Bakers, cake addicts and foragers are in for a treat this autumn following predictions of a bumper wild fruit harvest. Liam Creedon explains what to pick, and where to pick itIt seems that the never-ending winter and unfeasibly cold spring earlier in the year may have actually proved a blessing for our beleaguered fruiting trees and bushes.
Autumn is now expected to be late and, according to the Woodland Trust who monitor the changing seasons through their Nature's Calendar project, when it does finally arrive, it's predicted to produce a berry bonanza. Hedgerows, woodland edges, parks and gardens should be laden down with plump clusters of blackberries, sloes, elder berries and sweet chestnuts.
Nature's Calendar project manager Dr Kate Lewthwaite explains: "So far we have only had a few sightings of the autumn berries from bramble, rowan and blackthorn. This along with the delayed onset of spring flowering suggests that autumn fruiting will be late this year.
"Autumn fruiting dates vary considerably from year to year as they are affected by temperature and rainfall. If last month's warm weather interspersed with occasional wet spells continues, the fruiting of autumn shrubs should be abundant."The relatively late flowering may have helped avoid any frost damage to flowers, and agate beads. With July 2013 being the third warmest since 1910 and August temperatures being about average with a fair amount of rainfall, we predict a good fruiting crop this autumn."
For the majority of us, autumn foraging consists of scrabbling around in the local bramble patch for blackberries. These encounters typically confirm a universal truth that the plumpest, juiciest berries are always tantalisingly just out of arm's reach.The humble blackberry is more mysterious than we give it credit for with around 400 subspecies, all of varying taste, size and fruiting period. Experts say berries on the tips of stalks are the quickest to ripen and are the sweetest and juiciest. Blackberry jam, pie and ice-cream are the objectives of many cooks and bakers but the berries can be turned to a myriad of purposes - from a jus that goes perfectly with goat's cheese, to a simple addition to a fruit salad.
But would-be foragers should look beyond the blackberry as other fantastic fruits will also be ripe for the picking.Sloes, the hard, dark purple berries of the blackthorn are expected to be plentiful and prove ever-popular as they enable the forager to become tipsy as a result of their endeavours. Sloe gin is made with berries gathered in September and October. The concoction is fantastically easy to make - collect and then prick half a bottle of sloes, sprinkle with sugar and cover with gin. The beverage will be ready by Christmas.
Rowan berries, hanging in clusters like lurid vermilion beads are also well worth seeking out. High in vitamin A and C they make fabulous jellies and jams and their acidity works well with roast lamb or venison. Elder, hazelnuts and sweet chestnuts are also expected to be plentiful and are delicious and easy to identify.
All this bumper harvest is not only good news for gourmands, it also benefits our wildlife as last year's washout conditions resulted in a pitiful fruit harvest.A good autumn fruit crop can mean the difference between life and death for small mammals and birds as they rely on this seasonal glut to lay down fat stores for the approaching lean times of winter.
Dr Lewthwaite explains: "Berries are a vital food supply for a wide range of fruit-eating birds and mammals such as badgers, dormice, hedgehogs and foxes; and birds like blackbirds, bullfinches, chaffinches, magpies, song thrushes and insects including butterflies, wasps and moths."Although they may have to wait, wildlife species will no doubt benefit from a bumper crop, and finally fruit-eating birds and mammals will be able to enjoy an autumn feast.
"The berry harvest is particularly good for hibernating species that need to store enough fat reserves to last through winter. Last year, birds and mammals suffered some of the poorest fruiting crop in years and this, coupled with the prolonged cold snap in spring, meant that many species had to endure a long period without a decent food supply."
Hudson tells about hot days working tobacco, when he thought he’d die from the heat, in “Jack Daniels Kept Me From Jim Beam and Johnnie Walker.” One day, no one brings water to the field where Joe is working, and he ends up sitting next to his friend, who everyone calls Jack Daniels. Now Jack is a large man, and he hangs out with the other workers sipping liquor when they can get it. On this particularly hot day, he lets his little buddy try it, but Joe, thinking it’s iced tea, takes a big gurgle from the Beads factory, setting his mouth, throat and tongue on fire until, a few minutes later, he hasn’t a care in the world. This is the longest story in the book and one that really sets the tone for the hilarity/calamity to follow.
