It was a warm spring day, something we'd looked forward to for a long time. It's been a weird spring, with high temperatures one day and cold air and snow the next. But finally, toward the end of April, my R.U. classes gathered for our "leaf collecting" expedition.
This time of year the leaves out there are actually pretty small. At the fountain where we started out I began by pointing out the small 5 pointed maple leaves -- this is the leaf on the Canadian flag. Specifically, our fountain was surrounded by a circle of sugar maple, the tree used for making maple sugar, with a ratio of 30 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup.
Actually, at a "foraging" spring walk at Gordon Wright's farm in nearby Wytheville (about a week later, without my students), visiting edible plants biologist Craig Russell, who'd actually gotten to know Euell Gibbons, who'd written Stalking the Wild Asparagus, pointed out many different trees can be tapped or "sugared" in order to make syrup. Norway and red maple can be tapped, along with the sweet birches, black walnut and hickory. The tree needs a diameter of 10-12 inches in order to qualify for one "spile" to be pushed in 2-4 inches. And Russell recommends that you cook this down outside the house if you don't want to get your kitchen walls all sticky. Of course, the students weren't interested in this. I think they were glad to have an outdoor class where they didn't need to turn in an assignment.
On campus, I showed them something I'd saved for this special day -- refrigerated little light green brains, the fruit of Osage orange. I wasn't certain whether the Osage Indians had been named after the tree or vice versa. According to an Arkansas website, the "sky people" brought us the Osage tribe. They lived in the Midwest and so I think the Osage orange tree is originally from there as well. But we only have male trees on the RU campus -- the "female" trees produce this big orange (in size) fruit with a lot of little grooves in it, like our own brains, only more so. I was told there were once female trees on campus, but the students liked to toss the fruits around and make a big old mess. One student wondered how these trees could survive without a female tree. Well, they are probably pollinated by wind and if there is no female tree nearby then those male trees stay alone (and frustrated maybe).
Other notable trees on campus are a big ol' oak tree that would make a great climbing tree, ginko biloba (the tree that provides brain power supplements -- but not that one in particular), and the very attractive redbud tree. In April the redbud produces pretty, very small blooms that start out a purple, then get to light purple in shade, then finally light pink. They are never actually "red," so I've no idea why they are called "red" buds. A shorter name than purple bud? And I asked the class the legend -- of course they didn't know.
The reason that they are a small, ornamental size tree is that supposedly, after Judas betrayed Jesus, he regretted it. So he hanged himself (yes, hanged, not hung, which you do with a picture on the wall) on the redbud tree. In shame, the tree never again has grown to a big, thick tree someone could hang himself from. And they aren't. Even the tall ones are spindly and not too wide.
I pointed out on campus that violets and dandelions are edible, but at the Wytheville spring foraging walk on the farm and in the woods violets and dandelions were "gathered" and we ate them. The violet flowers and leaves can be put in a salad. Or you can dip the flower in egg white and sugar, or just wet and dip in sugar, for dessert! Other edibles in the spring include watercress, wintercress, garlic mustard (wild mustard family), poke weed (you need to boil the redness out of it and it will be okay to eat), goose foot, and the white innards of cattail stems. Good to know if you are ever lost in the woods. But a guidebook and some instruction about edible "foraging" plants would be most desirable.
With our commercially grown vegetables containing less and and less concentrated nutrients, learning spring and fall foraging is a good idea for your health. I didn't tell the students that but maybe they will take more an interest in nature as they grow older.
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