Story Edie (Complete)

Kathy in FL

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________

Chapter 184​


Christmas came and went. It was quiet up on our mountain but the same couldn’t be said in other places. It was turning into a particularly bad winter in most of the northern hemisphere, even Georgia and Texas were getting colder than normal temps. Florida was as well but that’s all relative. California was losing a lot of its farm land due to infrastructure failure … not enough water for the farmers to irrigate the big fields. The Midwest had the same problem but thankfully it looked like the grain crops were going to make; assuming they could keep terrorist activity to a minimum to prevent destroying the crops before they could get them out of the field.

Down in Dunnville, however they came to the compromise, outposts were created at both entrances to town at the bridges. Uncle Dakota cussed a bit at the extra attention the MAG patrols got on occasion, but he admitted that there were offsets to it. Such as it was easier to get material for rebuilding the town’s infrastructure. Most of it was reclaimed stuff from where buildings that were damaged beyond repair in the larger cities were taken down to keep them from falling down and doing more damage, but it was still more than most other places could get.

The Chief’s sister documented everything. Most people she told it was for town history and “posterity”, but she was also one slick lady and I heard from Nels Gibson that she was keeping track in case someone came looking for the stuff down the road wanting it back, or compensation for it of some type. And speaking of Nels, he made a special trip up the mountain in January to deliver something that his office had received not long after I had become “incommunicado” after Draft Day.

“Why didn’t you give it to Winn?” I asked.

“Multiple reasons but mostly because it was addressed to you in your maiden name,” he said as he handed the envelope over.

“So?” When he just looked at me, I rolled my eyes. Nels Gibson is going to be a lawyer at the Pearly Gates.

Since he had come up with Uncle Dakota I fed both men. And they needed it. Both were leaner than was healthy. Similar to the way Winn could get no matter how much I tried to feed him up. Healthy fats were just hard to come by in any quantity. I’d found some turkey tail mushrooms[1] in a protected area that hadn’t gotten destroyed by the light dusting of snow we’d had two days before. I made mushroom and garlic soup with them and some early field garlic[2] I had found using my nose in the cold air. I also made some Field Garlic Sourdough Crackers[3] to go with it. And before they left, I dosed both men with Elderberry and Rose Hip Tonic[4] and sent a bottle of it back to Sherree who I learned just couldn’t get her strength back.

“You got anymore of these kind of ideas?”

“Ideas?” I asked having only caught half the conversation that had been going on around me while I was thinking.

Nels said, “Medicinals. There is a higher than normal amount of illness this year but less and less modern medicine to deal with it.”

Uncle Dakota added, “You say this is made with Rose Hips, them little red balls. They’re all over the place in the cemetery but people just don’t pay attention to them because they’ve always been there. I know I never thought of them as berries or food or whatever the hell they are.”

Pulling up my memory bank on the subject I said, “They’re a type of fruit. Two tablespoons of rose hips contain 76% of the recommended amount of Vit C an adult is supposed to have daily. And ask Mrs. Willowdean for recipes, she’s got a buttload of them as they are some of her secret family recipes.” Both men made a face and I almost laughed. Mrs. Willowdean’s tongue could be at least as sharp as mine and she’d been practicing using it a lot longer than I had.

The only thing that concerned me about replacing citrus-source Vit C with the rose hips-source Vit C is that a few studies said it aided in metabolizing and using belly fat. If people were already suffering from loss of fat in their diets, the rose hips could make a bad problem worse. I made a note of that for Uncle Dakota to give to Monty and he’d just have to decide on a case-by-case basis.

Not long after Uncle Dakota and Nels left we got another visitor. The Woman. I eventually learned her name but for my own reasons I’m not ever going to record it. You can’t take back things you never say and I just would rather be safe than sorry. Winn had taken the letter with him when he took the kids downstairs. The cold was making them sleepy, and it was also zapping Winn’s strength. I was grateful that he was letting me put that salve on his arm because no matter what we were doing it would get dry and try and crack in places if he was outside too much without relief. He said it had never been that bad which told me it was because of other reasons … stress, diet, something. I never missed the internet as much as I did when the books that I’d accumulated didn’t give me the information I was needing.

