print sources on plants I forage. Includes medicinal, magical, and culinary info. You can also find recipes from my bioregional apothecary, these are from my particular region and are meant to inspire as well as document my own research. Note: I’m beginning to add pages from my kořenářka journal.

My observation of Moravian Calendar Customs from 2022 to the present

2025 Stitching Projects

Moravian Embroidery Patterns

A repeat of the above patterns, but I recently found this somewhat different version:

Červenec/July Devotional Calendar

Though I live in Arkansas, and work intensely with the land, I am not a native and not a member of Ozark folk culture. Though my practice is rooted in my own ancestry, it’s also rooted in my bioregion—so it doesn’t hurt to look at the folklore of other residents. I talked about Randolph’s background in my first of this series of posts.

“Tobacco is used in other ways by the yarb doctors and granny-women. I have seen severe abdominal pain, later diagnosed as appendicitis and cured by surgery, apparently relieved at once with a poultice of tobacco leaves soaked in hot water. The tobacco poultice is very generally used for cuts, stings, bites, bruises, and even bullet wounds. A poultice of tobacco leaves in cold water is often applied to “draw the pizen” out of a boil or a risin’, Some people think such a poultice is more effective if fresh mullein leaves are bound in outside the poultice.”

[ ⚠️ While folklore historically championed tobacco poultices for pain relief, drawing out infections, or treating wounds, modern medical consensus strongly advises against this practice.]

“Mullein-flower tea is supposed to be good for colds, sore throat, flu, and even pneumonia.”

“Charley Cummins, old-time newspaper reporter of Springfield, Missouri, always claimed that he could make an “almost infallible pile cure” out of mullein leaves, but he would never give me any details of the treatment.”

“Many hill folk treat sprains by tying on rags soaked in hot vinegar to which salt has been added. Others put mullein leaves in the vinegar instead of the salt.”

“Some folk seem to think that a poultice of mullein leaves simmered in vinegar is helpful in almost any sort of painful condition. I have seen such a poultice applied to a wound made by a charge of bird shot; it not only eases pain, I was told, but “loosens up the shot” so that the doctor can easily extract the pellets."

"There are many ways of determining whether or not one’s sweetheart is faithful. If the fire which a man kindles burns brightly, he knows that his sweetheart is true to him, but if it smolders, she is likely to prove unfaithful. As a further test, he may go into a clearing and bend down a mullein stalk so that it points toward her cabin; if she loves him the stalk grows up again, but if she loves another it will die. Mrs. Addah Matthews, Monett, Missouri, says that “a girl used to name a mullein stalk, then bend the stalk toward her fellow’s house; if it grew bent in that direction he loved her.”

Though I live in Arkansas, and work intensely with the land, I am not a native and not a member of Ozark folk culture. My best friend growing up, however, was the daughter of hill folk and I have fond memories of slumber parties (if it’s a party with two?) up around the Piney heading towards Jasper. Her dad’s people had been in the hills for generations and he was an archetypical backwoodsman.

Though my practice is rooted in my own ancestry, it’s also rooted in my bioregion—so it doesn’t hurt to look at the folklore of other residents.

Elder, yarrow, and plantain that I harvested Midsummer Night on the bayou

“God Almighty never put us here without a remedy for every ailment,” said old Jimmy Van Zandt of Kirbyville, Missouri. “Out in the woods there’s plants that will cure all kinds of sickness, and all we got to do is hunt for ’em.”

The following are excepts from various chapters of Vance Randolph’s Ozark Magic and Folklore, 1964 (originally published as Ozark Superstitions in 1947). Randolph’s first article on Ozark folklore appeared in the Journal of American Folklore in 1927.

He moved to the region in 1920 and spent the next few decades immersing himself in local communities across Missouri and Arkansas. Recognizing that the influx of modern infrastructure (like radio and automobiles) was causing traditional ways to fade, he focused on recording fading oral traditions through casual conversations.

“A plant called yarrow, or milfoil (Achillea millefolium), is used in making love potions. The same is said to be true of dodder, also called love vine or angel’s hair. Women in northwest Arkansas tell me that the roots of the lady’s-slipper or moccasin flower (Cypripedium) contain a powerful aphrodisiac. The leaves and stems of mistletoe are made into some kind of “love medicine,” but the whole matter is very secret. I have on two occasions seen women boiling big kettles of mistletoe out of doors but was unable to get any details of the procedure.”

