September 23 “tart cider, scarlet fly hair”

September 23rd is National Apple Vinegar Cider Day. I have several books talking about this. The first is an older book “Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis’s Cook Book, by Sidney Morse, published 1914. This large ( twelve hundred and six pages large) and and well used book has been a resource for me several times.

We have a whole chapter on vinegar, and several recipes for making cider vinegar. There are instructions for the best quality cider vinegar using a hogshead (cask about 45 gallons). One interesting ingredient is adding a pound of wheat flower dough, as prepared for cooking, into the cask. Also once a day, take a gallon from the cask, and pour it back, from a considerable height into a funnel back into the bunghole-keeping air in the cider. There were several other recipes for cheaper grade cider vinegar.

“Pickle and Sauce Making” by Raymond H. Binsted, published 1939. is another book I have for preparing pickles and vinegars. Their chapter on vinegars talk about only using high quality vinegars. Malt vinegar being the most popular, but cider, wine, honey, and molasses each have their individual highlights and flavors. A good vinegar takes three to six months to mature.

September 23rd is Redhead Appreciation Day. There is also World Redhead Day May 26th, National Redhead weekend Friday August 23rd-August 25th, and a National Red Hair Day on November 5th. I thought I would do a quick search of redheads in the library.

“The Collectable Barbie Doll” by Janine Fennick, published 1996. The subtitle is “An Illustrated Guide to her Dreamy World”. This gave me my first redhead. In ’66 there was a two color Barbie switching from blonde to red. Barbie had a friend named Midge that had red hair. In ’92 there was a redhead Barbie for Benefit Ball and in ’98 a redhead Style and Cut Barbie.

“The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Times”, edited by Alison Gwinn, 1998. On the cover is Lucille Ball, perhaps the most famous redhead of all. Also listed was The Carol Burnett Show.

I have this wonderful oversized book “James Bond, the Legacy by John Cork and Bruce Scivally, published in 2002. It has great information on every Bond movie up to then. In “Diamonds are Forever” we have a redheaded Jill St. John, who is asked by James Bond, “Well, as long as the collar and cuffs match…”

“Great Artists” “A Treasury of Paintings By the Masters” edited by Melvyn Bragg, 1997. The Redhead on the cover is ‘The Birth of Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli. He painted many redheads. Found “Danäi by Klimpt; “The Salon de La Rue des Moulins” by Toulous-Latrec; “Woman at Her Toilette” by Edgar Degas; “Woman with Red Hair” by Amedeo Modigliani, just to name a few.

“J.W. Waterhouse” edited by Anthony Hobkin, published 1989 has many redheads. The cover is “Lady of Shalott”. He also painted Miranda, Ophelia, and Juliet from Shakespeare. A few ancient myths were “Echo and Narcissus and “Psyche opening Golden Box”. Waterhouse also made many mermaids and naiads with red hair.

This is the back cover of “Van Gogh, an Appreciation of his Art” edited by Gerhard Gruitrooy, 1994. While I didn’t find any redheaded females by Van Gogh, he did paint 36 self portraits (in the ten years he painted.) The only painter to paint more self portraits would be Rembrandt. During the 40 years he painted, Rembrandt made about 80 self portraits.

Some say that small amounts of apple cider vinegar daily are good for you, especially with folk medicine. There is no scientific studies-that I know of, to show what amount of redheads are good for you, but their beauty is there, notwithstanding perhaps a fiery nature. I’ll leave with this quote:

“While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats.” – Mark Twain