Black Walnuts

Black Walnuts

This fall we had a plentiful harvest of walnuts. Folklore tells us that a large nut harvest portends a hard winter. Well, so far that has not been true. I picked less then half the walnuts that fell from our trees and I still have plenty for my husband and I. The squirrels are happy that I left so many for them. 

 We even had enough that we gave our friend Kathy Mast some as a small Christmas gift. I then shamelessly proceeded to give her more and ask her to make us a Black Walnut Cake. It was delicious. Tonight I am going to use some in a Thai recipe I found called "Fried Rice with Walnuts and Raisins". We have used some of the nuts sprinkled on salads and just as a snack on their own. The picture shows what I have left.

If you have never tasted Black  Walnuts don't think they taste like English Walnuts, the taste is much stronger and I prefer it to the English  Walnuts that you find in the grocery store. 

Since the winter has been so mild we have been harvesting some chickweed from our property to have with our lettuce and I just recently started some greens in the basement. Every time we can eat something that we grew ourselves we get a satisfaction and enjoyment that just does not come from a trip to the grocery store.

An unexpected find.

The berry season is over and I have begun planning for next year. I want to expand the berry beds so this includes clearing out some areas that have been overgrown with brush for over thirty years. As I was working I came upon this bone. This is not unusual in our rural area of the county. When my children were young sometimes they would find a bone in the woods and bring it home.

After a bit more clearing I came upon this:

animal skull as seen from the underside

Hmmm, curious. I continued and not far away saw this:

deer skull

Now I was wondering and remembering an event from last fall. We had a day when there were two roadkills that ended up in our yard - a deer and a raccoon. My husband and son pulled them into the brush. The next morning something had pulled them out and left them in a small open area.  I remember that had me curious and a little nervous. I continued working and came upon this:

coyote den

I know it is hard to tell the size but I was too nervous to get up close and place something beside it so that you could tell the size by comparison. Believe me, this was no groundhog hole. I thought of the rumors I heard of coyotes in Earl Township so I decided to do some research. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission there are coyotes living in every county of Pennsylvania. They even build dens under people's sheds in suburban areas if they can't find a more suitable  spot. An article in a Pittsburgh paper referenced coyotes living in the city parks and between 400 and 2000 living in Chicago.  http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/outdoors/2015/06/26/Coyotes-are-everywhere-but-they-pose-little-threat-to-humans/stories/201506260005
Now I know why there are very few rabbits in our yard compared to years ago. Also, we don't have many chipmunks. As I continue working on my berry beds I will leave this patch overgrown for my coyote neighbor.
Rejoice in the beauty and mystery around you. Go outside and see what you can find that you didn't expect.

Why does it taste so good?

Black raspberries ripening

This has been a wonderful spring and now we are at the start of summer. I have been working on our three and one half acre plot in the Oley Valley all spring. It has kept me so busy I have not had time to post anything for weeks but this evening we have a nice gentle rain and I have some extra time to share the blessings I have been enjoying. 

It takes me over an hour to pick our berries. 

The mulberries are finished, the blueberries are looking and tasting good, as are the red and black raspberries.

Why do the berries I pick taste so much better than store bought? I came up with numerous reasons:

       1. Nothing is better than fresh picked, and quickly frozen comes in second. I got so many berries that last year we froze enough that we were eating them into March of this year.

       2. When I pick them I am singing songs, reflecting on God's great creation, remembering other days. As I was finishing up the mulberries I remembered a time when my sister Carla and I worked at the same office building and we would drive to work together. One day we parked under a mulberry tree, climbed up on the hood of the car and picked ourselves a tasty treat. We may not be classy but we know how to enjoy ourselves.

      3. I slow down and discover things. I thought we lost our yellow raspberry canes because I had not seen any in years. This year I found it. If you have never had a yellow raspberry you are missing a treat. They are the sweetest raspberries I have ever tasted.

Unusual yellow raspberries

       4. I notice nature around me. For example: Daddylongleggers (also called Harvestmen) enjoy raspberries also. There are certainly enough to go around for both of us. This one was in my red raspberry patch and he sparked another memory. My daughter Emily has a fear of this harmless creature and she makes us laugh every time she talks about them. So, while I pick my berries I think of Emily.

Daddylonglegger

      5. While picking the berries I sweat, get scratches and mosquito bites. Things worked for are better appreciated than things given to us or bought. 

      6. I feel grateful to God for all of nature around me and for the wonderful food he provides.

Buying berries involves none of this so even though the ones bought at the store or the farmer's market taste  and look good they just don't taste like mine.

Weeding or harvesting?

wood sorrel salad

I have a small patch of strawberries that I planted years ago and the other day I went out to weed them. The prominent weed was the beautiful wood sorrel. I tossed the other weeds, kept the wood sorrel, threw them in a bowl with a few chives and had my salad all ready for dinner.

The wood sorrel grows a small yellow flower and in my opinion is tastier than clover, although you can eat clover also.

