Fall lore

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist

There certainly is wonder in the fall season and ever so much to learn. 

We have no doubt all heard that goldenrods, the tall yellow wildflowers that bloom late summer and well into the fall, are the main cause of hay fever. This is simply not so. Goldenrod is not only beautiful, but beneficial. 

Bees, butterflies and other pollinators are able to feed on goldenrod's large and heavy pollen at a time when most other flowering plants have finished blooming for the year. All plants are pollinated in one of two ways, either by pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, or by the wind, and goldenrod pollen is simply too large and heavy to be carried by the wind. 

The fall allergies that we call hay fever are in fact caused by wind-pollinated plants and trees, such as maple, elm, oak, birch, timothy and orchard grass, and ragweed, a tall green flowering plant that looks nothing like beautiful Goldenrod.

We were also no doubt told by our mothers to put on our jackets and warm hats before we went outside to play, and likely told our own children the same, though now-a-days, many youth simply pull up their hoods against the cool weather chill. 

We’ve all heard that a head covering is a critical piece of fall and winter attire, because if not worn, all of one’s body heat will escape through the top of one’s head. This is not quite so. It is, in fact, important to wear a hat in cold weather, but no more heat escapes from one’s head than it does from any other body part. Heat simply escapes from our bare skin, wherever that skin might be, head, hands, feet, arms, or legs. Thus, the bottom line is, cover it all up.

This year, more so than past years, we have heard that the summer’s drought would surely ruin the fall colors. This also is not quite so. A dry summer might very well cause the trees to lose their leaves early. Without sufficient water drawn up into the branches the leaves wither, turn brown, and fall, but it is not moisture that causes the leaves to turn color. It is rather the shortened daylight hours that causes the leaves that do remain on the tree to change color. 

Shorter fall days mean less sunlight, and it is because of this lack of sunlight that chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down, and it is the pigment that chlorophyll gives the leaves their green color. Without that pigment, they turn to the yellows, oranges, and reds we love. Thus, even though the creek has been amazingly dry, and many leaves withered and fell early, the creek valley is still dressed in beautiful shades of yellow, burnt orange and red.

I remember when my little brother and I would head back to school in the fall, that we often caught the inevitable cold or fever, and our mother would recite the old adage "feed a cold, starve a fever."

Alas, our dear mother was quite wrong. This saying dates back to a dictionary published by John Withals in 1574, in which it was noted that that "fasting is a great remedy of fever.”

The reasoning, handed down for generations, was that the body needs food to generate warmth to cure a cold, while avoiding food helps to cool the body when a fever is present. Now we know that calories provide strength to fight off any illness, and liquids assure that the body remains healthily hydrated. Hence, chicken noodle soup provides both calories and hydration, and is good for both colds and fevers, as well as, perhaps, our souls.

Persimmon trees grow in our neck of the woods, though curiously we have not found any here in the creek valley. If they did, perhaps I could use the seeds to predict the winter weather. When the seeds are cut in half, they will display one of three symbols. Folk lore tells us that a knife shape foretells an icy cold winter in which the wind will cut through us like a knife. 

A fork shape, on the other hand, indicates a mild winter, while a spoon indicates that we will need our shovels to dig through the deep snow. This myth obviously dates to a time when knives, forks, and spoons were all common cutlery, which was not until the 1800s. 

As to the correctness of the persimmon seed prediction, this myth may oddly have some slight validity. The Jefferson County Extension Office in Missouri, collected and sliced persimmon seeds for 20 years, and found that the seeds’ predictions were accurate about 75% of the time. Perhaps our local weather forecasters might give persimmon seeds a try, but no matter what, I know that I am never too old to learn.

There certainly is wonder in the changing season and ever so much to learn.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in Ohio south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com.