HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1977-11-17, Page 3•
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People in Profile
Pass the milkweed, heard here
by Shelley McPhee
If you were ever asked to the Garretts
for supper you might find yourself
tasting a variety of dishes that you never
thought were edible. A Blanche Pownall
Garrett dinner may consist of
Arrowhead and Mushroom Soup for
starters, Fiddleheads With Smoked
Salmon, Shepherd's Purse Greens,
Chickweed and Orange Salad and
Gooseberry Chiffon Pie for dessert.
It's not that the Garretts can't afford
"normal" food and it's not that they
have peculiar tastebuds, but according
to Mrs. Garrett and an increasing
number of other people, "weeds" are an
abundant, nutritional and tasty food
source that is often bypassed.
"We've come to think of the weed as a
bad plant, but actually the weed is a
plant out of place," explained Mrs.
Garrett.
However she has put wild plants in
their place; not to be destroyed by weed
killers or hoed under, but on her dinner
table, in her freezer and in three books
she has written.
"I don't live on wild food completely,"
she noted, "but in my freezer I have as.
many varieties of wild vegetables as I do
cultivated."
What type of wild plants are edible?
Well along with the more common, or
more widely used plants and fruits such
as elderberries, wild apples, puffballs,
wild pear and grape, f iddleheads and
muuhrooms, there is a wide surprising
amount of others.
Milkweed, for instance is a three crop
plant. According to Mrs. Garrett it's like
broccoli and the shoots, pods and early
blossoms can be used in cooking.
Purse Lane is excellent in salads as
are Sorrel and Chickweed.
The young tips of Burdock are sup-
posedly enjoyed by many, but Mrs.
Garrett says she can take or leave it.
Purple Violet leaves can be used in
salads or cooked and there is nothing
nicer than pork chops and mustard
greens, according to Mrs. Garrett.
The choice of plants is great anlcl they
include Swiss Chard, Rose Hips, Wild
Leeks, Mint, Sumac, Barberry, Willow
leaves and bark, Water Cress, Mountain
Ash, all of which can be used in a variety
of ways as seen in Mrs. Garrett's books,
"From the Fruits of the Earth,"
"Canadian Country Preserves and
Wines" and "A Taste of the Wild."
Mrs. Garrett is situated in a huge
garden, near the banks of the Maitland
River at Ball's Bridge outside Auburn,
"The Maitland's a remarkable river
and there's a lot of plant and shrub
growth which attracted me to the area,"
Teachers, board not.
continued from page 1
they are a target of a campaign designed
to tear up their previous contract and to
substitute in its place one that includes
not one single request of the Huron
• teachers".
Herb Turkheim, who is chairman of
the board of education and a member of
the board's negotiating committee, said
he felt the fact finder report was "very
fair to both sides". He said he felt there
were points in the report that are per-
tinent to both parties but added that he
didn't agree'that negotiations have, been
a dialogue of the deaf.
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"Sometimes it's hard to get people to
listen to som.ething they don't want to
hear," he said.
Turkheim said the board felt the
,eachers demands were "excessive"
And that money and working conditions
Nere big factors in the negotiations. He
;aid the school taxes in Huron County
Nere already high enough and that the
)oard had to negotiate with that in mind.
-le said it would be unfair for the board
.o agree to higher salaries for teachers
Ind then pass on the expense to
nunicipalities in the county.
Hensall to attend inquiry
By Debbie Ranney
Hensall council decided Monday, that
reeve Harold Knight and any other
4 councillors available are to attend an
inquiry at Queen's Park regarding the
Black Creek-Mousseau Drainage Works.
1 he drain, which was initiated by Hay
Township, did not meet with the ap-
proval of the Ministry of the Environ-
ment, who wanted the possibility of a
fish habitat investigated. The outcome of
this meeting is important to Hensall
because the drain is the outlet to the
proposed Hensall storm sewer.
The inquiry to discuss problems
resulting from the Ministry's decision is
to be held November 29 at the Mowatt
Building, Queen's Park,
Council agreed to accept the
snowplowing services of C.E. Reid and
Sons for the 1977-78 winter season at $20
per hour.