“An old man near Bentonville, Arkansas, told me that it was no trouble to predict the result of any national election. If the Democrats are going to win, every garden is full of dog fennel; if a Republican victory is in the cards, dog fennel will be scarce, and plantain will choke every An old man near Bentonville, Arkansas, told me that it was no trouble to predict the result of any national election. If the Democrats are going to win, every garden is full of dog fennel; if a Republican victory is in the cards, dog fennel will be scarce, and plantain will choke every fence corner in Arkansas.”

[ @dvoeverie-stitches says: this state has been hardcore Republican since 9/11 and there is plantain every fucking where, I have yet to run across dog fennel personally]

Elderberry on the bayou

“A great many of the old-timers call December 25 “New Christmas” in order to distinguish it from “Old Christmas,” which falls on January 6. They tell me that in pioneer days nearly everybody celebrated Christmas twelve days later than they do now. Old folks say that elderberry always sprouts on the eve of Old Christmas—even if the ground is frozen hard, you’ll find the little green shoots under the snow.”

Rattlesnake weed I spotted up in the Ozark St. Francis NationalWilderness and boneset in St. Claire’s Glade in the Ozark foothills

“Boneset tea is a favorite remedy for chills, fever, and ague. A tea made of elderberry roots is good, too. Some people have great confidence in blade-fodder tea, especially if the fodder has been kept in a dry place. Seneca-root or rattlesnake weed (Senega) is said to make a mighty fine chills-and-fever medicine. The unfermented juice of the little wild possum grapes is supposed to cure malaria. Uncle Jack Short of Galena, Missouri, says that he used to drink gallons of peach-bark tea every fall for his “ager”; also a tea made by boiling sheep manure, with a little spicewood added to kill the unpleasant.”

“The stick-notching treatment used for many other ailments is also adapted to the removal of warts. A little boy near Hot Springs, Arkansas, showed me a green switch with four notches in it, tied to the end of an old wooden gutter; each notch represents a wart, he said, and as the water rushes over the notches, it gradually dissolves away the warts.”

“Other hillfolk say that it is best to use an elderberry stick, and to cut the notch carefully so that it just fits over the wart to be cured. Then bury the stick on the north side of the cabin and never mention it to a living soul.”

We have now found one turtle shell before and one after I harvested the yarrow stalks for my I Ching practice. All in the same general area (stalks and shells) of the bayou.

My husband found a muscadine vine that was COVERED in grapes. It was the first time I’ve ever set the location to private on my apps!! I really hope we will be able to harvest it. Wild fermented muscadine wine is so yum.

Yarrow season appears to be closed.

On this one twig you can see the three shapes of sassafras leaves.

We have now found one turtle shell before and one after I harvested the yarrow stalks for my I Ching practice. All in the same general area (stalks and shells) of the bayou.

The creation of the I Ching’s foundational symbols is directly inspired by a mythological turtle, while the text itself evolved directly from ancient shell-burning practices.

It was one of those weirdly drizzly, sunny evenings. Luckily it didn’t start to rain until after I did my little bit of mimosa foraging. Tonight was mostly scouting. (Muscadine dance! Muscadine dance! 🍇 🕺)

Hawk? Owl? feather.

He is such a great foraging companion. Not only does he control Marcy while holding branches at an appropriate height for me, but he spots turtle shells, awesome feathers, and muscadines all while nodding encouragingly during my neurodivergent botany lectures and even interjects intelligent observations and facts to show he’s honestly engaged.

Saint Margaret throws the sickle into the rye or leads the reapers into the rye

This is how an old Czech proverb confirmed the beginning of the harvest, which in South Moravia really falls around July 13. On the feast day of this saint, a huge event began in Bohemia and Moravia, culminating the year-round toil in the fields. Harvest used to be a huge holiday for the entire village or estate. Whoever had healthy hands and feet worked in the field literally from sunrise to sunset. It is certainly also symbolic in connection with the harvest and a rich harvest that Saint Margaret has been the patron saint of pregnant women since time immemorial.

The average beginning of the winter rye harvest in the Atlas of the Climate of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic falls on July 11 in Čejkovice, July 13 in Znojmo (my ancestral home), July 14. in Kroměříž and Strážnice. On 15.7. in Čáslav and Všechlapy in the Nymburk region. In higher and more northern locations, the harvest begins a few days later, e.g. 22.7. on St. Magdalene's Day "Saint Mary Majdalena, threw the sickle into the barley." And after 26.7. the reapers are led by St. Anna: in Telč (530 m above sea level) the harvest begins on 27.7. and in Jablůnkov and Ostrov in the Karlovy Vary region the harvest begins around 28.7.

