Confessions of A Cajun Traiteuse - Saving Seeds and Making Wine Part II: "As I continue to share inside stories of my journey as a child Cajun traiteuse, I've thought a lot about everything that this entailed, and wrestled with what I was taught to tell others and what don't you tell. As a girl, I remember thinking time and time again -- 'What does all of this have to do with being a faith healer?' as my Grandpere would have me doing tasks, that seemed to have nothing to do with folk remedies and helping people get well.
I also wrestled with myself over, 'If you have knowledge that can help others, why keep it to yourself and only share with one other person (ie. the one you train to replace you)?'
Two key two key alternative medicine practices of his -- haunt and follow me to this day. The first, was the very involved process of seed saving. This is something that people have been doing all over the world for tens of thousands of years out of necessity.
The other passion had to do with making various homemade wines. These practices haunt and follow me, because I lived long enough to know how important knowing how to do both are to being self-sufficient."
By Jerilee Wei
From Denny: The generation of the cultural folk faith healer is fading. There was a time when knowledge of herbs as medicine was common throughout America and Europe. Since drug companies moved in and began growing, producing and selling the results of the healers' knowledge much of the knowledge has ceased to be passed down.
As Americans began moving from the farm in the 1950's into city and suburban situations a lot of knowledge has no longer been taught or cultivated. This article is a look into a fading world with an eye to write down what was once orally taught only to small groups or one individual per generation. This is a special treat for someone to be writing on this subject without monetary gain.