LADYBUG: SEASON OF HOLIDAYS BRINGS HARVEST FARE

Blow the trumpets, roll the drums, the holiday season has begun.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. In homes throughout the nation the festive board will be laden with the fruits of the harvest. Families will gather in joyous celebration, not to end until the last bowl game is played on Jan. 1.

Let's take a trip down memory lane and on into the history of Thanksgiving and a few of the foods that make it so uniquely American. Here we go!

Thanksgiving, now established on the fourth Thursday of November, was for many years a movable feast, and was first observed in Missouri on Nov. 30, 1843. In that year, Gov. Thomas C. Reynolds proclaimed that on the last Thursday of the month, the people of MIssouri should "give thanks to Almighty God, for His favor extended to us nationally and individually."

It was 1877 before a definite day was set for the occasion. While national custom followed the "fourth Thursday" pattern, Missouri occasionally differed. In 1859, Gov. Robert Stewart set aside the eighth and 31st of December for giving thanks, and Edward Bates declared that Stewart did so because "all the Yankee abolitionists thank God (in November) and he did not choose to be caught in such company."

Excerpted from Frances Hurd Stadler's "St. Louis Day by Day."

PUMPKINS

How long is long? At least 7,000 years. Archaeologists have found pieces of pumpkin stems, seeds and rind in the ancient ruins of the Cliff Dwellers in the southwestern United States.

So the pumpkin is truly "a native American."

Peopon was one of the first names for the pumpkin. It's Greek for "large melon." The French changed it to "pompion" or "baked by the sun." The English modified to pumpion. But it took the American colonists to finally call this versatile squash "pumpkin."

By 1630 one unknown colonist wrote: "We have pumpkins at morning, pumpkins at noon, and if it were not for the pumpkin, we should all be undone."

Preserving food in those days was a tricky business, but pumpkins kept for months in a cool place. Dried pumpkins could be ground into meal for year-round use. And in no time, the Pilgrims developed dozens of simple recipes for pumpkin soup, stews, puddings, breads, and of course, pumpkin pie.

CRANBERRIES

Cranberries have been a part of the American Thanksgiving for a long time.

Then there came "Black Monday."

It was 17 days before Thanksgiving 1959. Federal authorities announced that some Oregon and Washington cranberries were contaminated with a herbicide that was known to cause cancer in laboratory rats.

The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare suggested that Americans "pass up cranberries" this year. Growers protested, claiming a person would have to eat 15,000 pounds of contaminated cranberries every day to get cancer.

Vice President Richard Nixon solemnly ate four helpings of cranberry sauce on television to demonstrate that the fruit was safe. But the damage was done. Growers took a terrific loss that year and it took several years for them to recover.

Today cranberries aren't seen as posing a health threat. In fact, it has been proved they are beneficial.

There are cranberry salads, cranberry relishes, cranberry breads, cranberry coffee cakes, and cranberry ice. The latter was always served in sherbets at holiday time by our mother, and it has been a lasting tradition. Her three grandchildren and their children always ask if we will have "Mimi's cranberry ice." And the answer is always in the affirmative.

CELERY

Unlike turkey, pumpkins, corn or sweet potatoes, celery is not a native American vegetable and was not present at the first Thanksgiving dinners.

Celery was not cultivated in American gardens until the early 1800s. Today it is one of the most popular vegetables.

Its parent, wild celery, was native to the Mediterranean area, and was considered a medicinal plant by early civilizations. Medieval herbals promoted celery for soothing the nerves, useful in hysteria and promoting restfulness and sleep.

Even though these properties may be questionable, celery today is considered a healthful food and a low calorie snack food.

~Mary Blue is a resident of Cape Girardeau and an avid gardener.