Following the annual meeting of the NY Nut Grower’s Association on October 17th, Carl Albers told me to check out the bottom of Lake Owasco since I was interested in shellbark hickory. Shellbark hickory is one of America’s very finest of nut trees.
Carl explained that in the bottoms along the inlet to Owasco Lake there were lots of shellbark hickories growing on the west as well as the east side. He described how there was a native settlement there for a long time and that it was archaeologically a very important area. The following morning I made my way over to the Owasco Flats Wildlife Management Area, as the area is known.
My heart is heavy. All across this country our black brothers and sisters experiencing oppression on the front lines are in deep grief and righteous anger. Those killed at the hands of police — George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Freddy Gray — the list of names goes on and on. I’ve witnessed the plight of the black man in America for years, and have been aware of the issues, yet I often feel so powerless to do anything about the gross injustices in the system. If I were black instead of white, I would be dead already, or long ago in prison. Of this I am certain. As it is said, “No Justice, No Peace” and so these continuing injustices disturb my peace.
Over the past few years fire management and cultural burning have developed as a fascination in me. As a child I was always a bit of a pyro-maniac, but pairing such a Promethean yet utterly human urge with ecological management and plant cultivation reaps interesting and often unbelievable results. Don’t take it from me, but take it from indigenous people the world over. Humanity’s use (and in some cases, abuse) of fire is as old as our modern species. Carbon deposits from landscape-level burning at the hands of humans extends back at least 100,000 years and probably many more.
Spring is here, and what a wonderful time to be alive. The woods are awake with a chorus of flowers, the sun is shining, the days are warm, the roots are ready to be dug, the spring waters are cool, the buds on the trees are swelling, and the grasslands rest in tones of brown, patiently waiting.
I have checked up on some of the places where I have sown seed, and it is a joy to see life continue to unfold year by year.
It is intimidating to begin writing about the hazelnut. Venerated for centuries in Europe as bestowing wisdom, knowledge, and health upon those who eat it, I can instinctively understand why. Hazelnuts are capable of providing for all of our staple dietary needs. They are tasty, good raw or cooked, and rich in unsaturated fats – up to 65% – also containing lots of phytoserols, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Hazelnuts are productive, hardy, easy to work with, and the hazel wood has many uses from cordage to basketry, to woven fencing, to pruning and coppicing for fuel. Hazel wood can also be used medicinally in similar ways as the witch-hazel (Hamamelis). Hazels are a pioneering species, and are the first arrivals in several ways. They are the first to flower in the winter. Of all the nut-bearing plants they are the quickest to bear when grown from seed (doing so after just the first year, in exceptional cases). When the glaciers retreated ten thousand years ago, hazels were the first deciduous tree to colonize Europe (Pollen records show that hazelnut appeared in a dramatic flash, seemingly out of nowhere, 9-10 thousand years ago across that continent; it has been suggested that human actions were the cause.1). Hazels are one of the friendliest of nut trees. There are so many superlatives for such a humble plant.
