To see you flutter by, you butterfly

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

“My piano has more significance than just making music with the Floyd. It’s been a therapy for me.”

“Can I see the portrait now?”

“Of course you can; it’s your birthday present.”

Excited, Rick removes the piece of cloth Syd had used to keep the painting hidden for the past few days. He remains silent for a while, and an irrational fear creeps into Syd’s mind. What if Rick doesn’t like it?

“It’s beautiful,” Rick says finally, his voice very soft.

Syd sighs, relieved. “I’m glad you like it.”

“You really thought I wasn’t going to like it?” Rick turns to face him. “I love everything you do.” He lifts one of Syd’s hands and kisses it before looking at the painting again. “You put a lot of care into my eyes.”

“I love your eyes.”

That shy smile Syd adores flickers across Rick’s face. “I also like how bright it is. You used many shades of yellow and orange for the background.”

“It had to be very luminous, like you.”

“Like me?”

“I didn’t know how beautiful and bright life could be until I met you.” He brushes Rick’s cheek. “You make everything better.”

“I’m so incredibly lucky to have you.” Rick wraps Syd in a tight and warm embrace. “Thank you for everything.”

At the end of the rainbow

Synopsis: My personal interpretation of Syd's homecoming Character: Syd Barrett

Hello everyone, I'm writing this fiction as today marks twenty years from Syd's passing. And in my head he didn't die... he simply went back home.

***

When he arrived in the earthly world, Syd Barrett had crossed a rainbow, leaving the forest from which he came: an ancient place, where dreams knew no sunset, populated by gnomes in scarlet tunic drinking strawberry and blueberry wine, scarecrows in barley fields conversing with the wind, Siamese cats playing jazz, and storytellers weaving stories from blades of grass.

His earthly life was as brief as the flight of a butterfly; he had walked among men disguised as one of them, carrying a piece of his world with him.

And when the forest claimed its strangest elf, the same rainbow reappeared, bending until it touched his feet. Syd crossed it slowly, a smile on his face and his pockets full of stardust and music, until he disappeared among the trees, where the gnomes toasted in his honour and the pixies chased each other among the mushrooms.

Somewhere, hidden among the willows, the storyteller had resumed the story she had interrupted.

A pipe was heard in the distance as he approached, and then everyone knew the elf had returned home.

There, at the end of the rainbow.

Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett

Mike Rutherford Appreciation Post: Bearded Beauty Edition 💕😍

(Bonus pic of him with a cute cat included) 🤭