The science behind trees combined with pastures.
Walnuts were harvested and processed on October 7 leaving my hands severely stained.
By October 27, the stains were much less noticeable, but still apparent to anyone who might have looked at my hands for more than a fleeting moment.
Now on November 2, only a ghost of the stain persists:
To be honest, this should have been done early in spring as it would have kept the deer from eating the tender and vital leaves produced in the first season after planting the bareroot mulberry trees. Luckily Morus trees are about as bulletproof as trees get and can be expected to make a full recovery. However it does mean that one season of growth is lost or at the very least retarded.
Considering my tree planting tips I’ve published in the past, I don’t like using anything that contacts the tree bark whether it is stakes or pest barriers. The chance for fatal girdling injuries is just too high to take the risk.
The approach is relatively simple: put a physical barrier around the trees to prevent browsing by deer or rabbits- both animals whose food sources grow scarce in the winter. Deer need to be dissuaded from reaching over the barrier to reach the stems or leaves, and rabbits need to dissuaded from chewing on the bark.
My uncle is a invaluable resource with his knowledge, connections in the local agricultural community and source of waste products for repurposing. Manure produced by his wintered animals has been used but for this post I have to mention the fence he removed that had divided his crop fields. From that removal, I recovered about 25 steel fence posts. Many of the rescued posts are 7 footers. If I had the tools, they would be cut in half as this purpose doesn’t require the stability of permanent livestock fences. Thus I could double the amount of tree barriers with the same materials albeit with weaker structural integrity.
Procedure
The half inch mesh of the hardware cloth is too small for even juvenile rabbits to squeeze through. Granted they could squeeze or dig under, but I’m hoping the…er, pokey(?)… nature of the hardware cloth will dissuade their efforts. If this is an issue, I can add tent stakes for extra anchoring.
However remember one of my main themes: energy management. It applies equally to wildlife as they want to secure as many calories as possible in a manner that expends as few calories as possible. Hopefully this barrier pushes the required calorie expenditure over the instinctual threshold of appeal to the animals.
Also of note, I attached the hardware cloth using zip ties. In an effort to reduce use of one-time-use materials, I switched to old, rusted electric fence wire that I found in the barn. Plus it yields the benefit of two quick twists of pliers to unlock the barrier allowing it to be raised for weeding sessions, neem oil sprays and mulch applications.
I’ve spoken before that a byproduct of processing walnuts can be used to tan animal hides. Walnut hulls are green when they fall from the tree and quickly turn black. Pulp in between the hull and nutshell as well as the hull itself all contain large amounts of tannic acid which is water soluble. Soaking hides with walnut hulls in water preserves the hides as well as providing dye of the beautiful deep brown common to all things walnut.
This is the step where nitrile gloves are required if you want to avoid tanning your own hide. Trust me on this, the dye cannot be removed and will persist until your skin naturally replaces itself. I tanned my own hands by using cotton work gloves that had been dipped in rubber. Clearly, they did not provide enough protection:
Procedure:
To loosen the hulls, I use an antique corn sheller. Other methods commonly used are: driving over intact fruit with a vehicle or more dangerously, setting a vehicle on blocks and spinning tires over walnuts; manual removal with a nut cracker or vise; another dangerous method is injecting compressed air via a needle into the hull.
I chose the corn sheller because it is pretty easy, my uncle has one, it is only moderately dangerous and plays into my love of antique machinery:
With my machine:
A lot of people then wash the nuts with high pressure water. I just make an effort to move on to the next step soon after. That next step is cracking and extracting the edible meat of the nuts!
Harvesting walnuts is a very easy process. The fruit will simply fall from the tree when it is ripe. Creepy crawlies that get into the fallen fruit before they can be gathered don’t penetrate the shell of the walnut, thus do not ruin the fruit. If those nuts gross you out, let them lie to nourish the wildlife!
Even in years where the trees produce only a modest yield, the ground beneath a mature walnut tree looks like a hastily abandoned tennis court…especially after windy days:
Luckily I have so many native mature trees that competition with squirrels is not an issue. Last week I was gathering nuts along side a fox squirrel that might have been bigger than my parents’ small breed dog.
Actual harvesting process:
This year, my average time spent harvesting is filling a 5 gallon bucket in 7 minutes. I enjoy the workout of carrying 2 buckets at a time 100 or so yards back to the barn for storage/processing, but it does cause my arms, shoulders and trapezius muscles to burn intensely.
My favorite part about harvesting walnuts is that I get to directly observe the variations in tree genes. I have two trees that look like twins, but one produces walnuts that are so large (between a baseball and a softball) that they don’t feed well into the corn sheller I use to dehull the nuts. The other produces nuts that are close to a golf ball in size. So while harvesting walnuts, I can identify trees to propegate, or if I want ot get more involved in breeding, harvest pollen to be applied to another tree that produces large nuts.
The same information helps me identify trees to focus on human consumption, while the rest are perfect candidates under which to put hogs when they come to the farm!
Basically walnuts tap into my deepest levels of tree nerdom.
