Mama Day

Gloria Naylor

………

TICKNOR & FIELDS, 1988

(available in paperback from Vintage, 1993)

SET ON THE fictional island of Willow Springs off the Georgia coast, Mama Day is a depiction of a traditional African-American community in the Low Country. The residents of Willow Springs have deep roots on the sea island, dating back to the days of Sapphira Wade.

Sold to slave owner Bascom Wade in 1819, Sapphira marries Wade and is emancipated. But as legend has it, Sapphira murders Wade. She was known to be a woman with mystical powers, who could “walk through a lightning storm without being touched, grab a bolt of lightning in the palm of her hand,” and heal “the wounds of every creature walking up on two or down on four.”

Sapphira’s great-granddaughter, Miranda, known to all as Mama Day, is now the island’s matriarch. Mama Day possesses a psychic ability akin to Sapphira’s, and Willow Springs residents turn to her for herbal remedies. While Mama Day heals, others on the island dabble in witchcraft and black magic.

Mama Day and her sister, Abigail, worry about the future generation, which is personified by Abigail’s granddaughter, Ophelia, whom they call Cocoa. Lured from the island by the excitement and sophistication of New York City, Cocoa nevertheless returns each year for a visit. When Cocoa returns home with her new husband, a New Yorker named George who is wary of Mama Day’s mysticism and psychic power, a powerful storm strikes the island and destroys its bridge to the mainland. At the same time, Cocoa becomes dangerously ill, and George and Cocoa fall prey to the island’s darker forces, putting Mama Day’s healing powers to the ultimate test.

Gloria Naylor uses food and its preparation to show the impact of modern life on the culture and traditions in Willow Springs. Mama Day values “food that came from the earth and the work of your own hands,” food that takes time and work to prepare. She laments the loss of old culinary traditions, and she and Abigail savor the time it takes to shell peas, grate fresh coconut for coconut cakes, pick their own peaches, and roll piecrusts.

One of Mama Day’s favorite rituals is the annual Willow Springs Candle Walk, when residents walk the main road and exchange homemade gifts and baked goods. Mama Day laments how the Candle Walk gift-exchange tradition has changed with the changing fortunes of youth. Instead of baking homemade treats, such as Mama Day’s gingerbread cookies, younger folks buy one another “fancy gadgets from catalogues,” and “gingersnaps come straight from a cookie box.” In contrast, Mama Day could “whip up a peach cobbler with her eyes closed.”

PEACHES-AND-CREAM PIE WITH STREUSEL TOPPING

Mama Day makes fresh peach pie to welcome George to Willow Springs. As she mixes cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar into her peaches, she has an ominous feeling. Mama Day finishes rolling out her crusts and calls Abigail to warn her that “a storm’s coming.” Mama Day and Abigail weather the storm of a fight between George and Cocoa, while Mama Day slices up “peach pie as calmly as if she were at a church supper.” Eventually, the couple make peace, and folks jam the front yard: “Anyone with a mouth to wrap around some peach pie shows up.”

Peaches have flourished in Georgia for centuries, and most Georgians have a family version of peach pie. Our peach pie is made with the same ingredients Mama Day uses in hers—cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar—with a gingery streusel topping. Take your time and savor the preparation of this southern treat.

NOTE: The pie may be served warm or cold and is wonderful topped with vanilla ice cream. Leftovers must be refrigerated to keep the custard filling from spoiling.

½ recipe Basic Piecrust (see p. 113)

For the peach filling

5 cups peeled and thinly sliced firm, ripe peaches, or 5 cups frozen peaches, thawed and drained

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

image teaspoon ground nutmeg

image teaspoon ground ginger

For the cream filling

1 egg

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

½ cup heavy cream

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the streusel topping

image cup all-purpose flour

image cup old-fashioned rolled oats

image cup granulated sugar

image cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

5 tablespoons butter, melted

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

  2. To make the peach filling: Place the peaches in a large bowl. Mix together the sugar, flour, nutmeg, and ginger in a small bowl and gently stir into peaches. Set aside.

  3. To make the cream filling: Using a fork, beat together the egg, sugar, cream, and vanilla. Set aside.

  4. To make the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix the flour, oats, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and crystallized ginger. Pour in the melted butter and stir until moistened.

  5. Arrange the peach mixture evenly in the pie shell and cover with cream mixture. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly on top. Bake 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350°F and bake an additional 40 minutes, until peaches are bubbly and hot. Keep an eye on the crust near the end of the baking time—it may require a foil shield to prevent overbrowning.

Yield: One 9-inch pie, 6 to 8 servings

image   NOVEL THOUGHTS

Formed in a Washington, D.C., church, A Moment of Peace is a Christian-based book club that reads and discusses all kinds of literature. Founding member Sandra Jowers believes book clubs can bring positive change to people’s lives and encourages members to share personal experiences during book discussion. “Everyone who comes to the meetings knows they can talk about issues that are important to them,” says Jowers.

Group members loved the wisdom and spiritual strength of the Mama Day character. “This was an older woman who knows things, who you go to for remedies,” says Jowers. “There was a supernatural feeling to the book.” They also appreciated Gloria Naylor’s fine writing. Members were so taken with Naylor’s vivid descriptions of Georgia that they considered taking a field trip. Mama Day is the only book that many members of A Moment of Peace have read more than once. “I just read the book again,” says Jowers, “and it has a prominent place on my shelf.”

More Food for Thought

For their discussion of Mama Day, the Encinitas, California, book club Bookwomen dined on a southern meal of fried green tomatoes and fried chicken. Hostess Cheri Caviness used the recipe for oven-baked fried chicken from In the Kitchen with Rosie: Oprah’s Favorite Recipes (Knopf, 1994). “I looked and looked for a recipe for fried green tomatoes, and finally had to ad-lib,” says Caviness, “but they were a great success.”