West Virginia Mountains... These mountains and hills hold my soul. It's here that I can breath in the smells of yesteryear. The scents of my childhood. Hay fields, Wild flowers, wild grape vines loaded with grapes, forest smells, pine tree scents, digging sassafras roots to dry for tea making, honeysuckle and locust trees blooming. As my mind wanders back, I'm a little foggy remembering those wild fragrances. I guess maybe it's been too long and I may need some trigger points. I think a walk in the wild may be needed soon. If only to find my lost soul again. Maybe go looking for a wild blackberry patch or a persimmon tree. Not so easy to find anymore. I recall that the taste of persimmons could be yummy sweet or if gathered too early before a hard frost a bitter taste resulting with a dreadful puckered face. Speaking of blackberries if anyone ever picked from a patch in the wild I'm sure the memories of jiggers would come to mind. I'm remembering the butternut tree that my grandma had growing near her chicken coup. But for the life of me I cannot recall the taste of butternuts. But in the fall of the year harvesting from the walnut trees which were plentiful on the farm supplied our family with lots of walnut kernels for the winter and beyond. We gathered walnuts and laid on the ground to dry out for hauling. Later after the weather got cold we had a a big rock or stone where we laid the walnuts and cracked them with a hammer. Many ouches were heard if fingers got in the way! The walnuts were bagged and put in the freezer until the next candy making.
Fudge was a favorite!!! ajs
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