Québecadie Sorcellerie

I gave the first speech, and was honored to share to an audience of three different congregations in attendance, just how much she did:

How she shared with me what ministry is all about, and with the Passing of the Peace, how she gave us an opportunity to take up that mantle. Not only that, but to all volunteers in the Church events and social justice committees.

How she invited Truth and Reconciliation commissioner Dr. Marie Wilson and her husband Stephen Kakfwi from NWT for the Sept 30th service, and in turn they gave us the tools we needed to keep fighting for Indigenous rights and social justice.

How she facilitated drag shows on the church sanctuary stage in open invitation to parishioners for attendance, and helped facilitate/organise queer services for our local 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. She ministered my wedding, baptized me in my new name and gender, all in a month’s time.

At every single Sunday service, without fail, she opens with a true message of wholehearted welcome to all (no matter if you are a regular attendee or a curious first timer). I pulled, in front of that congregation (2/3rd of whom never met me before), a Tarot card I had pulled while writing the speech: the High Priestess (very fitting for her!). The congregation applauded and laughed in genuine heartfelt awe!

At least 15 people afterwards told me to get into ministry. No gasps about Tarot, no scandalized older folks. Just sincerely curious, genuinely loving, emotionally available people worshipping together and adoring how other people approach faith. And almost everyone who spoke to me afterwards were so thankful for my speech and how it helped them reflect on their own pain points with their faith, and how moving and raw it was.

I’m so so lucky to have this community, no matter what I’ll end up doing.

I pray and I hope other believers get the same insane luck I did in having her and others like her, as a minister. May other ministers strive to represent that kind of radical love and acceptance.

The vibes I bring to the function vs the energy I got back:

It’s coming along! I worked on the pleats of the skirts, the sleeve assembly (not yet set into the body), and the back lining. I also assembled the pocket flaps, shoulder wings. I’ll keep the front closures on that selvedge to honor the blanket coat’s history (sometimes being made from blankets). God I love working with wool.

Let's use the apothecary work sheet on an iconic herb in the Acadian pantry, the Summer Savory (Sarriette d'été). This page can help you get some spell-work correspondences due to associations you write within.

I got to know summer savory when I moved to Nova Scotia. Outside the Maritimes, it's not an herb you see often in supermarkets, and if you do, thank you, Farmer John's Herbs! It pairs great with potatoes, different meats, and other root vegetables, and is a staple in the Acadian pantry. How did it become a staple among our people? It's a story emblematic of our displacement and resilience.

The lore often points to the town of Burnt Church, New Brunswick, and the Robichaud family.

The herb made its way from Europe with our French ancestors, and thrived in our 17th century kitchen gardens. Following the capture of Louisbourg by the British in July 1758, Col. James Murray was sent to destroy Acadian settlements in the Miramichi region. On 17 September 1758, Murray reported spending two days in Miramichi Bay looking unsuccessfully for Acadians, but destroying anything he found; one of them being the first stone church built in New Brunswick. No Mi'kmaq or Acadian was safe from those raids. My own family sought refuge in Camp d'Espérance, along the Miramichi River. It's a region that was rife with starvation, hiding out, and great suffering. (1).

Through the Acadian Expulsion, our gardens were scorched to the ground, and we were forced to either live out in abject poverty and forced service in the American Colonies, or find a way to come back home in secret. Once we did come back to the Maritimes (when we were legally 'allowed' to come back), we were given poor land for cultivation (our previous fertile lands occupied by New England settlers brought in by the Crown and their N-E Protestant co-conspirators), or did subsistence fishing on the isolated coastlines. (1) The sturdy, hardy summer savory plant was still growing in the ditches of neighbouring farms and on rocky highland cliff sides of coastal communities, helping sustain us through the consequential poverty we endured in the nineteenth century into the early-twentieth..

A descendant of the deported Acadians, Jean Prudent Robichaud (1867-1958) supposedly acquired the seeds from a Mi'kmaq woman from the Esgenoôpetitj First Nation at Burnt Church, NB, while he was working on Mi’kmaq farms with his draft horse. (2) Both Mi'kmaq and Acadians were forced to compete for meagre resources following the Seven Years' War and the Acadian Expulsion, and as a result, that pre-deportation cooperative relationship soured. It's something I'm hoping gets remediated, as I see examples of really terrible racism and vandalism (I think of the Baie Sainte-Marie lobster fishing rights being challenged by some Acadian/settler fishermen, causing loss of catch/materials/livelihood vehicles in the Sipekne'katik First Nation in 2020, and ongoing to this day.) (4)

This shared history of loss, oppression, forced subsistence agriculture, and the intimacy and comfort of Acadian cooking make it a powerful herb to recall your Acadian ancestors, and to start allyship workings.

It's a plant that is so closely tied to Acadian culture, I wanted to share just how soul-sustaining and cooperative our culture is, courtesy of the University of Maine's Culture Focus page on the Acadians and our cultural values:

Spirit of cooperation; some Acadians say its from cooperatively building and maintaining miles of dykes; others say it is evident in the number of successful fishing, farming and other economic Co-ops.

