Mangelwurzel

If you're like me, & you obsess over roots & sticks & scarecrows & weird things pertaining to Rustic Dynamism, the mangelwurzel will titillate your tootlehorn. The Mangelwurzel is German for "Chard Root", but is largely an English cultural phenomenon. It has been used for sport (mangold hurling), it has been hollowed out for All Hallow's Eve (the end products are called Punkies), it is great food for animals & can be fermented into a drink. The North Country Scrumpy & Western group the Wurzels take their name from the Mangelwurzel as does Worzel Gummidge. Tolkien fans might note a slight resemblance between Gummidge & Gammidge, as in Hob Gammidge who is some sort of distant relative of Sam Gamgee, thus, Sam Turnip, thus, Sam the country bumpkin.

Worzel Gummidge openers. Dr. Who transformed into a scarecrow with a turnip head.


The Wurzels - I am a Cider Drinker


"Riches more than mind can picture,
Wheat and barley, oats and hay,
Clover, beans and mangel-wurzels
Shall be ours upon that day."
from "Beasts of England" by George Orwell

And how to cook with mangel wurzels "the scarcity root". I'm going to try & procure some mangelwurzel seeds (also known as Swede Mangel) so as to grow my own.

I Loves It, Being a Farmerrrrrrrr.

After an initial attempt at starting a garden with Eric Radey in me mum's backyard nigh on 15 years ago, & a couple of large buckets with semi-functioning tomato plants in the interim, my dream of having a garden has been realized. I gritted my teeth through the usual table-saw nightmares that i have while cutting wood for the raised beds, day-dreaming of the spinning blade coming undone from the machine & ripping my chest open... It was a particularly moving moment because i ceremonially listened to Chaos UK while hauling seemingly endless amounts of dirt into the backyard. I left the tender-handed job of planting the plants to the wife, but anyhow, it was a glorious moment. So now, we've got three raised beds, a blueberry bush, two cherry trees, an apple tree & an apricot tree in what was originally a very empty plot of land. This was all made extra-satisfying because as the economy collapses & fecal material keeps on making it onto the commercial lettuce, it's nice to have food growing in the backyard! I wanna add a couple of chickens to the mix, but this is a family debate. While i've both romanticized farming & argued that it's passé in the past (it can be both), this spring i have come full circle & become 18 again! Ha ha.