​The Polish word for the month of October is Październik. The word comes from the word paździerz, the inner fiber of the all-important flax plant (Linium usitatissium).  

     Through a process called retting, this inner fiber of the flax plant was eventually spun into thread and then woven into cloth to make clothes and also to make useful household items such as bed sheets and tablecloths.  Among the people of Poland, the flax plant was described as more precious than gold because it also produced seeds on the top of the plant when it matured which were used as medicine to maintain and promote health. 

​     In folk medicine the seeds were chewed to treat constipation. In its other major use, the flax seeds were taken to an oil mill where it was squeezed for its oil which we commonly know as linseed oil The substances contained in the flax oil helped to soothe skin inflammation, reduce redness, and itching and used to treat skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema, and acne. Simon Syreński, the 16th century Polish botanist also known as Syreniusz, recommended it for healing blotches and blemishes, herpes, scabs and even rough fingernails.  In the 1800’s, botanist Krzystof Kluk recommended making a salve made from it to treat scalded skin. In an herbal printed in 1923, Sebastian Kneipp in his Zielnik atlas roslin leczniczych (Herbal atlas of healing Plants) endorsed the benefits of flax compresses and bandages as having a cooling, dissolving and stretching effect in ulcers and swellings.

Flax seed oil (olej lnjany) is still being produced in current day Poland. Author photo. September  2024

     Another really important use of the flax oil was for cooking during the numerous fast days that came throughout the calendar year especially the days of Advent and Lent. During these fast days animal meat and animal oils for cooking were strictly forbidden and the people of Poland had to resort to vegetable oils such as rapeseed, sunflower and flax seed oil.
In some parts of Poland, linseed oil is often called Christmas Eve oil, because its consumption increased so much during Advent and played a critical role in frying the fish that was consumed on Wigilia, the Christmas Eve supper, which is always eaten without any meat or animal fat.

     All vegetable oils have made a major comeback in the diets of the 21st century and deemed healthier for us than animal fats. Our ancestors were ahead of their time!
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       I’m attaching a brief 5 minute you tube video. It is in Polish but you don’t need to understand Polish to visually see the labor-intensive method used long ago to produce linseed oil, once so important to the people of Poland.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhBiECxlIz8

​     Read more about how the people of Poland treated their health needs in: Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine, Hippocrene Books, Inc. 2020

This beloved Spanish saint was a Carmelite nun and the first woman to be declared a Doctor of the Church.

My title comes from a single sentence she wrote in her Book of Foundations where she calls her nuns to  grow in holiness within the fray of daily life. She writes: “Oh then, my daughters, let there be no neglect: but when obedience calls you to exterior employments (as, for example, into kitchen, amidst the pots and dishes), remember that our Lord goes along with you, to help you both in your interior and exterior duties.”

Teresa wanted to tell her sisters that spiritual life cannot be reduced to just hours of prayer and contemplation alone, but that everyday life in all its breadth and fullness can also be lived spiritually; that God is always with you, whether kneeling in church or washing the supper dishes or any of the innumerable tasks of a given day. This transformative, approachable writing on how a soul can journey to God has inspired countless individuals seeking a greater depth of spiritual life.

Her writings, her thought and mysticism and information about her life was translated into Polish and churches such as that of  St. Teresa of Avila in Jurków in southeastern Poland carry her name. The photos depict her feast day in 2023 when the parish hosted a procession and special mass in veneration of her life and her contribution to the teachings of the church and then celebrated with a street fair.

 
     The rich history and tradition in Poland of celebrating the feast day of the church’s patron saint is called an odpust. In older days it once drew pilgrims from all over the country who had a special devotion to that saint. It also drew people from all walks of life including merchants selling devotionals, souvenirs and sweets who set up their wares along the path leading to the church.  It was a day to seek God in church, that “interior life” that St. Teresa wrote about, but also to find Him in the “exterior life” – during a time of socialization and festivity - that everyday life,  even when doing the dishes, can be lived spiritually.

Painting of St. Teresa of Avila by Spanish artist Eduardo Balaca. (Wikipedia) She is often depicted with the words  Misericordias domini in aeternum cantabo: "For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord."  Psalm 89 of the Book of Psalms.