He praises a favorite food in “Oh, Come to Me, My Sweet — Corn,” telling us “From the time I was a small child, corn has always been a source of wonder and delight.” He pooh-poohs all the naysayers — corn is bad for you, corn syrup will kill you, ethanol is useless. He goes off to eat it anyway. With salt and butter.
The book is divided into eight sections, one covering holidays and vacation, one family life, one food, another marriage. He has a lot to say about marriage. And many of the pieces not in the food category mention food. Obviously the way to this man’s heart is through his stomach.
There’s a couple of pointed pieces, too, like “What is Life All About?” In it, he reminisces about the good old days of the 1960s, when all you needed was love and a few beads. Now, he says, the world is full of rage and violence and there’s only one way to get through it: “It will take a little faith to see us through and what else but faith in a loving God can keep you afloat in such corrupt and violent times?” He continues, “Faith still lives due to the endurance of gentleness and the ability to laugh.”
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Monday, September 2, 2013
Norman museum gives glimpse of prehistoric
After it spent a few centuries buried in east Oklahoma soil, it's remarkable the Spiro lace exists at all, said Dowd, the museum's registrar. But after a look at the strands of fabric, it's obvious that the artisan who made the lace took pride in the work, she said.
“When you see this piece, it was clearly made by somebody who really knew what they were doing,” she said.Collected from the Spiro Mounds site in Le Flore County, the lace is one of the largest, best-preserved samples archaeologists have found of late prehistoric woven textiles.
The lace is one of the entries listed in the Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts. It gives archaeologists a rare glimpse into the kinds of garments people in the late prehistoric period might have worn every day, Dowd said.Located about 15 miles west of Fort Smith, Ark., Spiro Mounds are a collection of earth mounds that were probably built by ancestors of the modern-day Caddo and Wichita tribes, Dowd said. That group lived in the area from about 800-1400 A.D., she said.
Gary McAdams, cultural program planner with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, said the site includes burial mounds that probably included graves of tribal leaders. The number of artifacts archaeologists found with the human remains led them to believe the people buried there had been important to the tribe, he said.
The site also includes platform mounds with structures on them, McAdams said. Those mounds probably served some ceremonial purpose, he said, but it's difficult to say exactly what that purpose would have been.OU archaeologists found the Spiro lace during an excavation in the 1930s. After looters dug up the site looking for gemstone beads, OU archaeology professor Forrest Clements led an effort to try to salvage what was left.
The artifacts Clements and his team found at the site numbered into the tens of thousands and came from all over North America, Dowd said. Archaeologists found plates from the Great Lakes and Appalachian Mountains, shell cups from the Gulf Coast and shell beads from as far away as California, she said.Because of the number of exotic artifacts, archaeologists originally thought the mound was built to honor a powerful chief, Dowd said. More recently, she said, the more common theory is that the mounds served as a pilgrimage site. Visitors likely came to the site from all over North America in the same way that European pilgrims flocked to pilgrimage sites there during the Middle Ages, she said.
Archaeologists found the Spiro lace in the central chamber of Craig Mound, a burial mound at the site. Woven garments would have been fairly common at the time the lace was made, Dowd said. But unlike other artifacts like clay pots and stone tools, woven goods like baskets and fabric generally don't survive centuries under ground.
The lace probably survived because of relatively dry conditions inside the mound and because it was buried alongside copper plates, Dowd said. The metallic properties of the copper probably helped protect the fabric, she said.Many of the artifacts found at the site are on display at the Sam Noble Museum or at the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center. The lace is housed at the museum at OU, and isn't on public display.
