You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
Fascinating article. I had no idea that wild strawberries were good for anything. I have plenty of them in my garden if you ever need any. LOL
They are also one of the plants that I fight yearly to keep them from taking over my beds. I still have two of the old pillows that my grandmother made many moons ago. For some reason I have never had the heart to throw them away. They are high up on the shelves in my linen closet. Every so often I try to make myself toss them but just can't seem to do it especially when I see her handsewn threads holding together the open end that was used for stuffing the feathers. Thanks again for the great articles and for bringing back some of my many memories of precious times long ago.
Sharon: I could see the end of your story coming when you talked about taking that pillow apart. I thought, `Oh, no. Those feathers are going to be everywhere.' Sure 'nuff, your little secret was revealed by the wind! Oh, me. This reminds me of a girl in my first grade class. She was the daughter of a doctor in town so they were rich, indeed, to me. Anyhow, she got a pair of white leather cowgirl boots for Christmas that year and oh, how I envied those boots. I finagled a trade for those boots, but for the life of me, I can't remember what I traded her for them. It couldn't have been anything nearly as expensive as they were. The trade didn't last long, I can tell you. Those boots had to be given back.
We watched a lot of westerns when I was growing up and Belle Starr, Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley were my heroines.
Sharon, My grandpa read 'Hiawatha' to me every summer when I was young. It was his favorite along with 'Briar Rabbit'. Thanks for the memory and the lovely article.
Delightful!! Wild strawberries make up in flavor what they lack in size. The feather pillows reminded me of friends who raised geese and used the feathers to make pillows. They wrote us a letter describing the experience of stuffing the pillows. This I remember: don't try this if there is a breeze! Goose down flies all over if you even breathe!
Wow! Nice to come home to see this, since the article was not originally scheduled for today. How fun, and a surprise even to me.
I guess Kelli, I was very lucky to have Aunt Bett and my grandmother. I might not have learned as much as I did, but no doubt I would have still found myself in the same amount of trouble. Most of the time it was not intended, but still trouble could have very well been my middle name.
That's the whole point of my articles, Sherri, the memories. Brer Rabbit for me, too, but I didn't have anybody to read them to me, but I did read them for myself.
Star, Elena, thank you, even though the plant drives Elena crazy, it is a nice little plant, and good for lots of things. Angie, you and Mary caught on to the feather pillows. I'm telling you, there is nothing like them, and did you ever sleep on a feather bed? Wow! I still have a bolster, about as long as I am, and it is getting pretty flat these days. Thinking about finding a chicken farm somewhere around, doubt if I could find a goose, Mary!
Thank you all for writing, I love it when something I write triggers a good memory.
Wonderful story Sharron...I love the the little wild strawberries...I wish they were all over my yard...Laura now has grans two feather pillows, wish I had the old feather bed we slept in at grans house.
Belle Starr, there is another memory...Packed away somewhere some old recipes of grans, one is "Belle Starrs Sugar Candy"
What a great story, love to read whether it is history about people or nature. I used to gather wild strawberries with my Mother from whom I learned a lot what nature in the wilds has to offer when I was small and growing up in Austria,sometimes it was the only food we had.
Will never forget how sweet and plentyful those little berries were.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Maria
Yes, I too have my grandmother's pillow. It is from the early 20's. Stained with my sleeping drool when I was a small whippersnapper. It is stored in plastic, but still soft. I have intentions of updating the casing one of these days with retro fabric, but will save the old one.
We live in Wa Sate and have a cabin close to the Hood Canal on The Puget Sound. Our soil is mostly sand which is easy to dig in but hard to grow most plants except for ferns. Much to my delight we have wild strawberries every where. Each time we are there durng the summer the first thing I do is pick them and gorge myself with little sweet morsels. They are truly heavenly. Thank you for your sweet article.
Hi Adina, thank you for reading the article and for letting me know. Glad it brought a smile for you.
Maria, hello, it is so nice to hear from you again. Our paths haven't crossed in a long time, DG is so huge. And it is nice to share memories that are so much a part of my life. Sounds as if you have lovely memories, too. Thank you for letting me know.
Buettner, and thank you for your memories as well. I bet you relive them every time you taste those strawberries at your cabin.
It's funny about memories, some are not so good since I was almost always in some sort of mischief and had to pay the price, but even so, only the fun parts of the memories remain. I do remember that it seemed to take me an entire summer to pick up all the little bits of feathers, though. I thought I would never be allowed to leave my room again.
Here's another one...this story happened sometime in the early 50's, and in the late 90's when my mother was no longer with us, the house was sold along with only a small portion of the land with it. The remaining land is still in the family. But before the house was sold, we went through it, cleaning and making sure all was in order. As the furniture was removed, tucked away behind where the bed had been, I found many tiny curled feathers. It was an old iron bed and very heavy, it had stayed in the same place all those years, and one leg of it was up against the corner. The walls were painted beadboard, and I guess had never been repainted, so the feathers crept behind the bed frame in the corner, and remained there forever. It was bittersweet because every memory I ever had came rushing back.
Thank you for writing, enjoy your pillows and your berries along with your memories! And a very good day to all of you.