Regarding the. collection of a sewer
surcharge if water is disconnected,
council decided that upon reconnection
of the water, the Hensall PUC should be
able to collect a $10 surcharge.
A regional assessment office census
report indicated that Hensall's
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population had grown from 955 in 1976 to
984 at the present time.
Council authorized architect David
Stevens of London to draw up plans for
the new fire hall. The architect's fee
would be about 73/4 percent of the total
cost. About $40,000 has been budgeted for
the new fire hall.
In correspondence to council, the
village of Zurich advised that con-
sideration would be given on an in-
divisual basis for the placement of
Hensall residents in the Zurich senior
citizen housing units. The ministry of
treasury economics, and in-
tergovernmental affairs advised that the
levy base for support and resource
equalization grants would be broadened
to include water billings and the present
practice of adjusting the levy base for
changes in municipal surpluses will be
eliminated.
The ministry of housing had
republished a news release which im-
plied that the municipality had received
another advance under Ontario home
renewal program but it was in reference
to the cash advance forwarded in July.
4,
said the Peterborough wqman who now
lives in Stone House, a. 150 -year-old
structure.
Eating wild plants is not a new fad or
health food craze but according to Mrs,
Garrett it has been around for years..
She remembers as a child, growing up
in the Ottawa Valley, when her mother
used to send her out to pick the Lamb's
Quarters along the fence for her to cook.
"In school I was taught to recognize
Lamb's Quarters, but I wasn't taught to
eat it. I was taught it was a bad thing, I
was taught from the agricultural point of
view," she said.
However years before Mrs. Garrett
ever thought of eating wild plants and
fruits, early settlers were doing it.
"These plants were used in a day when
there' was little else, they learned from
the natives," explained Mrs. Garrett.
Plants have a great medicinal past
and Mrs. Garrett listed a number of
brews and teas that were used to cure
the ill. Sumac tea was used for people
with food deficiency; Shepherd's Purse,
brewed strongly is said to stop profuse
bleeding; brewed Willow leaves and
bark were used for rheumatism and
arthritis.
The revival in this according to Mrs.
Garrett is a result in people's interest in
the common past.
• •
The working conditions argued in the
negotiations involve pupil -teacher
rations (PTR) and job redundancy. The
board is concerned that declining
enrolment' in schools will reduce
provincial per capita grants to the
board. With that in mind the board wants
the PTR to be calculated between April
and June of 1978 based on the projected
enrolment for the following year. Their
argument is designed to protect the
board in the case of declining enrolment.
If the pupil teacher ration remains the
same and the number of pupils is
reduced the next year the board will be
able to reduce the number of teachers
required.
"The board doesn't want to change the
PTR," said Turkheim. "We feel it is
very fair."
The teachers requested a change in
the PTR but according to the fact finder
have not said why the change is
necessary. The teacher's want a ratio of
17.2 students per teacher in schools with
over 500 students. The board feels that
the proposed ratio would require the
hiring of five new teachers.
The teachers also want a ratio of 16 to
one in schools of less than 500 students
and the board feels that that is, un-
necessary. Samuels said that the matter
has not been discussed constructively
and that neither side has fully explained
itc argument
The board is using county economics
as a basis for its argument on salary
increases. It claims that the county per
capita income is very low compared to
surrounding counties and that the in-
dustrial composite for Huron was low
2ompared to its neighbors. The board
argues that the incomes in the county
are relevant in the consideration of the
ability of the taxpayers in the county .to
pay teachers' salaries.
Lane said the teachers' salary
proposals have not been considered in
the proper fashion by the board.
{:� rYS.v :CiYY.k1¢0)43,31.4050aR4 VOl
Goderich OPP 'say that the driver and passenger of this
brand-new wrecked car escaped injury because they were
wearing seatbelts during a two -car, head-on crash just east
of Clinton last Friday afternoon. Dia and Helen Cornish of
Clinton, occupants of the other car, were seriously injured
in the crash. (News -Record photo)
"Some people collect antiques and
others of us collect and use plants," she
laughed.
