Happy Mother's Day

Today, we celebrate Mother's, and give thanks for these special ladies in our lives. "Mothers are like flowers...each one is uniquely beautiful in her own way, and each is designed by God to bloom where she is planted." Stevie Wonder said "Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love." 

President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation that officially established the first national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers in 1914.

The idea for a “Mother’s Day” is credited by some to Julia Ward Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace. Many individual states celebrated Mother’s Day by 1911, but it was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother’s Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May. In his first Mother’s Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to “[publicly express] our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

In 2002, President George W. Bush echoed Wilson’s sentiments by acknowledging mothers in his official statement on Mother’s Day in 2002. He commended foster mothers as well as his own “fabulous mother” for their “love and sacrifice.” He also mentioned past presidents’ expressions of appreciation for their mothers. He quoted John Quincy Adams as having said “all that I am my mother made me” and Abraham Lincoln’s sentiment that “all that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother ?[my mother's prayers] have clung to me all my life.” Bush’s own mother, Barbara, was a popular first lady when the elder Bush served as president from 1989 to 1992. 

Happy Mother's Day from Sweet Basil Farm & Gardens. If you enjoyed this recipe, want to know more about this or other related interesting topics, please like and share this recipe. Be sure to like us, so you don’t miss anything, we are Sweet Basil Farm & Gardens, on Facebook and other social media. We are a local producer of farm fresh fruits and vegetables and members of the American Poultry Association, licensed by the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture as Poultry Dealers and Brokers, and a proud member of the Georgia Grown program, a division of the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture. We also breed, sell and ship poultry, pet pigs, bearded irises and much more. We have an 80 acre working farm, putting great emphasis on all natural gardening and livestock management practices. An 1840s general store is situated on our property, and serves as our on-site farmer’s market. Fresh garden vegetables, fruit nuts, eggs and flowers straight from the garden to you. We pick during the week, YOU pick available on Friday and Saturday. Conveniently located off of Interstate 75 near the Johnstonville Rd. exit, in Lamar County.

Special thanks to the history.com for the article on Mother's Day history, beliefnet.com for the inspirational quote,  as well as contributions from J. David Matthews, of Barnesville, Georgia in preparation of this article. Photo credits to Sweet Basil Farm & Gardens.