Ever wonder what that weird woven basket thing in the shape of a cone or horn that you see around  thanksgiving is called?  Well, wonder no more. The cornucopia (Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as horn of plenty, Horn of Amalthea, and harvest cone.      In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk. When her horn was...

     Virginians claim that they actually held the first Thanksgiving festivities a full two years before the pilgrims of Massachusetts.  Captain John Woodlief led a little ship called the Margaret, carrying 38 English settlers from the Berkeley parish in England, to a grassy slope along the James River they then dubbed the Berkeley Plantation in 1619.       The story is that the settlers had been ordered by the London company...

     “When I became convinced that the universe is natural—that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom.      The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all...

    In keeping with my new penchant for blogging about the holidays, which I think I really overdid at Halloween, I am going to post some info about Thanksgiving.  I don’t want to post the usual info though.  I already have a couple posts about how this holilday, in particular, is a pretty mixed bag in terms of being both a good and also a fairly evil celebration.  Today I thought I focus on some things we take for granted,...

Silvery blue on the outside, vivid orange inside, Jarrahdale squashes are almost too pretty to eat. So decorate your doorstep for a day, then bake it in a pie (or something more interesting). . . . . A very old favorite from the old central market in Paris in the 1880s, and as pretty as it’s meat is sweet, the rouge vif d’etampes (red stamps) may be French, but it has a long history in America. Make a new tradition with a...

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM7BNqZy-Ys Share :Share