It seems that the number of people
involved in edible wild .plants is in-
creasing. Mrs. Garrett noted that many
young people are interested in it and just
in this area alone there are many people
who` know' about edible uncultivated
plants.
Teas are held at Stone House, by
reservation in the winter and often
people come out and discuss the edible
wild and some avid followers would go
for hunts along the Maitland and the
fields for fruits and plants in the warmer
months.
"This year was a tremendous
mushroom year, because of so much
rain," Mrs. Garrett noted with some
excitement and the mushrooms were the
target in many summer hunts.
"In that way I have met many people
who are interested in edible wild plants
and they have taught me new things. It's
an endless subject," she stressed, "some
people have brought along plants or
they've been able to wander down to the
river to gather their own."
Mrs. Garrett has also written 'shorter
articles on the subject, done programs
with CBC and has talked .with groups.
She will speak at the Van Egmond
Foundation in Seaforth on November 29.
However, it is not the publicity or the
slightly extraordinary idea in eating
wild plants that attracts Blanche
Pownall Garrett to the subject.
"The most striking thing about the
subject," she concluded, "is the feeling
of wealth in the world around you at
times. A lot of us ,feel poor at times but
through the continuous use and study of
the edible wild plants it makes you think
that you live in a rich and affluent
world."
CLINTON NEWS -RECORD. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, I9 --PAGE 3
You can't eat quince raw, but according to Blanche Pownall Garrett it makes
gorgeous jelly. Quince is not a common fruit anymore, but Mrs. Garrett has an
interest in cooking and using unusual plants, like the wild plants that grow outside
her home (News -Record photo)
Hensall UCW study world development
Giving a devotional based
on guilt and confession, Mrs.
Audrey Joynt presided for the
November meeting of unit I of
Hensall UCW on Thursday,
November 10.
Mrs. Helen Scane gave a
very interesting study, ex-
plaining the development of
each of the first, second and
third worlds and how they
relate to one another
•politically, socially and
economically. The principal
social issue in the world today
is whether the developed
world will make a greater
effort �,to help save the
developing world from suf-
fering and hopelessness.
There is hope for peace and
justice only if we develop a
world community, charac-
w.i....nn ..w
CR YSTA L & C'AN'DLES
Glittering, aazzlillg, shimmering, icy
refractions, reflecting your awareness
of design and quality.
The fluid lines and sunny brillance
are captured by Boda and Arista, Stt'eden,
,%rom ten dollars and tip
TIS QAINT1EE
When your I(ISlr, .t4oes hct'ond rrtticonsiI-'
One Hundred and Twenty Albert Street, Clinton
terize -d- by integral
humanism.
Mrs. Kay Elder conducted
the business. The general
meeting is December 5, unit
one responsible for lunch.
They,will meet at 7:45 p.m.
for hort business session.
Four letters from the adopted
girl were read and Audrey
reported sending birthday
and Christmas presents. A
social time was enjoyed with
Mrs. Belva Fuss and Mrs.
Marg Consitt as hostesses.
'The United Church service
held in Hensall on Sunday,
November 13 was conducted
by Rev. Don Beck with Mrs.
John Turkheim at the organ.
Personals
Mr. and Mrs. Glen Payne of
Elmira visited with Mr. and
Mrs. Carl Payne on Sunday.
Cindy Bisback has un-
dergone surgery in War
Memorial Children's Hospital
London and is anticipating a
lengthy stay there.
Mrs. Don Bock, who has
been a patient in University
Hospital undergoing surgery,
is home again. •
Mr. and Mrs. John Skea,
Junior, Colin and Karen of
Brampton visited with the
former's parents, Mr. and
Mrs. John Skea, Senior,
Best wishes to Pat O'Brien
with his new variety store in
the former Tee Jays store in
the business block,
Mrs. John Groot and
Elizabeth have returned from
a three week visit with the
former's mother in Holland
following the death of her
father.
Welcome to Gary and
Sheila Davies and family who
have moved into their home
on Richmond Street.
Mrs. Margaret Hill of
Stratford has spent the last
two weekends with her niece
Mrs. Elizabeth Riley.
BUYING?
SELLING?
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know in
The News -Record
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