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THURSDAY. JUNE 24. 2021 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 3A
More produce showing up at Farmers
Market as gardens hit summer stride
By Heather Giambra
Last day of spring,
Claudette (a tropical storm)
on the way, but the market
was spared and business was
conducted as usual with smil
ing faces. Among the many
vendors the Master Garden
ers brought a large choice of
plants for new gardens. The
MGs thank the many people
who supported our efforts.
If you need something to
hold jewelry, keepsakes, or
photos go see Floyd's Hobby
Shop and get a cedar box.
They are beautifully made
with care. One was custom
designed for the USMC.
Surely, Floyd Vandivier can
make any of the military
services. Each box is unique
and worth checking out.
Berta's Menagerie Of
Crafts was full of interesting
choices, including painted
sawblades! You can find so
many different things at the
Farmers Market; tumblers
and tshirts, cupcakes, and
homemade by kids cookies to
help fund a trip to Kids
Camp.
Produce vendors are in
creasing weekly. Zach Hen
son, Kenneth Childers, Joe
Pickering, Smoky Mountain
Farm, Earth Folk Farm and
Johnson Farms had tables
full of squash, zucchini, and
cucumbers. As well as pep
pers, garlic and more. Ken
neth even brought the first
green beans of the season,
white half runners of course!
Hope you will come down
to the market soon. In fact,
the Wednesday market be
gins this week, 11 a.m. until
2 p.m. Go to Lee Newton
Park and find the market in
the Park n Ride parking lot
across from the Veteran's Me
morial. Saturday mornings at
7:30 until noon. The Fourth
of July celebration is coming
back so the market will move
to the back gate of Lee New
ton Park on July 3rd. Right
across the way off Burton
Street. (And if the carnival
comes early to set up, June
30th, then the Wednesday
market will at the back of Lee
Newton Park also.)
The Pickens County Master Gardeners set up once a month at the market offering plants for sale as well as an edu
cational program. Saturday’s program was learning to create herb-infused vinegars. July’s program will be on oldfash
ioned pressed flowers.
Plants of the Southeast: "Chaste-tree,” Vitex agnus-castus
Photo/John Nelson
The Chaste-tree has an interesting history and name —
apparently believed to get rid of unwanted desires if taken
in a tonic. Regardless of the truth of the claim, it is a lovely
plant.
By John Nelson
University of
South Carolina
It is reported that if such as
journey or travel do carry
with them a branch or rod of
Agnus castus in their hand,
it will keep them from
merry-galls,
and weariness...
- John Gerard, The Herbal,
or Generali Historie of
Plants, 1597
As a preface to this essay,
I’ll save you the trouble of
looking up “merry-galls” and
tell you that they are sores
which you might inflict upon
yourself by riding a horse too
long, or maybe by wearing
ill-fitting sandals on your
daily walk.
John Gerard published
one of the first and most vo
luminous of the early
“herbals” which, during the
European Renaissance, pro
vided all sorts of information
on local and exotic plants.
Herbals were primarily
valued for understanding the
practical uses of plant
species, and perhaps most es
pecially for their medicinal
purposes. This sort of work
rather closely followed the
information on plants put to
gether by the much earlier
Greek scholars, Pliny, and
Dioscorides. Herbals were al
most always illustrated, often
by woodcuts, and thus they
offered some use in outright
plant identification.
Of course, as you might
expect, the illustrations were
commonly awful, and of little
use.
Gerard’s “Agnus castus”
plant was well known during
his time, and now. It is the
easily identified small
Chaste-tree, [Vitex agnus-
castus] native to portions of
the Mediterranean, and easily
grown in protected areas as
far north as the British Isles.
(Gerard apparently had a tree
in his garden.)
Its leaves are spicy-fra
grant, and compound, with 5
(sometimes 7) prominent
leaflets...giving the foliage
something of a marijuana
“look,” though it is not even
remotely related to
Cannabis.)
If you look closely, you’ll
see that there are 2 leaves at
each node of the stem, and
thus “opposite” in arrange
ment. Flowers appear in the
early summer at the ends of
stems, from new wood, and
they are quite lovely. The
petals are fused, and usually
colored a sort of powder-
blue, or purplish. The flowers
are not particularly fragrant,
but bees go berserk over
them. Following pollination,
small, rounded, one-seeded
dry fruits are produced, these
resembling peppercorns.
This species was for the
longest time considered by
botanists as part of the ver
bena family, and you may
know this family for culti
vated (or weedy) verbenas,
Clerodendrum, and our na
tive beauty-berry. However,
recent, and very technical re
search suggests that many
members of the verbena fam
ily, including the Chaste -
tree, have more in common
with plants in the mint fam
ily. (It may seem a small mat
ter, but modem botanists are
notoriously concerned about
plants’ relationships... and
sometimes this gets us in a bit
of trouble, because it may
mean changing the name of a
plant.)
Quite a number of med
ical uses have been attributed
to this plant. As usual, the ef
ficacies of various kinds of
medicinal plants are often
based on legend or folklore.
The tree gets its name
from the fictional belief that
its foliage, whether con
sumed in a tonic, or intact,
would alleviate...ahem, un
wanted desires, for both men
and women, and thus encour
aging chastity. Furthermore,
Gerard claims that it is use
ful, taken as a syrup, for
“windiness of the stomach”,
and for headaches, and also
for repelling serpents.
So next time you are con
sidering a long hike, think
about taking along a branch
of this plant, and avoid those
annoying merry-galls.
©JohnNelson2021
[John Nelson is the retired
curator of the A. C. Moore
Herbarium at the University of
South Carolina, in the Depart
ment of Biological Sciences, Co
lumbia SC 29208. As a public
service, the Herbarium offers
free plant identifications. For
more information, visit
www.herbarium.org or email
johnbnelson@se.rr com.]
Pickens County
Water & Sewer Authority
Annual Water Quality Report
2020 PWS - GA2270002
Philip Dean
Director of Utilities
Phone: 706-253-8718
Fax: 706-253-8720
J ~ 1 —LT
A copy of the 2020 Pickens County Water
Quality Report is now available online at
www.pickenscountyga.gov or you may call
our office. We are located at 1266 East
Church Street, Suite 117, Jasper, GA 30143.
Like us on Facebook: Pickens County Water & Sewer Authority
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