Many of the productive native trees in the pasture are American Black Walnuts, Juglans nigra. Harvesting and processing is quite a physical, labor-intensive process. If edible nuts were the only goal, taking on those processes may not be too attractive. By making use of the the fruit in its entirety, the process makes more economical sense.
As yesterday’s post demonstrated, walnut husks are extremely effective and permanent dies:
While I dyed my own living skin, the same process can be used to dye and preserve animal skins. By utilizing the water-soluble tannic acids present in great proportions in the hulls, animal hides can be preserved as well as tanned. This process is better known as tanning!
So in an upcoming series of posts, I’ll show my process of harvesting and processing the fruit of a Juglans tree. The tanning parts will have to wait until I have an animals skin to experiment with.
I am also working on creating a video series for the farm activities, but I have a lot to learn when it comes to shooting video, capturing the audio and all the work that goes into processing that data into a good product. I’ll keep you updated!
I even wore gloves…granted they were cotton gloves with the hands dipped in rubber. Lesson learned: I’ll wear nitrile gloves in the future.
This picture was taken on 7 October. I will update how long it takes the stain to fade as soap does absolutely nothing.
Fall has always been my absolute favorite time of year. If it were socially acceptable, I’d disappear into the mountains until the amazing holidays promised by that fall fell upon us.
The first signs of autumn are the “THUNK, THUD, THUD” that occur roughly every few minutes or so as the walnuts fall from the trees. Following a windy day, I can fill a 5 gallon bucket with walnuts in about 2 minutes. After removing the husks, they are used to tan deer capes ensuring minimal waste when I kill the animal. Similarly, most tree crops are harvested in the fall including most pome and stone fruits as well as almost all nuts. Fall is when my foraging skills are best utilized mostly because my knowledge of trees is much greater than that of fungi and herbaceous plants. Plus I can plant garlic, salad greens and my favorite brassicas into the garden.
Second, the morning cadence of sounds shifts. Instead of songbirds chirping their morning wake up alarm, migrating birds dominate with a more steady and droning rhythm that closely resembles the sound of rain falling on the metal roof. Every day this week I awoke thinking more rain was falling.
Thirdly comes the autumn favorite of everyone: vegetative changes as plants harvest back mobile nutrients in preparation to winter. Black gums and sourwoods seem to catch on fire turning a ruby red followed by similar colors in maples and viburnums. Walnuts then turn gold then lose their leaves all in one swift action. White ashes usually turn yellow with a few extraordinary specimens turning burgundy. Elms (well… hackberries in my case), birches, hickories and beeches turn a similar gold. Lastly, the oaks will turn a rich, deep burgundy that signals peak autumn color season. Similarly, the undergrowth and herbaceous plants die back for the year making outdoor adventures all the more fun and accessible.
Fourthly, fall seasonal beers are my favorite as long as some balanced specimens survive the craft scene’s gold rush to put out the most heavily spiced, bitter or over the top beers. Similarly, autumn contains my favorite holidays either celebrating harvest or appealing to my morbid curiosities.
Most favorably, bugs start dwindling! ***
Finally, If I had to pick a singular activity as my favorite, there is not a shred of doubt that it is deer hunting. Sourcing healthy and clean meat in a humane, sustainable manner is very important to me. Last year I reached 85% of my meat consumption sourced from white tailed deer. That figure of wild game consumption would be 100% if American Buffalo had not been extirpated from the region. Since that is the case, my cattle will fulfil the ecological niche of the extirpated Bison while chickens fill the niche of Buffalo Birds, now called cowbirds since there are no more buffalo. I personally fill the niche of controlling population numbers to ensure species survival/health formerly held by wolves and mountain lions; both of which have also been extirpated.
Bam… You just learned why I hunt and why I farm in one, uncharacteristically concise paragraph!
***I have to qualify the bugs statement after this year. Those in power in our society will never cease to amaze me at their sheer stupidity or stubbornness or greed in globalization that is destroying our natural resources. They haven’t learned from chestnut blight, dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer, thousand cankers disease, white pine blister rust, hemlock wooly adelgid, Ailanthus aka Tree of Heaven infestations, Royal Paulownia infestations, kudzu and wisteria infestations, Autumn Olive, asian citrus psyllid that could end citrus production in Florida, mimosa trees, japanese beetle, stinkbugs, avian flus and many many more.
Holy moley the bane of my existence is out in force this year: brown marmorated stink bugs. I get swarmed by these pests constantly while deer hunting. Last night I was drawing my bow on a mature buck when one landed on my nose and one on my thumb. I’ve even taken videos in my treestand of the pests with their thunderous and clumsy flying skills. I know they are harmless to my person and I even have zero fear of bugs with a fearsome reputation, but try to sit still and not startle a herd of deer when what sounds like a cargo plane [or less hyperbolic: a hornet) flies into your face! If I have to find a silver lining, it would have to be the constant scent cover provided by these foul pests. Furthermore, there is a new biting stink bug invasion on the horizon following the spread of a [surprise surprise!] another invasive species. 😦
Similarly, my bees are complete assholes now. Sorry for the language, but there is no getting around it. Understandably, they are in full defensive mode to protect their vital winter stores which is a great and beneficial behavioral habit. However, this also means they shoot at my protected face like bullets and have taken to following me and my truck hundreds of yards away from the hive constantly trying to sting which prevents me from being able to de-suit! Luckily, I really only have to feed them until it gets cold which is not invasive to the hive. Once it gets colder, I’ll put some newspaper in the hive, give them a pile of granulated sugar to munch on, then seal the hive up for the winter and hope for the best until spring.
