![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If you keep them in water the catkins will erupt and soon bright green leaves will unfurl, at which time the branches can be planted outdoors. Left to their own growing cycle for years, Goins says his family has held on to the willow field to memorialize his grandfather and “it tickles my grandma to no end that people once again may want to buy them.”Īs an excellent soil stabilizers, Pussy Willows, are hearty and can easily be propagated from cut stems, which Goins explains, are perfectly preserved in a time-warp. Goins, who seeks to express his artistry, through carving and sculpture of wood, selects and mills most of the raw materials that are eventually reborn as classically designed furniture in collaboration with 3oak partners Mike Burns and Scott Sullivan. “I could never get used to saying the full name, but they were actually a quite lucrative business for our family for a while.” Goins now thinks his youthful discomfort was mostly his problem, because the arrangements were eye-catching and sold without much of a correctly-worded sales spiel. A partner and featured artisan in 3oak Handcrafted, a furniture and home goods company, based in Brevard. “Being a kid trying to sell those … it always just felt to me like saying a bad word,” remembers Goins with an easy laugh. Goins’ grandma, Linda McCall, and the other women of the family would arrange them into beautiful arrangements and weave them into glorious wreaths to sell at markets in neighboring Highlands and Cashiers. ![]() The McCall Farm is home to more than a dozen different varieties from the distinctive stems of the corkscrew willow to the French Pink, Goat Willow and the smooth, sleek Silver Willow, Each year, as cold temperatures waned, Goins’ late grandfather, Joseph McCall, would start wandering “in the willows”, which meant it was time to brave the sometimes still frigid weather and get out and help cut branches. “There is only about three weeks to cut and sell them,” says Goins. All family members would be part of the highly seasonal cottage industry surrounding their willow grove and its tiny window for harvest and demand. “We would get off the bus, and my grandpa would be in the willows, and I’d go ‘oh no not the willows,’” says Joshua Goins, whose family has owned the McCall Farm in Balsam Grove for generations. Only male Pussy Willows erupt in the signature silky fuzzy puffs of the many types of Pussy Willows that love bottomland, bogs and moist woodlands - the latter in ample supply in Transylvania County, where Pussy Willows have been part of local farmers’ senses for the seasons for as long as they can remember. Native to Asia, North America and Europe, the kitten-paw shaped buds insulate the soft pollen stems burrowed beneath from the last freezes of winter before exposing them to the winds as “catkins” (Dutch for “katteken” or kitten tails) to find a nearby female willow. The Pussy Willow or “Salix Discolor” to use its proper botanical genus, is easily overlooked for its lack of showy colors, petals and fragrance, nevertheless it has its briefest of moment in the pale spring light just as winter recedes when it distinguishes itself as the earliest flower of spring, announcing the seasonal return of natural bounties with tiny fur-covered buds along its willow-long, sculptural stems. Easter and Spring Pop-Up sale of local Pussy Willow bunches at 3oak handcrafted in Brevard, 2 to 6-foot bundles for $15 - $35 while supplies last ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |