Chincapin Nuts

The following article is re-posted from Backwoods Adventures. I’ve shared their articles a few times - Scott doesn’t blog very often but whenever he takes the time to share, I always learn something and I want to share it! He has been beyond gracious in allowing me to do so, as well as sharing pictures he brings back from his remote jaunts.

Just one note for you - I suppose this article was the first time I’ve ever seen the word CHINCAPIN in writing. We always call them “Chinky-pins” and I would’ve had to look it up to spell it correctly!

The American Chincapin

We recently ran across one of my favorite treats in the backcountry! A delicious wild nut called a Chinquapin.

The American Chinquapin (Castaneda pumila) is a “species” closely related to the chestnut although smaller. Also commonly known as the Allegheny Chinquapin or dwarf chestnut.

It is a deciduous tree found mostly in the eastern and southeastern United States. Sadly populations have declined over the last several year.

The Chinquapin tree can range in size from a small looking shrub to a small looking tree.

It’s nuts are edible and quite sweet when mature in the fall of the year. It has single seed burs. This means each burr that opens into two halves will have one small nut inside which gives the tree a distinctive chestnut look.

Legend has it that Captain John Smith not knowing what they were wrote the first European record of a Chinquapin in 1612. “The Indians have a small fruit growing on a little tree, husked like a Chestnut. This they call a “Checkinquamins”, which they esteem a great daintie.”

Cooking for the Sick

In last week’s post I shared some observations on “The Original Fanny Farmer 1896 Cookbook” and one fascinating chapter was Recipes Especially Prepared for the Sick.

I remembered another cookbook I have, “Inglenook Cook Book” (The Brethren Publishing House, 1911) which also includes a chapter entitled “For the Sick” and you know that got me to thinking…

I’ve written here before about treating the sick, about the Granny-women who doctored when professionals were unavailable and about mountain medicine, but we know that the sick are first cared for at home and historically, they were mostly kept home and cared for by family.  So, sharing knowledge of how to rehabilitate the infirm is a worthy and no doubt greatly-appreciated endeavor.

Neither of these cookbooks originate in anywhere near Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau.  However, the Inglenook, Pennsylvania region may not be terribly different.  In fact, the cookbook describes itself as containing “recipes of a segment of rural America”, and that section of rural America shares our same mountain range.  These recipes originated with the Church of the Brethren which was largely of German origin so their foods may differ those passed down from our own Scotts-Irish ancestry.

Most of us can remember a time we were sick and nothing sounded the least bit appetizing.  Maybe you’ve sat by a loved one or a child and begged them to eat a few bites.  I remember when I was a child and sick with some minor ailment, my grandparents always wanting me to eat, and offering most anything that I was willing to eat.  On a personal note, I’ll tell you that from those childhood days, whenever I’m sick I want rabbit and apple dumplings – thank you Grandpa Livesay and Grandma Stepp!  (Unfortunately, no one has carried such dishes to my sick bed since those beloved grandparents went home to heaven!)  Are you surprised that I find neither food listed in these cookbooks’ chapters on feeding the sick?

Miss Farmer asserts that, “statistics prove that tw0thirds of all disease is brought about by error in diet.”  I’d expect modern data to agree with her as we have so many major problems from obesity and excess sugar, not to mention chemical additives and preservatives.  She offers detailed instruction on setting up a dinner tray, complete with “a bright blossom … or a small vase of flowers placed in left hand corner.”  Even the more pragmatic Sisters from the Church of the Brethren, advise you to “arrange the food as daintily as possible”, and I suppose presentation is important when an appetite is weak.

The Boston cookbook describes which foods should be encouraged or avoided in given conditions.  “Fruit waters are principally used for fever patients.  They are cooling refreshing, and mildly stimulating, and are valuable for the salts and acids they contain….Egg-nogs are recommended… when the system is much reduced by a severe illness.”  She warns that corn and oatmeal are “heat-producing, and should never be given when inflammatory symptoms are present.”

I was particularly interested that, “flour and cracker gruels to many prove a pleasant variety, and often assist in reducing a laxative condition.”  (I don’t entirely understand that phraseology and can only expect it means that the gruels will help with diarrhea – not to be indelicate.)  This was of interest to me because my grandparents taught me to eat it – of course we just called it Crackers and Milk. 

