May 5: Today is Cinco de Mayo (the Fifth of May), celebrating the 1862 Mexican victory over a French army, an important holiday for many in southern border states.

May 6: About this time, in England, it is a tradition to decorate wells and springs.

May 10: On this day in 1876, the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition was opened and sassafras-flavored Hires Root Beer was introduced to a thirsty nation.

May 11: Today is Mother's Day. Give your mother a hug! (Flowers would be nice, too.)

When I was a child growing up in Illinois, my favorite treat was a frosty mug of root beer—originally a product of the sassafras tree, my grandmother's favorite spring tonic, prescribed liberally for internal "spring cleaning." When I lived in Louisiana, I learned that Creole filé gumbo just wasn't the same without filé powder, made from sassafras. And recently, I've seen fabric dyed a deep, pretty yellow from sassafras bark. No wonder it's been called the "universal plant"!

The sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum) is common throughout the eastern United States. It was the New World's first cash crop, and made quite a sensation in the early 1600s in Europe, where its health-giving roots and wood were more prized than chocolate and tobacco, two other wildly popular New World herbs. Its popularity declined sharply, however, when word got around that it was also used to treat syphilis. Its main constituent, safrole, is now considered carcinogenic.

Because of concern for toxicity, root beer is now made from artificial flavors, and people have been warned to reduce their consumption of sassafras tea. (My grandmother would undoubtedly have gone right on drinking it.) Used in small quantities as a flavoring, the leaves are safe and are available, in the form of filé powder, from many supermarkets. If you want to make your own filé, dry the young sassafras leaves until they're crisp, then powder them. To flavor and thicken gumbo, add the powder at the very end of the cooking period, after you have taken the pot from the heat, and add it only to the portion you plan to serve. (Filé powder becomes stringy when it's heated or re-heated.)

Read more about sassafras:

• Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation, by Stephen Harrod Buhner
• Wild Roots: A Forager's Guide, by Doug Elliott

Enjoy a mug of ice-cold root beer while you discover more about this American drink, brewed from a wide variety of roots, herbs, and spices.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo by stirring up a pitcher of margaritas and serving guacamole with tortilla chips, a cactus salad, spicy black bean pie with a side of Mexican rice, and for dessert, the traditional Spanish flan! You'll find all the recipes, along with a history of this joyous fiesta here. Buen apetito!

Learn more about the pagan tradition of dressing the wells in England. If you have a fountain or pool in your garden, you and your children might also enjoy this ancient annual ceremony honoring water, the source and wellspring of all life on earth.

You knew that the potato belongs to the nightshade family, didn't you? If you didn't, you do now! This plant, revered for its food and medicinal values, was thought to be evil and even poisonous when it was brought from Peru to Europe. Now, it's one of the most popular vegetables of any cuisine. Go here to dig up all the mysteries of the potato. And for much more mystery—and a spellbinding story, to boot—read Susan Albert's latest China Bayles mystery, Nightshade.

Register your book club with Susan's Book Club Friends, and become eligible to participate in contests, giveaways, and phone chats with China's creator.

Potato Facts & Fancies Peruvians measured time by how long it took the potato tubers to grow, and also used them for divination: a pile with an odd number of potatoes was a bad omen while an even number was a positive sign. Italians believed that you could curse someone by writing his or her name on a piece of paper and sticking it to a potato with as many pins as possible. The Potato War (1778-79) between the Prussians and Austrians ended when the armies had dug and eaten all the potatoes that grew along the battle lines, got hungry, and went home!

To find out what's going on in Susan Albert's life in the Texas Hill Country, read Susan's blog.