Ferns rank as some of the oldest plants of the botanical realm for our global landscape.
Evidence concludes these green, feathery foliage friends have been around for more than 70 million years when dinosaurs roamed.
Our family has a long history of house ferns, including a massive mountain of green that is at least 40 years old this year.
In August 1984, during the summer before my high school freshman year, I was with our neighbors the Scamerhorn Family shopping at the time of my mom’s Aug. 17 birthday. A display of house ferns in the produce section of the supermarket gave me the idea, along with encouragement from Mrs. Scamerhorn, that my mom might like a fern for her birthday gift. My mom was only meagerly pleased, and the fern passed through the hands of both my dad’s sisters, Auntie Lilly and Auntie Lottie, for care before it eventually returned to my parents.
Auntie Lilly and Grandma Potempa had their own large house fern for decades before our 1984 greenhouse acquisition. As their fern aged, the underside of the fern fronds began to develop spores, the small brown spots that are the seeds of ferns. Grandma Potempa didn’t like that the maturing fern was sporting spores, which her mother used to tell her as a little girl while growing up “back in the old country” of Krakow, Poland, that “it was unhealthy to breathe in any spores from an indoor fern.”
Over the decades, our family fern has been included in photos and at functions near and far, including as fresh plant décor for our farm church and as a lush green backdrop for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and many family gatherings.
This same fern has also appeared on stage at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville as part of the set design for my 2010 “From the Farm Cooking Show” and at my cookbook publishing launch parties.
Next month, the fern will return onstage at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster Dec 1-15 to once again serve as set design anchor in the corner of the gloomy bedroom and fireplace area of Ebenezer Scrooge for the return run of “Dickens’ Christmas Carol Dinner Show.”
Much like potted parlor palms, Boston ferns became very popular as favored indoor houseplants during the Victorian Era and were seen as a symbol of wealth for a household abundant with greenery in sitting rooms and conservatories. Ferns were also believed to provide the added benefit of a healthy environment because of their output of oxygen. Ancient lore said ferns were enchanted and served as the preferred home and shelter for fairies and pixies which could provide good luck to a household or the owner of a fern landscaped garden or courtyard.
While chatting with Mom recently, she reminded me that the late TV orchestra leader Lawrence Welk, known for his “bubbly champagne music,” was married to his beloved wife Fern for more than 60 years until his death in 1992.
The couple had two daughters and a son, however Fern and the children preferred anonymity and were rarely featured on Welk’s popular musical television show. Lawrence Welk and his son Lawrence Welk Jr. (though he preferred to go by “Larry”) shared the same March 11 birthday. Larry, now 84, married Tanya Falan, one of the popular singers on his father’s show, and the couple had a son born the same year as myself in 1970. They named him Lawrence Welk III.
Fern Welk remained involved in her husband’s legacy, and she helped cut the ribbon at the grand opening ceremony of The Lawrence Welk Champagne Theater and Golf and Hotel Resort in Branson, Missouri in May 1994. She died at age 99 in February 2002, just a few months before her century birthday.
Fern liked to make simple recipes for her German maestro hubby, including her recipe for chicken and dumplings which I shared in a November 2019 column. Another favorite pantry recipe for the couple was Fern’s creamed chicken served on toast and an easily baked fruit cobbler recipe passed along from Lawrence Welk’s mother Christina.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa @comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Mrs. Welk’s Lazy Day Cobbler
Makes 6 servings
3/4 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup, divided use
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 quart of prepared canned fruit filling, such as apple slices
Directions:
1. Melt butter in a 2-quart casserole.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine 3/4 cup sugar with flour and milk and pour into bottom of casserole.
3. Pour in fruit layer, but do not stir and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.
4. Bake in 350-degree oven for 45 minutes.
5. Serve warm with ice cream.