Today I went out to weed my garden and was excited to see wood sorrel growing there along with my swiss chard and collards. I noticed another volunteer that is edible: purslane. So next week while I weed my garden I will not be throwing the weeds in the compost, rather I will throw them in my salad bowl.

When life gives you dandelions make dandelion wine.



dandelions growing in the Poconos

I can't say enough  about the wonders of dandelions.  For a foraging crop they are plentiful and last most of the spring and summer while many crops can be used as food for only a short while. They are rich in vitamins particularly vitamin A and can be found all across the United States.  They are actually native to Europe so they can also be found there. There are approximately two hundred varieties.  Most of the plant can be used from the root as a coffee substitute to the leaves for a salad green to the tiny individual flowers on the flower head or to the complete flower head for dandelion wine.  I haven't met a Pennsylvania Dutchman that isn't fond of dandelion greens with hot bacon dressing.  I have taken to tearing up the flower head into the individual flowers (you might have thought that it was one flower with many yellow petals) and sprinkling them on top of my salad. This makes it easier for me to practice "eating a rainbow" everyday

 





three happy pollinators

My pleasure and my nourishment are not the most important task of these humble plants. They provide pollen for many insects including the honeybee. Unfortunately it is harder to find honeybees buzzing around them than there were when I was a child.  Here in the Poconos I found three different pollinators on one flower head. At least on my hike in the mountains there had not been herbicides or pesticides sprayed so these pollinators could find some food. 

I know that some of you define these flowers as weeds and want to rid your lawns of them. Think carefully about what you do to accomplish that. Look at the trouble California is having when people insist on planting lawns that look like golf courses instead of native or naturally growing plants. The upkeep of those lawns is providing one of the stresses on their decreasing water supply. Our pollinators need untreated flowers to feed on so they stay healthy and can then pollinate our fruit and vegetable crops. If you insist on ridding your lawn you can try sprinkling the area that has the dandelion with corn gluten. This dries out the seeds so they can not germinate. You could pour vinegar on the flower, the bees won't like that but at least you would not be harming the water table or infecting your neighbor's space if the wind blows while your landscaper sprays herbicides. You could pour hot water on the plant every few days until it dies or you could do what my mother once had her children do, dig them out. Try to get all of the root so it does not come back. Or, my favorite, start looking at them as beautiful flowers.

Kevin, my husband, is a nature lover and he always shared his pleasure with our three children. He often said that dandelions were his favorite flower. When our daughter Emily was young she took note of this and started collecting dandelion seeds, those puffballs that you make a wish on and then try to blow them all off the stem. She put them in an envelope and wrapped them up for him for a Christmas present. That was the best present given and received that Christmas and it will always be remembered.





Foraging with friends.

Ian, Dorette, and Rich in North Carolina

Foraging is often a solitary activity but it is fun to do it with friends.  While in North Carolina last week five of us went hiking/foraging.  We visited Rich's bee hives and he taught us about the different plants the bees prefer.  I was wondering why there were some beautiful bushes in bloom that smelled lovely but there were no bees around them.  Rich explained that the mouth parts of bees can only access certain types of flowers and the flowers on these bushes had a shape that excluded bees. As we walked along Dorette noticed plants that I missed seeing. She picked out a vetch and we did a little trail side snacking. It tastes just like the pea greens I had grown in my basement this winter.  

vetch

We not only saw great plants we also ran into some critters.

Almond Millipede

This creature is also called a cyanide millipede because when he is disturbed he gives off a small amount of cyanide gas - which smells like almonds.  This is a defense mechanism to protect it from predators.  I asked Ian and Kevin to pick it up and shake it so they could smell it but I had no takers.  They thought the millipede would defecate on them.  Well, I guess that was a possibility but I just wanted to demonstrate how it gives off the cyanide gas. :)

newt

One more treasure we saw was an Eastern newt in its eft stage. This is the stage of its life when it lives on land and it lasts for up to four years. The adults live in the water, mate and lay eggs in water. The larval stage has gills and lives in water then it matures to the eft stage where it lives outside of water but must stay close to a water source because it will die if its skin gets too dry. After four years it returns to the stream and lives the rest of its life in and out of the water. Newts, like the millipedes, have poisons in their skin to protect themselves from predators.

A day is not lost if you learn something new, rejoice in nature, or share it with friends.

Music in your belly.

fiddleheads ready for harvesting

Nothing says spring like fiddleheads.  They look almost prehistoric and there have been some forms of ferns around since prehistoric times.  Last night we had roasted fiddleheads with our dinner.  I used to fry them but I like them better roasted.  They taste a bit like asparagus but you don't need to buy them at the grocery store.  We have several patches growing around the house and often you can find huge patches in the woods here in Pennsylvania.  What makes them so precious is the extremely short harvest time.  They are just ripe for picking for less than one week in my area.  We have been out of town for five days so that leaves me with two days to find and roast my fiddleheads. Once they stop looking like the top of the neck of a violin they are no longer fiddleheads and are now ferns, but they spread by spores so next year your patch should be even larger.  It is like they are making music but it is a short sweet song so get out there and sing along as you harvest your fiddleheads.

ferns unfurling