In the end, I’ll happily take the bad with the good. For the bad, the USDA has put its top minds on the stinkbug issue and has even identified an attractant. In regards to my bees, their defensiveness helps ensure that they can defend the hive from invading robber bees. Plus I have some of my favorite beers to knock back and calm the nerves after the peace of deer hunting is compromised by stink bugs!
My oft spoken modified proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the next best time in 1 year from now”
Laying down a mulch of shredded wood at least a year before planting a woody species will create an ideal soil habitat for the plant whether it be a bramble, shrub or tree. Plants uptake nutrients via a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. A layer of woody mulch well before planting facilitates the fungal dominance in which woody species thrive as well as invigorate soils with nourishment from the decaying wood.
Plus some of my trees planned for next year need a sulfur application to acidify the soil lowering it to the ideal pH for that species. Sulfur needs months to be broken down in order to actually have an effect on the soil.
My process was as follows:
Weed wack all plant matter to the ground, rake out the clipped plants if they are significant
Apply the calculated amount of sulfur (tables can be found in this post)
Return any raked clippings (if applicable)
Lay down cardboard or paper to smother the existing turf. This biodegradable barrier will breakdown to humus given time!
Pile on as much mulch as you can spare
Come spring time, your back will appreciate the more workable soil (although I don’t recommend amending the soil or loosening it mechanically by digging an oversized planting hole. See here)
Pictures:
Removing most of the above ground vegetation:
The clippings are then raked out, sulfur applied (for the sourwood planting sites), then the clippings are returned.
Cardboard or sturdy paper (paper grocery bags in my case) are laid down to smother the vegetation then mulch is piled on top.
The [almost] finished site looks like this:
More info:
More tips to ensure success with trees
Where to find mulch for woody species
How to think like a plant to be a successful cultivator
How to think like a plant to be a successful cultivator part 2
Mulch Matters 2: Different Types of Mulches for Different Types of Plants
Other posts in this series:
You may notice one species mentioned in the first post is absent: Liriodendron tulipifera aka Tulip Poplar.
“Liriodendron tulipifera tulip close” by Dcrjsr – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_tulip_close.jpg#/media/File:Liriodendron_tulipifera_tulip_close.jpg
This species is an abundant nectar producer early in the season helping colonies build up food stores and population numbers. While other bee gardeners are full encouraged to consider this tree, it will not be planted on the farm for a few reasons. Tulip poplars require loose, fertile soils as their roots systems are small, fleshy, soft and to put it succinctly: weak. It is also susceptible to numerous pests and diseases. Combining these attributes with its huge form and full sun requirements, the decision was made to plant the more valuable (regarding bees) Basswood in the vacant locations despite the beautiful blooms that resemble tulips, thus the common name.
Final Plans and Map
Putting everything together, there will be sumacs planted on the hill that raises the farm entrance from the pasture as well as below the powerlines. Sourwoods will be planted between the farm entrance track and the main road as well as along the fenceline in the pasture. Lastly, Basswoods will occupy the areas where they have room to spread.
Note: I apologize for the low res imagery. It is used for faster processing as well as the only aerial image saved offline for when I work on maps at the farm where my cellular data is the only access to internet!
That concludes this series…I hope you aren’t sick of bee talk!
Other posts in this series:
Trees for Bees 6: Final notes, GIS map and honorable mention (will be published in future)
Where sourwoods produce top notch honey that beats out even clover, there may not be a more prolific nectar producing plant in the eastern United States than Tilia americana as far as volume in concerned. With the limestone parents yielding alkaline soils, it is quite a relief to learn that basswoods prefer neutral to slightly alkaline soils. A major consideration is that these trees need space, and lots of it. Heights of 60-120 feet are commonly achieved while Tilia trees spreads out 50 feet. The bloom is only 2 weeks long between May and July but produces an incredible amount of nectar; the most of any plant native to the eastern US and likely the most heavy producer in all of the United States, though I have found no statistics to confirm this. Furthermore, the flower’s structure protects nectar from being washed away by rain! The last of its attributes to note is how it grows twice as fast as most native hardwoods including beech, oak, and hickory to name the geniuses that make up the most of our native forests here. Unsurprisingly, this also means that it blooms quickly!
With its huge spreading form, basswoods will be planted on either side of the road to the west of the powerline that ends to run underground. Aesthetically speaking, an “Elm Effect” is hoped to be achieved where the trees spread to meet in an arch over the road. Side note, but did you ever wonder why almost every town in the United States has an Elm Street? That arching canopy effect over streets is exactly why but sadly Dutch Elm Disease has killed almost ever American Elm in the US. Not many of these trees will fit on the farm and its ladscape, but if the scarce figures found in literature are true, a few trees should supply a huge surplus!
thegreenergrassfarm 