Adapting to and thriving in new circumstances, as evidenced by the maintenance and evolution of Acadian culture in all areas of the world where Acadians live.

Joyful pleasure in family gatherings and festivities, as evidenced by vibrant music and performances, and by summer family reunions attended by thousands of relatives. (3)

With those key features in mind, Summer Savory can be used in holiday cooking to incite warmth and love, help you in social justice and community efforts to replenish your strength (it being such a hardy plant), and doing spells for adaptability and embracing change.

The following care instructions are taken directly from the Albert County Museum & RR Bennett Centre.

Culinary uses: Summer savory is a common herb in Atlantic Canada and associated with holiday food. For example, turkey stuffing for Thanksgiving is made with summer savory rather than sage. Summer savory plays a significant role in Acadian food culture. The herb is the main seasoning in fricot (rabbit or chicken stew). It is also a component of the Herbes de Provence mix.

Crop description: Compared to modern varieties of summer savory, Ancienne d’Acadie is a short, stocky plant with a strong flavour. It grows 8-12 inches in height and is more cold-resistant than modern varieties. The plant is quite beautiful with delicate small leaves and a profusion of light purple blooms, which attract bees and other pollinators.

Growing: Direct-seed in the spring after threat of frost has passed. During the season, tip-propagation can be used to acquire new plants. It can be harvested throughout the growing season or just cut in the fall. It pairs well alongside onions and beans, enhancing their flavours, and keeps aphids away.

Seedsaving: The variety must be isolated from other varieties of summer savory in order to keep the variety pure. The seeds are tiny and care must be taken while processing seeds to avoid losing the seeds with the chaff. Norbert Robichaud harvests the small seed pods in early November. He crushes and winnows these in a light breeze. He cleans the seeds by rolling the rest of the seed on a sheet of paper, and gently blowing the remaining chaff of the seed. (2)

Another Traditional Seed-Saving Method: Women of the household would cut the twigs from the summer savory bush to dry them for winter. Once cultivated, the leaves of picked off the stems. The stems have little seeds attached to them. The seeds would then be dried, and placed in glass containers for winter storage. Once all the foliage was consumed, the seeds would always be found at the bottom of the glass for sowing in spring!

You can grab your seeds here at Écoumène Édaphon in Saint-Damien, Québec, once they're back in stock:

So, here's the page example in English for all of you lovely folks, but I'll write things by hand in French for my own records:

Sources

John Mack Faragher. A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland. W.W Norton & Company, 2005. 562 pages. 

Albert County Museum & RR Bennett Centre. Summer Savory: The Herb of Acadie.

https://umaine.edu/teachingcanada/culture-focus-acadia-acadians/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/commercial-lobster-fishing-indigenous-rights-dfo-9.6995262

We’re learning fléchée today with some yarn from Dollarama!! I’m hooked :)

I'm planning some sealskin boots based on the Acadian brogannes patterns I shared earlier in the month. I also found a PDF of a person from West St. Modeste in Newfoundland and Labrador explaining how the boots were made, from the preparation of the fur and leather, down to the sewing steps. I'm still collecting resources, and happy to share what I find!

My capote overcoat is coming along very well! I took a 1760s justacorps pattern, and extended the front panels for a double-breasted look. I have my doubts if one fur trade blanket will cover it though.. so much skirt.

All in all, drafting and making the mockup took me just about seven hours. Mind you, I just assembled the pieces real fast with the widest stitch, and no construction or tailoring canvas. I just wanted to see if an 18th century pattern fit me, and it did!

It’s meant to take the important design elements of French Canadian capote coats, like the justacorps design, and the sash closing it shut. I am aware I may need to use linen ties at the front but…. I love buttons too much. I wanted it to be a pattern from back then, but with the mercery and the comforts of today: like buttons. And you know, some Outlander-esque tomfoolery that a historical fur trader wouldn’t have time for, like embroidery or other embellishments. I might make it out of melton wool in either blue or grey, and line it with linen. I’m thinking of making a fur vest underneath to keep warm in colder weather.

First hike of the year in Point Pleasant Park! It was a beautifully misty day, with lots of frog croaking, and I found a lot of bunchberry (quatre temps) flowers and a blueberry (beluet) bush!

Photo: my grandmother's bread oven on the shores of the Saguenay River.

The end of this week brought about a comforting presence in my environment. As we booked our tickets to finally visit Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean this summer, it was also my great-great grand-dad's birthday on June 11th.

Joseph Gilbert (1892-1983) was a loving dad with a patient eye for natural phenomena, and a love of fiddling. His wife Flore Savard would always make sure that there was a maple syrup barrel at the ready for one of his sweet-tooth cravings, and he would also harvest his own tobacco, insisting the plants had to be picked by the waxing crescent, otherwise, the plants would wither and no longer be fit to smoke. He loved watching patterns in nature. With his trusty farmer's almanac in his pocket, he'd watch the skies for signs of rain or storms. When his wife and their daughter Florida (my great-grandma) would prepare the bread dough for baking in the stone oven outside, he'd set up the oven, stoke the fires, and place all the filled bread tins until the oven was full. He always prized home-made bread, and was a bit finicky if he went to dine elsewhere. He also hunted moose for his family to feast on annually.