I went out onto the porch and before she could start talking she started with a dry cough.

“Hold that thought,” I told her before going in and coming back out with the last cup of Elderberry and Rose Hip Tonic. “Drink this. And stop with the face, that’s worse than what the kids do. It isn’t poison you know.”

She gave me Auntie Eye but tossed back the dose and said, “Tastes a hell of a lot better than what the docs are handing out.”

“Lot’s of sick in the ranks?”

“Yeah. But don’t spread it around.”

“Who would I spread it to?”

“Still not getting out much?”

I crossed my arms and said, “What are you up here for? And don’t tell me you were just checking on me to make sure I was behaving, not if you’ve been sick.”

I pointed to the rocker and she sat rather gratefully. Her skin was ashy which wasn’t a good sign. She wasn’t faking illness … or at least recovery from an illness.

“Had time on my hands and did some investigating.”

“Sounds like fun.”

She snorted then said, “It was buried deep, but it has been confirmed that Bartholomew Portelli is dead and that he changed his legal name to his middle name Huebert … or Huebie for short … to try and distance himself from his past. Do you know where his daughter is?”

“I assume with his parents who had custody of her from what he said when we were in school.”

“Hmm. They’ve dropped off the radar. It appears intentionally.”

I shrugged. “Not my business. The Huebie I knew was a decent person, but we weren’t more than classmates, and no one better be trying to rewrite history. I didn’t need to know his past to work with him on school projects, and he was a loner and didn’t appear to be looking for anything else, at least from me. He was all about the don’t-screw-around-in-online-group. He’s the one that set the tone for that sort of thing. He always struck me as someone that didn’t want any kind of trouble.”

“Agreed,” she said, surprising me. “It was Professor Heaton that tried to make it be something other than it was. She was building a soap opera plot for her friend … the mother of the biological father of your daughter.”

“The Sperm Donor, that’s all he ever was,” I said with a growl.

She nodded in understanding which surprised me and even more so when she said, “I’ve got one of those myself. He was never in my life at any point. My mother’s second husband adopted me and he was my dad. So while I understand, if it comes up you’re just going to have to accept how other people look at it. Especially if you ever decide to try and get an inheritance for your daughter.”

“That won’t be happening. The judge removed his parental rights during the trial and all the rest of that legal yada yada. And now he and all the rest are dead. Next subject.”

She let it go but I got the feeling she didn’t agree with me. I could care less if people understand or not. I’ve got his family’s medical history in case Teena ever needs it but that’s all she is ever going to need from that genetic happenstance.

“How do you know what … or how … or whatever … Professor Heaton’s plans?” I asked to fill the silence.

“Funny thing that. For such an academically smart woman, she was dumb as a stump in almost every other area of her life.” I blinked and she just continued. “Her family made some noise at her death. She had a partner that was dependent on her income and wanted her slice of the pie of the estate. Heaton’s office was sealed during the investigation and then afterwords everything was boxed up as evidence in case something came of it down the road. Her appointment book was in a box addressed to Quantico where it appears she was promised a position. The position was not specified in any documentation that has been uncovered so it is possible that she was being scammed or there were plans to Deep Six her. That’s an assumption but no proof currently exists one way or the other. What is known is that she appears to have tried to use one set of connections to help another set.”

“And that means what?”

“She was already deeply involved with the democratic socialist party. It is known that those who must not be named had their hooks into it at several levels. She was paid to gather names of personality types that would be useful come Draft Day. You … she just hated your guts. The … sperm donor … was her god son.”

“We really need to get a theme song for the show called As The Stomach Turns.”

She shrugged. “It happens and it is usually that kind of messiness that uncovers evidence that might otherwise have gone undetected. She met her end before she could reap the consequences of her choices. However …”

“Oh what now?!”

