'Shrooms from Santa Claus on the Winter Solstice

Santa's distinctive style has drawn comparisons to 17th-century Siberian shamans.
(Illustration: Yumiyumi/Shutterstock)

Have you ever wondered where the Story of Santa Claus came from?  Me too. Then, looking at Mother Nature Network News the other day, a story by Russell McLendon caught my eye, "7 mind-bending facts about Magic Mushrooms."

Apparently, there are magic "muscimol" mushrooms found all over the world. There are also religious shamans all over the world. In Siberia, the variety of mushrooms ingested by shamans is Amanita muscaria.  And these 'shrooms help the shamans commune with the spirit world.  

What's this got to do with Santa?  Well, each year on the Winter Solstice (December 21st), beginning as far back as the 1600s, the Shamans of Siberia began an annual custom.  They would gather magic mushrooms, dry them, and go out into the neighborhood to give them to the villagers as gifts. The Shamans' custom was to dress up in costumes that resembled the mushrooms... red with white trim. They would take their reindeers with them and climb up onto the rooftops to enter the houses though specially-made openings, since the front doors were snowed in all winter long, and so unusable. 

The Shamans' reindeers also ingested the mushrooms frequently, by simply foraging in the woods where they are plentiful. In an altered state, Shamans enjoyed being able to communicate with the reindeers' spirits. 

Considering the hallucinogenic properties of Amanita muscaria, is it any wonder folks started seeing reindeers flying from the rooftops with a plump man in a red suit carrying gifts on wintery Christmas nights?

So, the next time you look up in the sky on a winter's night and recall the Santa Claus story, you are going to remember the Siberian shamans' magic mushrooms and think: makes as much sense as anything else!

Enjoy your Winter Solstice today, shortest day of this year. 

And to read McLendon's wonderful complete story, visit: https://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/facts-about-magic-mushrooms. 

Bringing Nature Indoors for the Holidays

Holiday Wreath with Red Toyon Berries (Heteromeles arbutifolia), 

Photo Credit: UC Master Gardeners of Napa County

Bringing Nature Indoors for the Holidays

Nothing makes the holidays like decorating and entertaining.  The winter holidays deserve something special that can only be found by bringing nature inside from your garden.  For me, I find great joy from using the bits of nature that I find right outside my doorstep in my decorating: pine cones, sea shells, acorns, even air plants can be moved inside when temps turn cool.  These pieces of nature are like art, each one truly unique.

I get such joy from sharing my garden with my family and friends as we sit at the table and move around the house. Table place settings, fireplace mantels, decorating candles, making wreaths --- all can be made special and unique with your own personal garden finds.  If you do not have a garden, a walk through a forest or a walk along a seashore can produce unique nature-inspired finds, as well.

The Wreath

My favorite holiday ornament is the wreath that hangs on the front door: it is like a Welcome Mat to the Christmas Season.  It gives me great pleasure to make this out of found garden objects.  Here is a simple “how to” wreath you can try:

Things Needed:

Metal wreath shape from art store

Thin wire

Clippers

Nail or hook longer than the wreath is deep

Green Pine needles

Ribbons or yarn

A special ornament

Red Toyon berries.

Instructions:

Find young pine tree branches. Clip them to about 12”. Weave branches through metal frame. Secure with thin wire. Add berries, esp red or blue, and secure with fine steel string. (Look for red berries from Toyon bushes; they are the native plant of Los Angeles.) Add at the bottom of the wreath a pine cone and a favorite ornament.  Secure with a ribbon or, my favorite, white yarn (stands out nicely against the greenery).  Tiny extra “balls can be added. Or ball-shaped fruit, such as tiny apples or oranges can be substituted.  Don’t worry about flocking!  Just hang on the door with a big nail.  

Photo Credit, via A Piece of the Rainbow, Ananda

Tableside

The same sort of wreath can be used at your table around a candle.  Select a smaller wire frame and twist pine branches onto it.  Decorate with shiny balls but also bits of the garden, esp the red berries. In California, these would be Toyon.

Gardening In the Line of Fire

Manzanita's spring blossoms, of the Genus Arctostaphylos

December 4, 2017: California seems to be on fire.  Everywhere. It started last week when Santa Ana winds stirred up a wildfire in Ventura, California, just to the north of Los Angeles County. I was on my way up to Santa Monica to take care of some business at the courthouse there.  Everyone was talking about the fires. It was a warm, dry day, more like summertime than Christmastime. The sky was hazy and girls passed by with masks over their faces, so as not to breathe in too much ash and particulates. The golden sun took on a new color. It was just the beginning of what would become the week ahead.

My car radio was alive with chatter about how this was not the fire season: It is too late in the year and fires are supposed to be over.  "Newbies" to Los Angeles had to call into the radio station to put in their "two cents," annoying me with how they know all about living in LA.  "This is what it's like living in LA: you never know when there might be a fire and we are always living with this danger..." much like folks back East live with tornadoes or hurricanes or ice storms. I suppose that's what they meant. I wanted to call in and say, "No. This NOT normal for Los Angeles."