Photos from the parish of St. Teresa of Avila in Jurków Wiślica:   www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=317947004327067&id=100083353087608&_rdr

For more on how feast days of saints were celebrated in Poland see the chapter on  Feasts and Festivals in: Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook, Hippocrene Books, Inc.

It's time for a new look!

​I​t has been many years since the release of the first edition of this book and I am so very gratified that it has continuously found an audience over these past decades. My thanks to everyone—past, present
and future—who chose or will choose to read this book.

The world has changed significantly in the way information is disseminated since this book’s first publication. Much has also changed in the publishing world including the possibility of making books available in digital format so that readers have the option to never have to leave their home to find and read a book. It’s time for this book to enter into that mainstream and be available as an e-book as well as a physical one. As part of this updating process, I also felt it was time to add color and black and white photos that would enhance the content for the reader.

Thank you to Hippocrene Books, Inc. for working with me on this.
Available October 29, 2024
www.amazon.com/Polish-Customs-Traditions-Folklore-Hodorowicz/dp/0781814510/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GPQVE30VW3CU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YdOyqbADSEgGWLv7E-nlreiXWEhEyRZ8rQiDwCUKMgoD_wzhXCuZWoAJzf05fsjt2Itve1Fu83Cjp4PdhnLBz1t9dHlEC5_BeRxdJWLaam7cTaRehEIu_7Qd1pQ7t8AaQdkXzhgVXSEQrukA7OIYul_DI-zVoEAdJs4Me1KiXq-ZLG7UV7xSR4i06afgMyc_Ddgdvt8ABcXTZsd8b0EuKNLV6KF032NSVKrjPJzt0p0.V3TPjF1dZUGzk4ICqf1g_-FSdBdKCMX33sXAL_67h4o&dib_tag=se&keywords=Polish+customs&qid=1728393165&s=books&sprefix=polish+customs%2Cstripbooks%2C112&sr=1-1

​Two mushroom foraging trips to a forest in Poland does not an expert make. And even when you think, “oh, this is great, a mushroom that’s easily recognizable” you really don’t want to get ahead of yourself. 

      Meet the parasol mushroom. In Latin, Macrolepiota procera. In Poland, the regional names for it include  stroszka strzelista, parasolowiec, parasolnik, czubaj, czubak, czubajka kania, gularka, gapa, sowa, or simply, kania, which is what my cousin and her family call it.

     Our trip to the forest in search of mushrooms this year was a bit disappointing - too dry for too long. These parasols appeared in the field behind Johanna’s house. The property is hers but it’s left as an open meadow, thick with grasses, a place where deer feel free to roam about in search of a snack and where parasol mushrooms apparently feel good about the growing conditions because it doesn’t care for very moist soil. Meadows are one of its normal habitats but they also grow on the edges of deciduous and coniferous forests, in forest clearings, roadsides and even in cemeteries- perhaps a testament that everything and everyone knows best where and what’s needed in order to thrive.

      It’s a mushroom you can’t really miss. It stands tall and proud above the grasses– practically shouting out its presence to the world and the cap really does look like a small umbrella, which can reach 4 to 12 inches in diameter.  Sometimes it stands alone without any others around but little Jasiek and his mom Johanna counted 32 of them scattered throughout the meadow! We picked almost all of them which my cousins shared with friends and neighbors. After cleaning them carefully they can be pan fried in butter - plain, without any extra fixings, or dipped in a thin batter of egg, flour and milk or in egg and breadcrumbs much like we do large portobello mushrooms. According to Polish bloggers you won’t find this mushroom offered in market stalls or as a dish in a restaurant. Its delicate taste is a much enjoyed treat by mushroom foragers.  

​     Extra parasols can be dried in the oven for future use to crumble into soup for added flavor and even pulverized to use in making mushroom sauces, as do my cousins.

The true parasol has some identifying characteristics: brown patches on the cap surface, gills underneath; the snakelike skin appearance on the stem that also has a woolly ring just below the cap that moves relatively easily along the stem.

Like all mushrooms it has its look-alikes that are poisonous so while I've increased my knowledge a smidgen, I've a far, far way to go before I move out of amateur status.
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Thank you to the real mushroom experts: my cousin Jadzia, her husband Krzysiek and their children Johanna and Michał for a fun learning experience about kania, aka the parasol mushroom.

For more about the mushrooms of Poland try The Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook, Hippocrene Books, Inc. 2012.