“The investigation into those ‘running hounds’ we’ve spoken of, has lost momentum. It takes a lot of energy to fight a war, especially one with this many fronts. I’m being … reassigned. That might mean something, or it might mean nothing at all. But just in case, you need to watch your back and keep your ear to the ground.”

“Why do you even care?” I asked with honest curiosity.

“Because Kid, you earned it. You could have walked by and no one could have blamed you. But you tried to do the right thing. It should count. Unfortunately not everyone sees it like that. In this case, I do.”

I gave it a thought and then said, “Hang on.”

I went into the kitchen and pulled out a few things. I explained it to Winn after she left and he agreed.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Maybe I believe in things counting as well. Don’t open any of it until you get someplace private so you can repack it in your gear. I know it is all good because I made it; some recently and some in better days. There’s elderberry syrup for colds and flu[5] in one of the plastic squeeze bottles and in the other is Medicinal Honey with Ginger and Rose Hips[6]. They aren’t magic bullets but they should help you finish getting over whatever the crud is you have. There is some jerky and some dry soup mixes in case you get caught out while traveling. And there’s an unregistered M9 with a block of ammo in case you need a throw away.”

She gave me a long look and nodded. It had taken time but, we understood each other as much as any such interaction could bring that about.

[1] The Best Recipes to Try With Your Fresh Turkey Tail Mushrooms - Foraged - Foraged
[2] Wild Garlic (aka field garlic, aka Allium vineale) - Backyard Forager
[3] https://www.foodtalkdaily.com/recipes/cooking-method/baking/sourdough-crackers-recipe-with-field-garlic-44465081?amp%3Bdate=20230616&amp%3Bps=soc_btn
[4] Immune-Boosting Elderberry and Rose Hips Tonic
[5] Brew a Cup of Elderberry Tea for Colds and Flu
[6] How to Make Raw Medicinal Honey with Ginger and Rosehips
 
Kathy in FL

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________

Chapter 185​


As soon as I made sure that The Woman had left and that no one else was going to drop by unexpectedly needing hospitality – and yes that was a buttload of sarcasm – I checked on Winn and the kids. Kids were napping. Winn, who needed to, was not. But at least he didn’t look as dark under the eyes as he had after morning chores. I explained about what I’d given The Woman and he let me know he didn’t have a problem with it. We had it to give that time.

Rather than laying down like I’d wanted him to he came back upstairs and handed me the letter. “Open it.”

“Just tell me what is in it,” I responded.

“It wasn’t addressed to me.” I was not going to get into word games and after giving him an eyeroll I took it and slit it open with my fingernail. They’d finally started growing again and were no longer so weak they bent like rubber.

Before I took the letter out, I saw it was addressed to me from the university. I assumed it was something about graduation. I was wrong. And it wasn’t even from the university.

“Give me a … minute or two.” My brain was in a blender and I was having trouble controlling my reactions.

He looked over my shoulder and saw the memory tabs affixed to the letter.

“Babe?”

“You’ll know as soon as I do.”

Rather than risk any of our machines, online or off, I pulled out the memory reader I had cobbled together back at Fort Lee. It is what I had used to read the original file from Dunnellon and out of habit I had kept it all this time.

After I had given them a quick look over, I told him, “I gotta go.”

“You sure you can trust this?”

“Yeah. I’ll explain when I get back but I gotta go before she gets too far.”

# # # # #

“Have you lost your mind?! I could have shot you Kid! What the hell is the idea running up on me like that?!”

Rather than answer her I hissed at her, “You could have told me.”

She froze. Then we both heard it at the same time. I dragged her back into some trees towards one of those fall back points that Winn and I had scoped out after the Battle of Dunnville.

Three men were walking up the road. Their boots scuffing up the heavy layer of leaves is what we’d heard. I was praying they hadn’t heard us over the crunch, crunch, crunch.

“What are we doing up here? You know this area is off limits except to locals.” The first one turned out to be the most nervous of the three.