For one thing, we are in our 6th year of drought. Nothing is normal now. The trees are stressed. Aluminum has been sprayed on us day in and day out for weather modification... Ah, but that is a subject for another post.

As the car radio droned on, I started thinking about the backyard gardeners in Southern California. We all spend much time and money planning our landscapes: shopping for the right plants, learning where to place them, and how to care for them.  Then, should a fire appear out of nowhere and strike our neighborhood, causing evacuations, we have to leave our gardens behind. When we leave our houses, we leave our gardens, too.  And we don't know what we will come back to.

What a terrible feeling that is!  Even if the insurance companies reimburse you for your house, how do you replace the garden?  All that love and careful nurturing of your plants: they are like friends that cannot be replaced. The only choice is to start over. You assess the damages, decide what to keep and what cannot be saved, and you move on.  And that takes time and money.

So, now we come to why I am writing this blog post. There are things you CAN do to mitigate the destructive effects of wildfires on your garden and make the new garden stronger.  With a little bit of  research, you can make your new garden even more fire resistant!  I suggest you start with taking a look at which plants you choose to put in.

In Southern California there are native plants that are fire resistant and plants that are fire tolerant. There are a good many varieties of plants to choose from. You do not have to go with strickly a "cactus and succulent" garden if you don't want to.  I want to introduce you to some of the native plants I know of that would work well in your new garden.  Like the lovely Manzanita~ If you had a garden full of Manzanita, they would survive fires. Yes, they still burn, but they do not die. Instead, they grow back from a basal stump and eventually return to their enchanting pre-fire forms, producing sweet pink blossoms in spring that pollinators so enjoy.

After a fire, your garden will be void of much brush; it may look like a whole new palette to paint on. So rather than fill it with more plants that would be destroyed if wildfires should come again, consider using native plants that stand up to fire, plants that will be with you for a lifetime. It will make coming home after an evacuation that much less stressful. Your favorite plants might be charred and blackened. They might be smaller versions of their former selves. But they will continue to grow. And the wildlife that called them home will return, too. They will put out seeds that native birds rely on. The ecosystem will continue to thrive, and your garden will be reborn!

Remember, plant fire resiliant and fire tolerant native plants.  Look them up. Research your options.  I will post some great native choices in upcoming blog posts for you.  Because, I am a Southern California gardener, too.  I have lived in the chaparral & soft-scrub areas of the Santa Monica Mountains for most of my adult life. And I have seen what wildfires can do. I am no "newbie" to this place. And I am here to tell you, you can be strong. You can create a better and stronger garden that will last you a lifetime~ 

(780)

Toyon, Hollywood's Native Christmas Berry Bush

Toyon Bush, Heteromeles arbutifolia,
Santa Monica Mtns, Photo by Kathy Vilim

Ever wonder how Hollywood got its name?  

The Toyon bush, Heteromeles arbutifolia, is a drought tolerant perennial shrub native to chaparral regions of California (such as the Santa Monica Mountains). Toyon has long been beloved by Californians, especially during the month of December when it produces glossy red berries in profuse clusters.  

The shrub resembles another winter evergreen found back East, European Holly, Ilex aquifolium, which is frequently used in Yuletide decorations for its red berries.

It has been said that the Hollywood Hills were once covered in Toyon bushes. Even before Hollywood’s development back in the 1920's, women would collect Toyon holly branches and pick the berries to decorate for Christmas. 

After so much berry picking, the State of California passed a law against “collecting plants on public land or land not owned by the person picking the plant without the landowner’s written permission” lest the plants get picked out.

Some say this is how Hollywood got its name.  Others say this is not true, that the story is just a romantic notion, and that the name Hollywood was simply chosen by a woman friend of the developers who named it after an Ohio town. Originally, the development was called Hollywood Land.

Romantic notion or not, the Hollywood hills could still be covered in Toyon bushes with their red berries in winter, and their red berries can still be used in decorating, especially pretty contrasting with green pine needles in wreaths.  

The name "Toyon" is in fact the Native American name for the bush, given by the Ohlone people, and is still the name used today. The native people, including the Chumash and Tongva, used the wild, edible berries (tomes) for food, despite their containing glycosides, which would be largely removed by cooking. The berries would be made into jelly, or they would be dried and stored for later use in porridge or pancakes. Toyon leaves were used as a tea for upset stomachs. 

On April 17, 2012 Los Angeles chose the Toyon bush as the City’s official native plant. The Toyon earned this distinctive status by having such a long and colorful history in Hollywood going back to the City’s founding. 

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is a native plant that is drought tolerant once established. It will accept some garden water if drainage is good, tolerates adobe soil, but also lives in beach sand. Toyon likes full sun, but tolerates full shade and is fire-resistant if irrigated in summer. It grows easily to 8ft, but can be pruned as desired or to 15ft when left in the wild.

These native plants have wildlife value: The fruit provides food for our local birds, including mockingbirds, robins, and cedar waxwings.  Bears and coyotes eat the berries and spread them, and in the spring Toyon’s white flowers are beloved by bees and butterflies.

So, if you are looking to add new native bushes to your yard, Toyon is a wonderful choice for humans and wildlife alike. And a great Holiday Gift to the birds!