Easter and Pictures and nothing very acedemic

My husband and I usually have Fridays off together.   We try to go hiking or at least get into the woods each week.  This week (Good Friday) we hiked Five-Mile Mountain, in the Tongue Mt. Range just North of Lake George.  It was a perfect day - sunny and 50 degrees.   There is still 4' of snow on some parts of the trail but we managed without snowshoes.   This week has been rain with bits of sunshine and it has been warm which has brought about a very distinct change of seasons.    The early flowers are now in full bloom and things are turning green fast.   It makes me a little sad that summer will be here so soon, and I hope that I don't miss anything of the spring.

I had a great time identifying this furry little unopened bud

This is the leaf which belongs to the hairy purple stem... (oh yeah, you have to wait until my next post to find out what it is... if you can identify it now you get 500 bonus points.   Points are worth nothing)

These little mushrooms were so tiny that my lens had a hard time focusing on them.  The black tops are about as big as poppy seeds.

** A reader informed me that what I assumed were little mushrooms are in fact the spore capsules of the moss on which they are growing.  Thanks, mousedude! **

The Juniper berries are pungent and fun to chew on.  The grouse on this mountain must be fat indeed, I found several Juniper bushes loaded with berries.  

A strange landscape

Someone left this Styrofoam cup 1/2 full of coffee on the trail.  Really people?  We took it home.   

Easter morning we have a tradition with a group of friends.   Rather than an easter-egg hunt or easter lilies in the front of church and the typical easter hymns we hike up a ridge in the dark and watch the sun rise.  It is a great representation of the struggle (it's steep) and darkness (we start hiking at 4:30am) that we all experience in the world, and as the sun rises, it symbolizes the son being resurrected in us.  Being made new, rediscovering peace, resurrecting our selves and leaving the ugliness and mistakes in our wake.  

It was a beautiful morning, and the sweetness of being with friends whom I love was great.  

There was a heavy fog in the valley and the layering of cloud and earth was captivating.  

And, on the way down we found beautiful spring flowers!

Syrup and Springtime!

Birch sap, partially evaporated

Frozen sap

Boiling sap 

While thoroughly enjoyable, boiling sap over a fire takes constant tending in order to maintain a boil while not allowing the sap to boil over (as you can see it is doing in this picture).   I only got about 1/2 pint of birch syrup.  Deliciously painful...

The wood frogs, busy mating and laying eggs, make a ridiculous racket all day long. 

Almost ready to finish at home!  I boiled about 10 gallons of sap down on this day.

The Trout Lilies are sprouting up everywhere!   

 Bloodroot ready to unfurl.  

Some Bloodroot already blooming. It is well-known that Bloodroot was used by the Indians as a dye and paint.  When you break off a stem of this plant the sap exuded is a beautiful dark orange or red color.  It is not surprising that Bloodroot, given it's name and properties, has a long history of being used for uterine problems.   It is legendarily an abortive and used for the condition Amenorrhea (a lack of menstruation).   Although Bloodroot can be dangerous in large amounts, it has been used to treat ringworm, burns and earaches.  I have found frequent references to it's being used as an emetic (to induce vomiting) and so being a good cure for whooping cough and croup.  The plant was also used during a period for treating cancers with some success.

False Hellebore - an extremely poisonous and also quite lovely swamp-dwelling plant

Watercress

Cider sampling (From the left - sumac wine, hard cider, sucanat & apple wine, maple & apple wine)

experimenting making cordage from bark

Spicebush buds

Birch sugar part 1

Most people are finishing up their Maple syrup season around this time of year (April 1st)... that means that it is time to begin tapping the birch trees.  I am tapping Sweet Birch trees since they grow in abundance on the farm, but you can also can get syrup from Paper and Yellow Birch trees.   In fact, there are many trees you can tap for syrup including Hickory, Sycamore and Elm.    Sugar Maple sap, however, has a very high sugar content and produces a lot of sap.   Other trees may not be worth the effort
(Calories spent vs. Calories earned - *ha ha*)  

I have been mulling over whether or not to tap some birch trees this spring as an experiment (really, what sort of question is that - of course I want to).  At any rate, what called me into action was digging the tip of my knife into this tree and seeing the sap pouring out.   I immediately gathered my supplies and started collecting.

Sap dripping even as I am drilling for the tap!

Birch sap is wonderful.   It has a mild sweet wintergreen taste which adds to the delight of drinking the cold spring-water like sap straight from the tree. 

My tapping equipment list:  String, spile, hammer, knife, drill and bucket. 

Tapping trees is ridiculously easy.   If everyone knew how easy it was to make syrup, every front yard would have buckets hanging from the Maples. 

An enormous Black Birch tree!

Black Birch is very easy to identify once you know what to look for.    This is a mature tree, about 20" in diameter.  Notice the lenticals on the large flat pieces of bark (the parallel lines). 

A slightly more sophisticated approach to collecting sap - these 5 gallon buckets are great because they keep the rainwater (and flies) out and can hold a whole lot of sap!

                                                

Once I collect the sap, I begin the syrup making process by boiling it down at home until 2.5 gallons makes about a pint of liquid.   This Sweet Birch sap only contains about .5-1% sugar when you start boiling it - ouch!   Maple sap can contain 2.5% - 6%.   This makes for a whole lot of boiling and means that you need a whole lot of sap to make a little Birch syrup.  There is a company in Alaska that sells it for over $300 a gallon.  The sap pictured here still needs boiling (I'm guessing it will reduce down another 3/4) until it becomes syrup.    

Early morning ice formations hint at a good Maple sap day

I love being in the woods in the morning.  This little snake was still lethargic in the cold weather, but seemed to be enjoying the sunshine immensely.  

A tiny tip of a Japanese Knotweed shoot.   These are a nasty invasive plant but they are very edible.   They are a little like rhubarb in flavor.  Last year I cooked them with pasta but I think they will lend themselves better to jam or pie.  This is one plant which I will happily over-harvest with hopes of holding it at bay as it tries to crowd out or native species.  

Tongue Mt. Range & Wilton Wildlife Preserve

March 25th, 4' of snow on some parts of the trail and a little bit of dirt under my feet in others, 28 degrees Fahrenheit...   I loved the contrast between the flowing water and solid ice sculptures dripping from these rocks

Wintergreen, living up to it's name and destined for tea

Icy, sweet and pungent little berries are best eaten out of the snow

Tongue Mt. and beautiful Lake George

I found a few small Sassafras roots in my rain jacket pocket which had been hiding out since last fall.  This was very fortunate since Sassafras and Wintergreen tea is my very favorite thing to drink

Steaming tea on a cold day

Great little ice sculptures in the stream

A detail of the waterfall & ice

A flower on a Hazelnut bush/tree.  You can see a catkin in the upper left corner which gives an idea of the minuteness of this flower.   I can't wait to find some Hazelnuts later this year.

Classic spring

I imagined (though I am probably wrong) that this little wasp-like bug had just gnawed it's way out of the gall below...