Marketa Summer:

The ongoing Marketa Summer (from approx. 8.7. to 15.7.) is the first warm and relatively dry period of time before the arrival of the dog days (from approx. 15.7. to 11.8.). According to some old calendars, the period similar to the dog days began already with the Marketa Summer. Dog Days is a term used by folk meteorology to describe the period of greatest heat. The name came to us from medieval astrology and astronomy. Dog Days owes its name to the brightest star in the sky - Sirius, from the constellation Canis Major. While Sirius is a winter star for us, it appeared to the Romans sometime before the beginning of our era during the summer heat. Thus, Sirius, or the Dog Star, and the period of greatest summer heat - the Dog Days, entered our folk environment together. (Zdeněk Vašků)

From old chronicles:

- L.P. 1346, around the memorial of St. Margaret, an innumerable number of locusts flew into Bohemia, which destroyed all the grain, hay, grass and fruit. (Veleslavín)

- L.P. 1776, on July 13, Saturday before the seventh Sunday of Pentecost, St. Marketa, according to an ancient proverb, introduced the reapers, which sometimes happens earlier, sometimes later.

- L.P. 1782, on July 12th and 13th in our area, according to an ancient proverb, that Saint Margaret introduces the reapers, so it happened and on those days the harvest began, rye and barley alike. May the Lord God be praised forever.

- L.P. 1805, this year Saint Margaret made wreaths of roses, but she did not introduce the reapers throughout the country. Throughout the spring winters, frosts, everything was delayed and also not free from all kinds of destruction. (Fr. Jan Vavák).

- According to the memoirs of the farmer Fr. Vavák from Milčice near Poděbrady, the harvest took place at the end of the 17th century and in the first half of the 18th century already on St. Prokop 4.7. Today, the average beginning of the harvest in the Poděbrady region is two days after St. Margaret's Day.

Old farmers also invoked St. Margaret as the protector of grain:

"Saint Margaret! Give us good pity for wheat, for rye,

so that we have something to live on and to carry to the barn."

Our ancestors also associated St. Margaret's Day with superstitions when growing flax:

- The farmer tried to weave flax to St. Margaret's Day, so that St. Margaret would take it to a dance, so that it would grow a lot.

- When the sheaves of flax were finished, the last sheaf would weave a braid from the flax so that the flax from which the braid is woven would not be pulled out of the ground, and then she bent the top of the braid and stuck it into the ground, so that the flax would rise again next year. (Trhová Kamenice). "St. Margaret takes flax to a dance."

Pranostiky:

- Saint Margaret, threw the sickle into the rye.

- Saint Margaret leads the reapers into the rye. (from 1851)

Original Czech Language Article:

We took a drive yesterday evening to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, where I had gathered my first mullein leaves of the year on the wild southern side of St. Mary’s Mountain. This was the most abundant patch of mullein I have found so it seemed a good bet I could find a stalk to dry for next year’s hromnička (one of my most important tools) and some smaller, still flowering stalks to nurture at home for the flowers.

Besides the location being a lovely connection to Mother Mary, the timing was perfect. St. Margaret’s feast day lies approximately at the opposite side of the year from Hromnice (Candlemas) when I’ll be making my hromnička and consecrating it. I love to gather plants during the light half of the year with the intention of bringing their energies into rituals in the opposite half. We were also approaching the new moon.

Hromnice falls on 2 February, which is traditionally the 40th day of and the conclusion of the Christmas–Epiphany season. As St. Margaret is associated with birth she seemed a lovely saint to work with for a ritual that will take place at the end of the season celebrating the birth of the holy child.

Also, though I have come in recent years to consider St. Matthew’s Day (folkloric date February 24) to be the beginning of my devotional year as both one of the two days I celebrate my own birth and the day I’ve found to be regionally appropriate to drown Morana, I consider Hromnice to be a kind of liminal, gestational period leading up to it—not quite the old year and not quite the new year.

And St. Margaret’s Day was traditionally the kickoff of the Harvest season in the lands of my Moravian ancestors—so what better day to for an important personal harvest?

In addition to the mullein, on our walk in that liminal space that is not quite the church grounds, and not yet completely wild, I gathered my first sumac of the year for a Lammas first fruits “lemonade”. I also harvested some honeysuckle and shiso to dry for a ritual tea at Hromnice and some golden aster to add to my growing collection of lesser known medicinal plants used by the indigenous people of this land.