“Then why does she always come up here?” one of the other two answered.

“Twice does not make a lot,” the third responded. “She’s likely looking for a backdoor out of here. I want to make sure she doesn’t have a way out when the time comes. She’s been a pain in my ass long enough.”

I got cold, and not from the weather.

The Woman stopped me from doing what I was about to do. Then their radio squawked. From the codes used they were told to report to base. All three of the men made a rude gesture at to comm link but they responded appropriately and turned back the way they’d come.

When I was sure the men couldn’t hear us, I whispered, “Your unit has been infiltrated.”

She just grunted thoughtfully then turned to really look at me. “Why did you run to catch me?”

“Because what you asked if I had gotten. Well, I just got it. It was delivered not long after graduation day but I only recently took possession of it and only got around to opening the blasted thing after you left. It’s addressed like it came from the university and I thought it was just school stuff.”

“What was it?”

“I haven’t read it all. Most of it looks like stuff I’ve already handed off. Now tell me why you didn’t let me know.”

“Barty is … was my stepbrother. I thought he was being held captive and I was looking for him.”

“I’m … sorry.”

“Yeah. Me too. He could be …” She shook her head. “But he made his choice, obviously. He tried to get word to me but the transmission … I only got every third or fourth word. Do you know where our parents are?”

“No. All I got was that he had buried his family deep, he just hoped it was deep enough.”

She made a face and asked, “That’s exactly what he said?”

“Yeah. I take it that means something.”

“Yeah, you could say that. Nothing that you need to know.”

“Good. Fewer that know …” I wasn’t quite ready to let her know the rest. Instead I asked, “Why me?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t play innocent. Why you and why me? Coincidences in real life are few and far between.”

She was silent for a moment. “He asked me to look after you. I was too pissed about his disappearance for a long time and then got busy doing other things that are none of your damn business Kid. Then your name came across my CO’s desk. I wasn’t kidding, you nearly got me killed. I was deep undercover at the time. The more I got to know you the worse I felt about ignoring Barty’s message. And the crap you were handing me … man … you could have probably asked for the moon, and they would have made sure you got it, but you didn’t want a damn thing. You just wanted to go home. He did care about you you know.”

“Uh uh.”

“Not that way. We had a little sister. She was gorgeous, smart, exotic-looking, but … troubled. Or more like trouble followed her around. Being bi-racial didn’t make things any easier on her. She got involved with the wrong guy. Her son is Barty’s daughter’s age. She walked out the door one morning and we still don’t know where she is … or if she is. Barty could never find a sign of her Stateside. He lost his clearance when he was caught looking for her internationally in the kind of places rich men play. I didn’t know he was addicted to fentanyl until afterwards. He let the addiction be what got him caught to avoid any other kind of complications.”

“Including that you were in on the search?”

She gave a brief nod.

“Fine. So, you had your reasons not to tell me at first. I’ll even cut you some slack for not telling me now. But there’s no way I can just forget it now that I do know. And there’s no way you can go back to town now that you … we … know you have a target on your back.”

“Listen Kid …”

“No, you listen. Come back to the cabin, get out of the cold and take some time to make a plan. Look over what Huebie sent me. See if you can use it as … leverage.”

“Kid, it only works that way in the movies.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. But maybe not. Let’s see what we can put together.”

She hesitated longer than I was happy with, but she agreed to come back but she only stayed long enough to put a few things together before saying, “Thanks Barty. We have them now.”
 
Sammy55

Sammy55

Veteran Member
Wow! The plot really really thickens here!

So, the "no name" lady shall remain the "no name" lady, but now she's a regular "no name" person in the house, at least for awhile. Sometime, Kathy, you are going to have Edie slip up and give us "no name" lady's name, right? LOL!!

Thanks for the new chapters. Come back soon, ya hear? We'll leave the light on for ya! (Especially since part of this story is getting spooky, and it's right around the corner from Halloween!)
 
