Welcome to Mama’s Table

Food, Herbs, Messages…mostly for my kids

Most of us know that there’s nothing like Mama’s cooking. I was fortunate to have my Maternal Grandma, born and raised in Duck, NC, live with my Dad and me for a while when I was a kid and so I got to learn to love her food, and my Aunt Audrey’s ‘maters, taters, butterbeans, and corn’ which is what she cooked when Grandma took all us kids to church. I share my version of Aunt Audrey’s recipe, as well as my Mama’s spaghetti and vegetable soup, and my step-mother’s Appalachian fried chicken. No one ever taught me how to create these ‘recipes’, if you can call them that, I just had to figure it out on my own but I knew the flavors I grew up on and I infused my food with those. These little things are the things my kids grew up eating. They are the recipes they call me to ask about. I’m including this on my webpage so that my kids…and you!…can soak up a little bit of Mama’s love from wherever you are.

The herbal recipes are much the same as my food recipes. For me herbalism is part art, part science…mostly it is an art. There is no recreating in a lab the specific alignments of the stars in any given year, the way the night sky sends its light and codes down into the open hearts of the plants, the pattern of sunny and rainy days, the number of times a bee landed on a plant, or the way the winds carried pollen.

I create remedies on the New Moon and decant them on the Full. I work with the biodynamic calendar for planting and harvesting, as much as I am able to fit that into my life. I do not spray my plants with pesticides. I feed them with composted horse manure, rabbit poo-comfrey tea, and our good well water. Our bees pollinate our plants. What I don’t grow, I source from ethical purveyors, mostly Mountain Rose Herbs and friends who are growers. Some things I wildcraft, but only those things which are abundant and often invasive, like curly/yellow/and regular dock; plantain; and chickweed. My flower essences are powerful, beautiful, emotional healers. Everything is created intentionally and with love.

In case you are curious, I have a lot of children. Four I gave birth to. One I was lucky enough to get when I married my husband. Two more I’ve been blessed with when my sons got married, and two others are my daughter’s beloveds. One is my fairy goddaughter. I am looking for more fairy god children if you’re in the market for extra Granny ladies for a child. My children’s names are: Randall; Elizabeth; Travis; Martina; Aleia; Carolyn; Jenny; Carson; Asher; and Lindsey. They range in age from 35 to 8 years old as of August 2020.

I’m no food photographer—you will probably be able to tell when the photos are mine because they will look like simply, home cooked food. Otherwise the images are from Squarespace.

I hope you enjoy this as much I will enjoy creating it. May you be nourished.