Finally, I want to share one convalescent recipe from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Rennet Custard. 

Heat 1 cup milk until lukewarm; add 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon sherry win.  When sugar is dissolved, add 1 teaspoon liquid rennet.  Turn into a small mould, and let stand in a cool place until firm.  Serve with sugar and cream.  Cinnamon or nutmeg may be used in place of wine.  Liquid rennet may be bought in bottles of any first-class grocer.

I’m sharing that recipe because I doubt most readers will have had much experience with rennet, unless you’ve dabbled in cheese-making as I have.  It is an enzyme-rich substance found in calf stomachs.  The traditional method of extracting it is to soak pieces of the stomach in salt water or whey and vinegar or wine.  Most folks on the mountain who butcher a cow don’t keep or use many of the innards and I never heard of anyone soaking the stomach.

More about The Cumberland Plateau

Here are two short articles from Harry Lane’s Tennessee Memorie

Here’s More About the Cumberland Plateau

Mountains on a Plateau? That’s the situation of the Crab Orchard Mountains, which are located on the eastern side of the Cumberland Plateau…at least, that’s the situation if one considers these small peaks to be true mountains, and many would not.  Local usage, however, makes these “mountains,” and so the matter shall stand.

This section of the Cumberland Plateau is quite interesting geologically, for it represents the norther end of an up-folded part of the earth’s crust, (an anticline) that, farther south in the Sequatchie Valley area, has cracked off along the fold and moved up and over another portion of the plateau.  North of the relatively stable Crab Orchard Mountains is the enormous block of rock that is dislocated along the Pine Mountain Thrust Fault.

This district lies a few miles east of Crossville, Tennessee; the name “Crab Orchard” is well known also, as we have seen, for the building stone that is quarried in this area.  The source of the name is a village that is nestled at the base of these mountains.

The highest of these “mountains” lie about 3000 feet above sea level.  A few miles farther north, the dissected edge of the plateau itself, called the Cumberland Mountains (however confusingly!), reaches even higher, to 3534 feet at Cross Mountain, the loftiest point between the Smoky Mountains and South Dakota’s Black Hills.

The Mystery of Standing Stone

Remnant of The Standing Stone located in Monterey, TN today.

So completely has white civilization altered the environment of the Cherokee Indians within two hundred years that a place and a monument of considerable significance to Indians of the Cumberland Plateau have almost disappeared from view and from memory – the major damage having been done during the past century.  Until the coming of the railway at the turn of the century, there existed on the edge of the plateau at Monterey an Indian monument known as Nee-Yah-Kah-Tah-Kee by the Cherokees and as Standing Stone by white people of the area.  The structure was apparently reverenced by the Indians, but the railroad people evidently dynamited the Standing Stone, and only a fragment of the stone (sandstone of the Plateau Caprock) remains today – mounted at the crest of a masonry monument in Monterey in 1895 by the Improved Order of Red Men.

Mr. Lane’s artsitic rendering of the original Standing Stone

Much speculation, but almost no proofs, continues to be cast about as to the real nature of the Standing Stone.  Some indications are given that the monument was in the shape of an animal, perhaps a dog, but no one knows for sure.  So much for the white citizens’ concern about Indian relics during the last century!  It is also uncertain whether the monument was natural or carved.  Whether it was a natural formation or something carved by Indians long forgotten (the author prefers the natural formation explanation), it was located in a place that must have had meaning for the early travelers across the Plateau.  Apparently, the route past the Standing Stone began as a game trail that was widened by Indian and the European settlers who succeeded them, to become the Old Walton Road of the nineteenth century and eventually a motor road that leads down the escarpment to Buck Mountain, Algood, and Cookeville on the Highland Rim.  The effort needed to reach the Standing Stone by a grueling climb from the rim up the western escarpment may have led to the reverential feeling that Indians seem to have exhibited toward the monument.  Perhaps this difficult climb seemed rewarded by a view of the unusual formation or carving, whichever it was.  It is not unusual for such pilgrimages to be accomplished up steep slopes or flights of stairs to an object or place of worship.

