Follow-up To My Beechnut Post

Posted by: Dawn

This is my little bottle tree with it's fall coloring but it is also a beech tree I keep pruned and short. Beech is a very pretty tree when it starts to turn color. Mine seemed to turn red on the top first, followed by a yellow with the middle of the tree turning red, and finally when the entire tree has yellow on it, it begins to turn brown. If you enlarge the photo and look very close, you'll see the top of my bottle tree is sparse, it was at the stage of just beginning to lose its leaves.

A while back I posted on a larger beech tree that had actual beechnuts growing on it. You can read that post here. Today I'm posting about harvesting and tasting those beechnuts.

I HAVE to say that these husks are very decorative and quite sturdy for a crafter to use in potpourri or flower arrangements. In fact, I picked an unripened nut and tried to open it but decided I'd do better to wait until they ripened. The nuts are very sturdy and are like nuts inside of another nut!

It even took a while to get to the food of this little beechnut. They are very small and the inner pod has a triangular shape to it that made it difficult to hold while peeling it with a knife. You can see the nut to the left of the photo, it is very tiny. Each pod was supposed to have a twin nut back to back with a extra space but mine had only one nut. Still, I had enough to eat and was able to get the true flavor of the nut. Bravery aside I took the plunge hoping for the best.

If I'm EVER lost in the Maine woods I'll know what to look for as protein food, that's IF! These weren't all that pleasant, it had the flavor of an old peanut and dirt combined, and....very oily as my first post stated.

I think I'll leave them for the Blue jays to eat. In the Garden

Blue Jays

Bluejays are so welcomed in my garden that every time I see one I have to stop and talk to it. Sounds funny but I think they listen to me, though they never talk back. If they aren't listening they sure are studying me, because they will sit close by and observe me for a good few minutes.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology found at: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Blue_Jay.html , blue jay numbers have been decreasing in the east. That is too bad because bluejays are really great birds. They are actually songbirds and sing quite beautifully. They are also known to squawk and raise a fuss when danger is present.

Raise a fuss is just what some grown blue jays did this past summer in my backyard. A baby bluejay somehow left its nest too early. Jimmy and I had a heck of time 'rescuing' it. The parents kept dive bombing us, and a bluejay is not a bird you want to run into as they are quite large. We did the prudent thing and retreated to the house to let the parents care for and watch over the baby. I am not even sure if the dogs would have stood up to these parents.

Bluejays eat a variety of insects which is a big help to gardeners. I have also seen them eating dogfood. I used to keep a bowl of dogfood on the deck and I can tell you more birds eat dogfood than you would believe. In addition to the bluejays, titmouses seemed to find the dogfood quite tasty. Maybe it has to do with the protein in the dogfood. Now, along with sunflower seeds I throw out a handful of dogfood when the weather is very cold and I want to feed the birds-especially the bluejays.

in the garden....