Kathy in FL

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________

Chapter 186​


Things grew quiet after the revelations of The Woman, the letter from Huebie, and then her taking off the same night. The only reason that I knew … or at least heard … that she’d gotten to a safe place was that Nels Gibson accidentally ran into her when he went to go help negotiate some supplies for Dunnsville in Youngtown. He said all she did was give him a thumbs up and a nod. I presume she thought it would eventually get back to me and that was as good as I was going to get. She hadn’t explained her saying “we have them now” and I accepted I never would. There’s a cost for waning to keep my name out of things and I knew The Woman was doing her part on my behalf to keep it that way. Besides Winn and I were busy.

You know that itchy feeling between your shoulder blades? The one that tells you something is back there but you aren’t sure if it is a who or a what? Both of us were feeling it. For Winn some of it was the need to protect me from having to go to town. I was okay with that because I felt the same way in return. Some of it was just how bad winter was and what we were hearing on the radio. When the weather let up here in the South we expected a mess of people trying to cross state lines to get some place warmer where they presumed there were more resources than where they came from. Problem with that kind of thinking is that we weren’t able to take care of our own, there was no way we could take on a lot of people that had nothing to start with. People were desperate and they forgot the lessons learned when the Southern Border was open.

Neither one of us knew for sure what that kind of influx would do to access to supplies and resources but we assumed the worst and planned accordingly. There was nothing left of the cartel camp or whatever you want to call it. Between the Dunnsville MAG and the military it had been stripped of everything, even trash that was fed to the energy producing incinerators the military had brought in to avoid using anymore fuel that they had to. But I’d already taken what I thought would have been useful and Winn had it stored in a “bunker” he dug under one of his sheds. He also started working on the connecting tunnels he wanted between them and the main house. It was hard work. It was backbreaking when we’d run into an area that the clay contained a lot of rock. But Winn felt it needed so we did it.

When I wasn’t helping with moving dirt I was making my own plans. Toward the end of January that included what foraging I could get that early in the year. There wasn’t a single rose hip left in our area. They were a valuable source of Vit C. I also learned to make and enjoy a tea made from dried hips. The kids looked forward to their morning gummi bear[1] that I’d made since we didn’t have any vitamins they could take.

I dug sassafras root and set them aside to do with when I could get around to it: sassafras root beer[2], sassafras tea[3], and Sassafras wine[4]. On warmer days I gathered birch twigs and sap to experiment with on those days the weather was too inclement to do anything outside, or even work in the tunnels: Sweet birch tea[5], Birch beer[6], “Wintergreen” extract[7], and Birch sap wine[8].

And then it was February and the news on the radio was no better, but thankfully no worse, giving us more time to prepare for what we felt was coming. The field garlic was more abundant, and I gathered all that I could find without stripping it from around the home site: Cottage cheese and field garlic bread[9], Roasted garlic jelly[10], and Garlic and herb soup. I tried to have a “green broth” that had plenty of garlic in it at least once a day, usually as a “snack” to warm up with at some point. I had some small alphabet pasta that wouldn’t last much longer before getting rancid so I would add that to the kids’ mugs and they thought it was their own special treat, one they never turned their nose up at. Not that they ever did turn their nose up at food. We couldn’t afford it. We were all always hungry. Not the gnawing hunger of starvation, but the hunger that was the result of cold and hard work.

I even turned my hand to learning to make pine needles palatable. My efforts were appreciated but were hit or miss. Conifer seasoning I hoped to turn into a barter item at some point so I made more than we would use ourselves. You prepare your needles and dehydrate them. Once dry, grind them in a blender or coffee grinder. Use as you would any seasoning powder. The spruce is stronger and can be used in the same places you would use rosemary; the fir are mild; and the Eastern White pine the mildest of all. These are good in/on vegetables, soup, meats, chicken, fish and desserts. The other things I tried were pine cookies[11], Pine needle tea[12], White pine vinegar[13], Pine needle salad dressing[14], Pine needle syrup[15], and Pine needle flan[16].

