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Potpourri

The Joys of Tarragon
      Tarragon is an herb not commonly found in American kitchens. In fact, it’s hard to find it in grocery stores. Tarragon is a wonderful herb to have once you know what to do with it.
It’s great in scrambled eggs, but only use a pinch. Tarragon is green, but has a light licorice flavor. It’s hard to keep fresh as the flavor diminishes as it ages. That’s why it’s so often preserved in vinegar. Try a little tarragon in your chicken or fish dishes.
It’s hard to grow, so you may not want to try growing your own.
The French use tarragon (they call it the “king of herbs”) with parsley, chives and chervils. That combination is the basis of many French sauces and dressings.
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Taps or Tattoo
The French had a bugle call as a reminder to the troops to take their last drink of the day and head for their tents where they would hear the last bugle call for “lights out”. That first call was known as a “taptoe” (tap or plug the keg) and sounded similar to Taps as we know it. That became “tattoo”. In older literature, when we see the word tattoo in reference to a soldier, it has nothing to do with a mark on the body, but the early “Taps” to end the day.
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In Flanders Fields
            by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This poem was written in World War I by a Canadian doctor who had served in several conflicts. The most gruesome battle he’d ever witnessed inspired this tribute.
    Flanders fields was a place in Belgium where poppies grew in the ditches throughout the burial grounds. Men of many nations were buried there.
  The poem has been printed in many languages and is used extensively in Canadian military publications. It was the most popular poem of WWI but transcends that time and conflict. Its universal appeal has made it the poem of the American Veterans.

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  Although paper poppies originally were designed as a memorial to the military dead, these little poppies for the lapel have been made by the wounded and disabled since the 1920’s. The profit helps those same men. Today it is still cheaper to make them by hand by these volunteers than by machine.
Buy a poppy whenever you can. It honors the dead and helps the living.