Sweet

[Marc St Louis]

Sweetgrass that is.  My wife and another local woman went picking this afternoon.  She got enough for a couple good size braids.  We may go back tomorrow and get more



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[mullet]

 We have some Sweetgrass baskets my wife bought  from the Gullah's in the South Carolina Low Country. The Sweet grass basket weaving has been handed down from family members, since slave days.
  Marc, what do you do with the braids? Is it significant to a certain NA event or ceremony?

[Marc St Louis]

Sweetgrass is a sacred plant to natives up here.  It's used for smudging to purify a place or used as a gift.  It's also supposed to have healing properties.  We hang them up in the house

[mullet]

 Thanks, Marc. I thought I had read that but wasn't sure.

[Josh]

"smudging" is where you fan the smoke onto an object for blessing/healing/purifying, right Marc?  I want some sweet grass.  Someone was burning some at the last flintknapping event I was at and they didn't have any to sell.

[JW_Halverson]

Sweetgrass has a wonderful aroma when burning.  Kinda like primitive aromatherapy. 

[Marc St Louis]

That's right Josh but you can also waft the smoke onto you to purify yourself

[Hillbilly]

Wish we had sweetgrass growing around here. Eddie, the sweetgrass they use in Gullah basketry is a totally different plant with the same common name. I spent a while watching a couple Gullah women at the old Charleston Market weaving sweetgrass baskets a while back, pretty fascinating.

[mullet]

 I didn't know that Steve, thanks. Kathie watched them weaving and said the same thing, but it was a small town outside of Charleston.

[Marc St Louis]

According to internet sources, Sweetgrass is extinct an many parts of the US and endangered in other parts....over-picking and land development I guess.  It's very easy to start your own patch though.  It likes pretty well any type soil, except for rocks, and root cuttings is the easiest way to get some growing.  Seeds on the other hand are extremely rare and even though it does flower the "seed" packets are almost always empty