I've gone nuts!

Finally, the nuts are falling. I went into the woods today with the kids, and we gathered hickory nuts and acorns from some white oaks. Also seedpods from Eastern redbud and honey locust ("A curvy Ipod!" said the 5yo, when she found one.).

A few of the persimmons are on the ground, but they won't really be ready until late fall.

The first hickory nuts we found were still closed in their hulls, we had to open them. Later, we found the nuts from trees closer to the edge of the woods, higher up a slope, and they were fully opened, the white kernel poking out, or sometimes free on the ground; I wonder if the amount of sunlight they receive affects this. Anyway, we wasted some time opening hulls (I won't use those nuts for seed trades), but they will still taste great, and we had fun gathering and sorting, finding leaves and bugs, mushrooms, a turkey feather, and a fairy house at the base of one of the oak trees.

Hopefully, we'll get more chances to gather, maybe even tomorrow. There are huge amounts of nuts everywhere.

The acorns were mostly wormy or rotted, once we cracked them open. A few good ones, and I even tasted a couple, to see how bitter they were. Some of the nutmeats weren't too bad, and the texture reminded me of a cross between other nuts I've had, and a raw potato. If we find enough good ones, we'll leach out the tannin, and try to make acorn flour.

Noticed today that the rose hips in the yard are turning, gathered a ripe one at the baseball park yesterday, looked like a Knockout type rose? Will have to check. The plants were loaded with hips.

Berries

Today, berries from flowering dogwood in town, also have yew berries. Need to research both.

A Good Seed Day

Have been having that strong gathering feeling that comes with fall, and got to "feed the need" a bit today, while we were out and about. It's not quite time to start collecting nuts, but it will be soon.

Today, collected:

Lilac, from house in town

From Mom's:

Amaranthus, Intense Purple
Various Lilies/Iris
Buckeyes
Peonies (white, from divisions from our house)
Hibiscus, white
Hedgeapple
Ash(?)

Cone from a beautiful spruce in town with draping branches

From herb bed:

Motherwort? (need to check identity)
Oregano
Hyssop
Yarrow
Lemon balm
St. John's wort (check identity)

Also from home:

Chicory
Red clover (check to identify; may be a runner?)

Also bought a table (at the house with the beautiful spruces) with lovely trays designed to hold typeset. I'm thinking they could be used somehow in my seed sorting/drying. If not, there are a million other uses for them, I'm sure.

All in all, a nice day...but I still have my mental sights on that mossycup oak by the bridge outside of town...