February turned to March and the weather started turning as well. It was chaos on the roads. Most people were moving by foot power because those with money and ration points for fuel we well off enough to survive the winter and not have to worry about returning north like the Snowbirds used to when things got too hot in the South.

The warming we had in March also meant more to forage starting with my asparagus patch that I’d planted before graduation. The ‘gus wasn’t a huge harvest, but it was green and fresh and we all needed it. I knew that the patch would spread and thicken and next year I would get more.

We ate the chickweed and dandelions to keep them from taking the garden area over. Chickweed was easy. I made creamy chickweed dressing and salad[17], buttered chickweed[18], chickweed bean spread[19], and chickweed tincture[20] to keep in the medicine arsenal. Winn turned his hand to making a small batch of chickweed wine[21] to go with his other experiments. I figure if it takes a while to restart a business, we’d have enough moonshine and liquors of other types to get by on the sly. Mrs. Willowdean told some good stories on the Dunn family and all the moonshine stills hiding out in the mountains.

I experimented with dandelions about any way I could; cooked and every other way imaginable: Dandelion flower pasta[22], Dandelion broth, Dandelion and potato soup[23], Dandelion jelly[24], Dandelion syrup[25], Dandy Muffin Tops[26], Bake dandelion[27], Dandelion Beer[28], Dandelion Burgers[29], Dandelion blossom bread[30], Cream of dandelion soup[31], Dandelion egg salad[32], Dandelion and Burdock Beer[33], Dandelion soft drink[34], and even Dandelion lemonade[35].

Garlic mustard was another new one for March. It too was useful but hit or miss in taste. I only had three successes with it to be honest: garlic mustard hummus[36], garlic mustard ravioli[37], and garlic mustard mustard[38]. I had a lot more success with the violets that were springing up in clumps seeming all over the place: Violet jelly[39], Violet Jelly[40], Violet syrup[41], Candied violets[42], Crème de Violet[43], Violet leaf tea[44], Violet vinegar[45], Violet salad[46], Violet sugar[47], Violet Mint Salad[48], Creamy Violet Dressing[49], Violet Meringues[50], Violet Punch[51], Violet Marmalade[52], and Violet tonic[53].

I’m sure whoever is reading this journal umppity-bump years from now is probably wondering where all the sugar and other sweeteners were coming from for me to make some of the stuff I was experimenting with. Well, Winn and I had stored a frick ton of store-bought sugar in five-gallon buckets. Some of it was turning out to be one massive lump that I had to grate to get the use of because it was hard as a rock. Some of it was all the honey that Winn had taken in barter for his work and since the stuff doesn’t go bad all I had to do was warm it a little if it had crystallized. I had nearly a wall of bricks of brown sugar (light and dark) and raw sugar as well. But that month Winn was doing his own bit of experimenting though I know it cost him because of the fire he had to use.

Winn had made a bunch of metal “taps” for harvesting tree saps and also had the buckets to go with them. Mostly we made our own maple syrup but we made a small batch of birch syrup as well. He used the syrups for a couple of small batches of wine (birch sap wine[54] and Maple syrup wine[55]) and I used them as sugar substitutes instead of honey or white, processed sugar.

We were pouring the last batch of syrup into jars and sealing it when up from the valley the wind carried the sound of automatic weapons fire.

