Our writers’ group often uses prompts to stimulate our imaginations. The prompt for this time was to write a morality tale using three words or phrases that came from the names on paint chips from Home Depot. My words were winter shamrock, roasted seeds, rumors. This is the short tale I wove.

Winter Shamrocks

There were rumors throughout town that the witch who lived in the old shack at the edge of the forest roasted seeds of the winter shamrock to make a powerful hypnotic potion that she gave to farmers so they would keep her supplied with food for the winter.

Of course, it was false.

Because the witch was different, an outsider, she became the fodder of gossip.  No one in town tried to know her; they rendered her a thing rather than a person. It is an unfortunate human tendency to reify the ineffable; to reduce it to a familiar or popular code with which to beat someone over the head.

The townspeople were completely ignorant of the commerce between the witch and the farmers.  They could only make up stories to fit what they saw happening.

The previous summer, the witch had come to town and moved into an unoccupied shack on its north side. Without obvious means of support, she managed to slowly reform the old shack into a lovely cottage. As winter approached and lingered, she was assisted with large baskets of food donated by the farmers.  Did she bewitch them?

In reality, the farmers recognized her horticultural and homeopathic skills and honored them. She collected all manner of herbs and plants in the woods for the entire summer, putting them to dry in bunches on lines stretched from the low corner of the cottage roof to a tree at the forest’s verge. She made elixirs for the common cold, headache potions, and ague therapies and gave them generously to whoever came to her door. The townspeople avoided her and codified her existence as dangerous, suspicious.  They made note that the farmers nearby regularly visited her cottage. They could only surmise that she had put a spell on them to make them do her bidding.

The lovely, mystical winter shamrock was one of her favorite plants. She made a tea from the leaves and flowers to help those with heart conditions.  Farmer Elmer O’Reilly, who had suffered from hypertension since his early 30s, swore that three cups of the witch’s shamrock tea each day had relieved his symptoms within two days.  She toasted the shamrock sprouts to add crunch to herbal salads like the one she made with fennel leaves, kale, spinach, and arugula with a little goat cheese and ripe pear.

The witch roasted the delicate seeds of the winter shamrock to make her special elixir that she sold to the farmer’s wives. It was the enlarging potion and it had many uses, among them: 

2 drops of the potion could double the size of the roast when unexpected company arrived;

1 drop in the wash water could make a child’s leggings or shirt expand to one size larger avoiding new clothes every season (that could be done twice without compromising the strength of the fabric);

1 drop each on vegetables growing in the garden would assure an extra-large pumpkin, tomato, potato, pepper, or ear of corn;

3 drops added to 1/8 cup of olive oil and massaged slowly onto the farmer’s member resulted in enlarged smiles for both the farmer and his wife.

This potion alone assured the witch a special and welcome place in the community. The townsfolk, however, because of their narrow-minded determination to keep outsiders outside, continued to shun the witch and never reaped the benefit of her wisdom and gifts.

Moral: Prejudice results in the shrinkage of rewards.