Shake Them 'Simmons Down - Hardcover

Lembke, Janet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558213503 ISBN 13: 9781558213500

Publisher: Lyons Pr, 1996

Synopsis

Offers a collection of essays which focus on the trees of the American South

About this title

From the Back Cover

Lovers of the very best nature writing will celebrate this new collection of essays from Janet Lembke. In Shake Them 'Simmons Down, Lembke - author of Dangerous Birds - focuses her keen naturalist's eye on the trees of the American south. Pawpaw, sassafras, sweetgum, loblolly pine, and more become vibrant characters in Lembke's lyrical imagination. She tells of the history of trees and of their role in human lives, and in her own. We join Lembke as she and her fellow pawpawites gather to praise their favorite tree. We hear of persimmon and pecan (Thomas Jefferson's favorite tree), catalpa and tupelo, and are treated to a rich feast of tree lore and tales of tree lovers. The book is leavened by even measures of the practical (recipes) and the artistic (Lembke's poems), all beautifully evoking the singular place trees occupy in human lives. This book, Lembke's most varied and provocative work to date on the natural world, is certain to win her legions of new fans. (6 1/4 X 9 1/4, 244 pages, illustrations)

Reviews

From birds (Dangerous Birds) and water (Skinny-Dipping), Lembke turns her attention here to trees. This collection of essays?in which 22 of the 25 pieces are previously unpublished?may be her finest work to date. Though her trees are native to the South, some species?tupelo, sweet gum, catalpa, sassafras, pawpaw and sumac?range as far north as Michigan and New York. Lembke discusses the history of trees and their relationship to wildlife and humans. She takes us to the first Paw-Paw Conference, where she samples the gooey fruit, and to the biggest yellow poplar (tulip tree) in Virginia. Other trees in these essays are the loblolly pine, 'simmon (persimmon), pecan (Jefferson's favorite), osage orange and yucca. As a bonus, Lembke offers recipes, folklore and a few of her own poems in this treasure for tree lovers. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Arboreal musings--learned, canny, homespun, graceful--from one of our better natural history writers. Trees are one of Lembke's (River Time, 1989) joys, as are rivers and birds and butterflies, all given lavish attention here; a naturalist, Lembke just can't keep her eyes still, thank goodness. This gallimaufry of tree lore--historical and medicinal; trees as food, as Eve's temptation, as just plain awesome--is a wide-ranging delight, and of the species covered, each gets a chapter unto itself: catalpa and sassafras, osage orange and yucca and loblolly pine, to name a few. Lembke has a special talent for commingling intimacy with erudition. One essay will explore the backgrounds of Druids and Green Men, witches in the Teutonic forest, Baba Yaga and her chicken-footed woodland abode; another will mull over why the author has never warmed to the yellow poplar. She takes a personal interest in the trees on her North Carolina riverfront property: a black tupelo draped with mistletoe; a persimmon humming with bees in spring, a celebration of red berries in autumn, harvested with a mighty shake; the curative properties of rabbit tobacco, known to foragers as ``life everlasting''; the sweet gum, pantry to the yellow-bellied sapsucker and bedroom to the orchard oriole. Why did Thomas Jefferson revere the pecan? Why did the pawpaw go to heaven and the pepper to hell? And can the sumac truly allow one to take wing? All these are asked and answered with nimble deliberation. Eighteen essays all told, with a few poems thrown in, and recipes for teas and jellies, puddings and zabaglione, and not a lemon in the bunch. We breathe the exhalations of the trees, and as Lembke testifies, they fuel a hundred more poetic concerns. (line drawings, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Lembke (Skinny-Dipping & Other Vital Adventures, LJ 7/94), whose collections of nature essays center on her homes on the Neuse River (North Carolina) and the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, examines here more than a dozen native American trees, such as the sassafras, sweet gum, catalpa, yellow poplar, and persimmon ('simmon). Each essay is an entertaining mix of personal recollections, the history of how the tree has been used since Colonial times, interesting botanical lore, and the occasional recipe. Various chapters describe topics like the first national Pawpaw conference and a fantastically poisonous (and mythical) Javan tree. Lembke blends her impressive scholarship with a fond respect for the backwoods wisdom of her friends. The result is a convincing and down-to-earth approach to natural-history writing. Recommended for public and academic libraries, particularly in the South.?Beth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., Va.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lembke's respect for trees, especially those that thrive in her home states of Virginia and North Carolina, comes through in these 15 essays, some of which are embellished with recipes and poems. Mingled with historical and botanical lore about such trees as persimmon, sweet gum, Osage orange, and loblolly pine are personal anecdotes. Lembke tells of dyeing wool gray with sumac berries and ferrous sulfate, of her son repairing his pickup truck beneath a catalpa, and of attending the world's first-ever pawpaw conference. She even ponders, but never learns conclusively, why safrole, the aromatic oil of sassafras, was selected for carcinogenic testing in the late 1950s. For laboratory rats, diets that contained massive doses of safrole proved toxic. So the FDA banned it, and root beer has never tasted the same! From her curiosity about making soap out of yuccas to Thomas Jefferson's connection with pecan trees, readers can catch her affection in this "arboretum of stories" and even sample the pecan pie recipe wherein the nut reaches its highest potential. Jennifer Henderson

Edition details

• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1558213503
• ISBN 13: 9781558213500
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Nutt Joe
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 229