[1] Homemade Vitamin C Gummies with Rosehips
[2] Sassafras Recipe - Sassafras Root Beer
[3] Sassafras Digging for Tea
[4] http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request210.asp
[5] Sweet Birch Tea
[6] http://www.cooks.com/recipe/vg8zw72m/birch-beer.html
[7] Wintergreen Extract from Birch
[8] http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request133.asp
[9] Field Garlic Recipe - Cottage Cheese & Field Garlic Bread
[10] http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/roasted-garlic-jelly/
[11] Pine Cookies Recipe
[12] Pine Needle Tea Recipe
[13] Simple Conifer Recipes
[14] Pine Needle Salad Dressing Recipe - Homestead & Survival
[15] Have you ever tasted pine needles? Here you go…
[16] Have you ever tasted pine needles? Here you go…
[17] Chickweed Recipe - Creamy Chickweed Dressing
[18] Buttered Chickweed Recipe
[19] Book: Wild Vegan Cookbook (kindle)
[20] http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/chickweed-tincture/
[21] http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/chickweed.asp
[22] Dandelion Recipe - Dandelion Flower Pasta
[23] Dandelion Recipe - Dandelion and Potato Soup
[24] Dandelion Recipe - Dandelion Jelly
[25] http://www.ediblewildfood.com/dandelion-syrup.aspx
[26] http://www.ediblewildfood.com/dandy-muffin-tops.aspx
[27] http://www.ediblewildfood.com/baked-dandelion.aspx
[28] http://ledameredith.com/dandelion-beer-recipe/
[29] http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
[30] http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
[31] http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
[32] http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
[33] http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
[34] http://www.eattheweeds.com/dandelions-hear-them-roar/
[35] https://recipesfromthewild.wordpress.com/dandelion-recipes/
[36] http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2011/05/garlic-mustard-recipe-garlic-mustard.html
[37] http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2013/04/garlic-mustard-recipe-garlic-mustard.html
[38] http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2011/07/garlic-mustard-recipe-garlic-mustard_22.html
[39] http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2010/05/violet-jelly.html
[40] http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/violet-flower-jelly/
[41] http://www.food.com/recipe/traditional-sweet-violet-syrup-416575
[42] http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/candied-violets
[43] https://www.pinterest.com/recipes/creme-de-violette-liqueur/
[44] http://americanvioletsociety.org/Cooking_N_Decorating/Recipe_Violet_Leaf_Tea.htm
[45] http://americanvioletsociety.org/Cooking_N_Decorating/Recipe_Violet_Vinegar.htm
[46] http://americanvioletsociety.org/Cooking_N_Decorating/Recipe_Triple_Violet_Salad.htm
[47] http://americanvioletsociety.org/Cooking_N_Decorating/Recipe_Violet_Sugar.htm
[48] https://rosebarlowsprodigalgarden.wordpress.com/2015/12/29/violet-recipes/
[49] https://rosebarlowsprodigalgarden.wordpress.com/2015/12/29/violet-recipes/
[50] http://www.cooks.com/recipe/667jm27o/violet-meringues.html
[51] http://www.cooks.com/recipe/oo8gc6ub/violet-punch.html
[52] http://www.cooks.com/recipe/ow03b6zx/violet-marmalade.html
[53] http://www.cooks.com/recipe/7v25t88y/african-violet-tonic.html
[54] http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request133.asp
[55] http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request132.asp
 
Sammy55

Sammy55

Veteran Member
ydderf said:
Thanks Kathy. I don't know if it's me or you but the cliff's seem to be getting smaller.
Click to expand...
You HAD to open your mouth, didn't you? Now we have a cliff that's higher than high, and I don't. like. heights. period!

Thanks, Kathy, for the chapter! But PLEASE get us off of this cliff!!

Edit to add: Do you make all these things that you kindly give us the recipes for? Some of them sound intriguing! I wish I was more adventurous, but I think I'll look a bunch of them up for "just in case" (which looks more and more possible as the days go by!).
 
Sammy55

Sammy55

Veteran Member
OK, you two!! NTSA!! :smkd: :sh1a: :sht: :jstr:

You raise our hopes and blood pressure only to see us dashed again. :smkd::eek:

Kathy, just know these 4 things:
1. We LOVE your stories.
2. We're waiting as patiently as we can as we know you "have a life" and it's a really busy one!
3. When we don't post in between your chapters, it's not because we've forgotten about your stories (heaven forbid!), but it's because we don't want to raise hopes and blood pressures....
4. We'll continue to wait patiently (and sometimes impatiently if you leave us on a huge cliff!) for your next chapter because we LOVE your stories!
 
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