One is reminded at this juncture of Taoist pilgrimages up 6,700 stone steps to the crest of the Tai Shan in China, the Shinto pilgrims’ climb up Mount Fujiyama of Japan, Buddhists’ upslope struggle onto Shri Pada peak in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the great flights of steps up the sacrificial way of the Mexican pyramids, and the 3,000 stone steps that the Judeo-Christians follow as they make pilgrimages up Mount Sinai.  In any case, the Standing Stone, before its destruction, held an imposing position overlooking the Highland Rim a few miles to the west and some 700 feet below the Plateau’s edge.

The 3 States of Tennessee

I’m really excited to share this week’s chapter of  Harry Lane’s “Tennessee Memories”.  Remember last week we learned that Mr. Lane studied both geography and geology. How fascinating to look at my home through the eyes of these scientific disciplines!  Culturally and historically, the western, middle and eastern portions of Tennessee are unique.  Turns out God laid it out that way.

The article is lengthy so I’m going to share excerpts here, mainly the description of the plateau. 

According to some folk, Tennessee is three states in one:  East, Middle, and West Tennessee.  These are often indicated to be the three Grand divisions of Tennessee.  The boundaries, like most boundaries, are somewhat arbitrary.

Nature has deal in larger numbers in dividing Tennessee into regions.  There are seven to ten natural regions in the state, depending upon the way one counts ‘em.  Here is the way we’ll count ‘em:  nine natural regions as follows, from east to west.

(1)    The Unaka Mountains (also known, more popularly, as the Blue Ridge).  The mountain area of easternmost Tennessee continues eastward into North Carolina, southward into Georgia, and northward into Virginia.  The highest portion of this mountain area is known as the Great Smoky Mountains, or simply the Smokies.  This area is not only the highest mountain mass in Tennessee and North Carolina, but also the highest of the eastern United States…

(2)    The Ridge and valley.  This section of the state consists of alternating ridges and valleys all oriented northeast – southwest.  Some of the ridges attain altitudes up to 2000 feet or so, while the valleys are generally hundreds of feet lower.  The valleys usually are underlain by limestone that produces rich soil and a productive agriculture… With the exception of forestry or grazing of livestock, the ridges are essentially unused for agriculture.

Many of Tennessee’s best-known cities and towns are located in the Ridge and Valley.  These include Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport, Morristown, Cleveland, Athens, Harriman, Oak Ridge, Rockwood, Dayton, Sweetwater, Etowah, Maryville, Lenoir City, and Loudon.

(3)    The Cumberland Plateau.  The only plateau in Tennessee, the Cumberland is a sandstone-capped highland that reaches above 2000 feet in its highest elevations.  In places nearly level, the Plateau crest is in many other places severely dissected by natural (geologic) erosion, and the terrain resembles hills or mountains more than it does one’s image of plateaus (which are usually depicted as smooth-surfaced uplands).  The Cumberland Plateau extends northward into Kentucky and southward into Alabama.  The plateau has a sandy soil that has proved relatively unproductive, as compared to soils in other parts of the states – such as the limestone-based soils of the Ridge and Valley or Central Basin.  The escarpments on the eastern and western sides of the Plateau also proved to be impediments to settlement and economic development, since accessibility has been hampered by these steep barriers.  Much wilderness persists here, as a consequence , and this has become a valuable commodity in recent decades, as an attraction to vacationers and retired persons, many of whom seek relief from urban settings in the peace of the Plateau.  A number of resorts and retirement communities have been established there to serve and attract such people.

Crossville, in Cumberland County, is the largest Plateau town.  Others of consequence include Jamestown, South Pittsburg, Oneida, and Monterey.

(4)    The Sequatchie Valley.  This interesting valley has been cut into a fold in the rocks of the Cumberland Plateau by the river that bears the same name, Sequatchie… One of the most scenic parts of the state of Tennessee, this valley is also agriculturally productive.  Pikeville and Dunlap are the towns of the valley.

(5)    The Highland Rim. The next territory westward from the Cumberland Plateau is the Highland Rim… Often… viewed as consisting of two parts, the Eastern and Western Highland Rims.  On the east, this province represents a bench-like or terrace-like area that emerges from the western escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau.  …Generally the Highland Rim is 200 to 300 feet higher than the Central Basin that it surrounds.  In places smooth, the Highland Rim is also hilly and irregular in many places – like so much of Tennessee…

There are many towns that are well-known to Tennesseans that are located on the Highland Rim.  Prominent among these are Clarksville, Cookeville, McMinnville, Sparta, Springfield, Tullahoma, Winchester, Hohenwald, Lawrenceburg, Dickson, Waverly, Savannah, Portland, Dover, and Ashland City.

