It’s time to get your ticket if you want a spot in the April 27 Spring Wildflower and Foraging Event. There are only 20 spots. Go to the events page on the Iowisota.org website or contact Linda for offline sales.
It’s time to start eating wild green things! Tonight, I was excited to pick and cook stinging nettle shoots for supper. Delicious steamed with a dot of butter on top. I also saw my first blossoms on the Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica). The variegated leaves of Appendaged Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum) are peeking through back in the maple forest. It will probably be a bit chilly for the next two weeks, but Spring is coming.
It’s time to delight in the flocks of waterfowl streaming up the Mississippi flyway. There is a special magic to watching the ribbons of pelicans appear and disappear against the blue sky, and to hearing the crazy chortle of the sandhill cranes.
It’s time to be done making maple syrup. The silver maples out in the sloughs are breaking flower buds. The sugar maples are slower to break buds, and temperatures may still be good for tapping during the next two weeks, but I’m ready to be done. We made over 8 gallons of maple syrup this season, and it’s enough. That’s about 320 gallons of sap collected and concentrated down by reverse osmosis and boiling. Now we clean buckets and equipment and get ready to move on to the next season.
But it’s not time for morels yet. The soil needs to warm to around 50 degrees, and we need rain. But when it is time, I’ll be ready!
Until next time...
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