All these little memories that I read in my great-grandma's biography, written by my great-aunt Florence Bergeron, had me a bit wistful. In my post about the sugaring season, there was a prayer that sugar makers would say on this feast day, to ensure their harvests. Their trade, along with Joseph Gilbert's love of maple syrup (and the great lengths he went to to acquire his annual barrel sometimes), had me taking on a more personal approach to this feast day. To remind us of the prayer used, here it is below:

Sugar makers would make consecrations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June. All sugar makers that were part of the Association des producteurs would recite the following prayer: 

"Par la chaleur et le feu du foyer, l'eau de nos érables se débarrasse de ses impuretés et devient notre délicieux sirop d'érable. N'est-ce pas aussi par la chaleur et le feu du foyer si ardent de l'amour de Votre Divin Coeur que nos pauvres coeurs, purifiés de leurs imperfections, se changeront en des coeurs que Vous aimerez davantage. Faites que notre volonté soit aussi ferme que le bois franc de nos érables, que nous respections toujours les lois de la justice et de l'honnêteté chrétienne dans notre travail et nos transactions commerciales. Soyez le Roi aimé et respecté dans nos cabanes à sucre. Nous vous promettons d'y exposer Votre image pour que toutes les 'parties de sucre' soient sous votre protection."

My translation: "By the heat of the hearth fires, the water of our maples gets rid of its impurities and becomes our delicious maple syrup. Is it not also by the heat of the hearth fires, so ardent like the love of your Sacred Heart, that our own hearts are purified or their imperfections, and transform into hearts that would reflect your Love. Make our resolve as sturdy as the wood of our maples, may we always adhere to the rule of law and Christian honesty in our trade and in our commercial undertakings. You are the most respected and loved King in our sugar shacks. We promise to keep your Holy Image hung on its walls, so that every sugar season is under your protection."

The day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is  celebrated the third Sunday after Pentecost, sometimes the whole month of June. Nowadays in Quebec, it passes us by, but was mostly celebrated and observed at the sanctuary of Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, on the rue Sainte-Ursule in Quebec City, now a heritage building, and no longer an open, functioning chapel since 2016. In the nineteenth century into the early 20th, this feast day was welcomed with much pomp and joy. Some communities also had superstitious phenomena occur that day regarding fire. In Lanoraie, QC, in June 1881, after an evening service for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a fire broke out on the altar in the chapel. The Sacred Heart of Jesus statue on this blazing altar was left untouched. A bishop from Montreal, Édouard-Charles Fabre, consecrated this statue in 1882, and since, it’s been the origin of a popular pilgrimage site in Lanoraie. (Abbot A. Desrosiers, 1983.) Jeanne Pomerleau "Saints et fêtes du jour au Canada Français" Les éditions GID, 2014.

Even as flames engulf everything in the growing heat of summer, and as the sun increases in strength for the summer solstice, leaves are in full greenery, the light stays out longer into the twilight, and I’m convinced out of my apartment to go enjoy the woods. 

Today was a work day and a busy week, so I didn’t end up doing much, but I think, to both honour Joseph Gilbert, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and that day’s special prayers uttered by our sugaring tradesmen of so long ago, I’d do something like this for a celebration/ritual:

I’d start off with the prayer above, then, I’d offer a maple syrup bottle to my altar, and bless it with something tobacco-scented (though I haven’t figured out what just yet.. I’m not a smoker, my wife has asthma, and yeah, don’t want nicotine.) From there, I’d take a walk in the woods with an almanac or a tree guide, and try to befriend, get to know any plants in my area. Maybe one day I’ll have one little tobacco plant that I can watch grow, and remember how fondly my ancestor kept his own. The fire of the candles, of the Sacred Heart, bring you back to yourself, and to your inner-most feelings of being human, and being open to others. Let the Sacred Heart teach you how to help others in need, reach out to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while, and put yourself aside to help someone else. While I may be exhausted, annoyed, and just overall sour at times, it helps to slow down a bit, breathe, and just remember: we're all human beings trying to survive in this hellscape. I love every moment I get to meet someone new, whenever I can ask someone a question about their life experience, or when I go to church on Sundays and ask someone how their week went and watch their eyes well up with emotion (I'm just glad they can share things with me).

Do you ever just.. well up at seeing a 2cm glass dove bead from the Acadian Belleisle archeological site? I did.

Source: Dr. Hilary Doda. Fashioning Acadians, clothing in the Atlantic world, 1650-1750. McGill Queens University press. 2023

Dr. Hilary Doda was my costume studies history teacher in the Costume Studies program at Dalhousie University, a real gem of a person.

She’s giving a talk about it on July 14th! Email [email protected] for Zoom access!