(6)    The Central Basin.  This section of the state is one that was sought by white settlers soon after initial settlement had begun west of the Blue Ridge Mountains…The Basin has been called the “Tennessee Bluegrass” because of its resemblance to the rich Kentucky Bluegrass Basin to the north.

(7)    The Western Valley  of the Tennessee River.  This small region serves as a boundary between the Western Highland Rim and the Coastal Plain (or West Tennessee Plain).  This portion of the Tennessee Valley is quite interesting in the fact that the river has reversed its course from the southward-flowing stream that it is in the Ridge and Valley of eastern Tennessee.  Between the eastern and western segments, the Tennessee flows through a gorge that it has cut across the Cumberland Plateau (the segment of the plateau known as Walden Ridge), dipping far southward into Alabama  before it heads the opposite direction across Tennessee and Kentucky, finally emptying into the Ohio River near the mouth of the Cumberland River.  It is difficult to explain why the great river would do this, for much the shorter course to the sea lies southward through Alabama; the puzzle intrigues and troubles geologists who study the problem.

No large towns or cities belong strictly to the Western Valley…

(8)    The Coastal Plain, or West Tennessee Plain.  This portion of Tennessee belongs to a region that is vast, and which extends from Long Island, New York, to the Mexican border (and even beyond that)… the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plain…  The immediate valley of the Mississippi River, however, is usually considered separately from the Coastal Plain, and so it is in Tennessee…

The largest city of the state, Memphis, lies at the southwestern edge of this province.  Jackson, Dyersburg, Millington, Union City, Paris, Humboldt, Milan, Martin, Brownsville, and Camden are among the other towns and cities of the area.

(9)    The Mississippi Alluvial Valley.  This part of Tennessee is small – only about 900 square miles.  It is floodplain land of the Mississippi River…

There are few towns on the alluvial plain of the Mississippi.  This sparseness of towns probably is more the consequence of the small size of the whole region than of flood dangers or any negative factors.  Tiptonville and Ridgely belong to the Alluvial Valley.

Christmas Fruit Bag

One of my Christmas memories is the goody bag the church always gave out after their Christmas program.  Handed to each guest, it was an unexpected and exciting little brown paper bag.  We’ve stopped handing these out at my church and while fruit is readily available to me and I eat way too much candy, I found that I missed the little bag this Sunday.  And it got me to thinking about where that tradition may have originated.

Fruit at Christmas time is a deep tradition for our family, and I think for most folks on the mountain.  My Grandpa, who had little input to the regular grocery shopping, would always make a point as the holiday season approached to go buy a big box of apples and another of oranges.  There would be peppermint candy and chocolate drops in the house at this time as well.  Now, it’s not hard to theorize that this man, whose childhood held few treats and for whom poverty had been a constant companion, reveled in the relative wealth of having a whole box of fruit both to enjoy and to share. 

I imagine the church’s bags had very similar origins.  Since our picturesque mountain home won’t grow anything citrus and even apples have to be harvested and safely stored pretty early in the fall, fruit at Christmastime has to come from far away and would be rather a luxury in horse-drawn days.

Transportation has changed so much in the past seventy-five years, and now trucks arrive at grocery stores all over the country filled with fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world.  We can have anything from bananas or mangos to strawberries and apples anytime we want.  And we know that transportation greatly affects the cost of everything.  So imagine how valuable an exotic fruit like pineapple would have been a few years ago.

Of course the church’s goody bag was generally filled with good ole American goodies but even that wouldn’t be easy to come by in the remote mountain communities.  How hard is it to get a load of oranges to a store that is served only by mule team?  How often would poor children in those areas see foods that were harvested hundreds of miles away when they might live their whole lives and never travel more than fifty miles from home?

Top off those juicy fruits with a few pieces of peppermint and maybe even a bit of chocolate and you’ve got a treat that makes a lasting memory.  I don’t know who made the decision not to hand out goody bags at church anymore, and maybe they won’t be missed by many – but I may have to make one for myself, or better yet revive the tradition by handing out my own bags next year.