Although the lace answers questions about the techniques late prehistoric artisans would have used to create fabric, scientists still don't know everything about it, Dowd said. There's no way to tell whether the lace came from a blanket or a piece of clothing, she said.It's also difficult to say for sure whether the lace was made nearby or if it, like many of the other artifacts found in the mounds, was brought from far away.“We make educated guesses,” she said. “We try to make the best theories we can based on the evidence, but there's always some uncertainty.”
We have often heard that “it is better to give than to receive Without such understanding, many who say that they believe this to be true, will seldom put into practice as they have expectations of Wholesale beads , Or, if they do believe they will often embrace the false nobility of " I always give " , there by denoting their selfish motive of giving ,killing their very joy of giving .
Usually as a rule " giving must precede receiving ". If a farmer does not give his fields the seed that they need to produce a crop, then he can hardly expect to receive a bountiful harvest .Giving opens the way for receiving. The natural law of energy states that when you give, you receive. Space is vacated in the giving so it can be filled in the receiving, keeping the energetic flow of the universe alive. Without giving we become stale, our knowledge becomes stagnant and our ability to perform from our wisdom wanes.
God is our source of receiving and giving . HE is the DOER , shed the EGO .Therein lies the secret of true Spiritual Giving , yet in times of need, we consistently turn to the world as the source of all that we have and get .We look to family, friends, employers, bankers, and the generosity of others to resolve our financial situations. We fail to see is that our prosperity does not come from what we get from others, our prosperity comes from what we get from God, through others .What we get from God through others, is the result of what we give to God, through others. The way to increase what we get from God through others, is to increase what we give to God through others. No gift is truly given until it is given back to God.
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“When you see this piece, it was clearly made by somebody who really knew what they were doing,” she said.Collected from the Spiro Mounds site in Le Flore County, the lace is one of the largest, best-preserved samples archaeologists have found of late prehistoric woven textiles.
The lace is one of the entries listed in the Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts. It gives archaeologists a rare glimpse into the kinds of garments people in the late prehistoric period might have worn every day, Dowd said.Located about 15 miles west of Fort Smith, Ark., Spiro Mounds are a collection of earth mounds that were probably built by ancestors of the modern-day Caddo and Wichita tribes, Dowd said. That group lived in the area from about 800-1400 A.D., she said.
Gary McAdams, cultural program planner with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, said the site includes burial mounds that probably included graves of tribal leaders. The number of artifacts archaeologists found with the human remains led them to believe the people buried there had been important to the tribe, he said.
The site also includes platform mounds with structures on them, McAdams said. Those mounds probably served some ceremonial purpose, he said, but it's difficult to say exactly what that purpose would have been.OU archaeologists found the Spiro lace during an excavation in the 1930s. After looters dug up the site looking for gemstone beads, OU archaeology professor Forrest Clements led an effort to try to salvage what was left.
The artifacts Clements and his team found at the site numbered into the tens of thousands and came from all over North America, Dowd said. Archaeologists found plates from the Great Lakes and Appalachian Mountains, shell cups from the Gulf Coast and shell beads from as far away as California, she said.Because of the number of exotic artifacts, archaeologists originally thought the mound was built to honor a powerful chief, Dowd said. More recently, she said, the more common theory is that the mounds served as a pilgrimage site. Visitors likely came to the site from all over North America in the same way that European pilgrims flocked to pilgrimage sites there during the Middle Ages, she said.
Archaeologists found the Spiro lace in the central chamber of Craig Mound, a burial mound at the site. Woven garments would have been fairly common at the time the lace was made, Dowd said. But unlike other artifacts like clay pots and stone tools, woven goods like baskets and fabric generally don't survive centuries under ground.
The lace probably survived because of relatively dry conditions inside the mound and because it was buried alongside copper plates, Dowd said. The metallic properties of the copper probably helped protect the fabric, she said.Many of the artifacts found at the site are on display at the Sam Noble Museum or at the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center. The lace is housed at the museum at OU, and isn't on public display.
Although the lace answers questions about the techniques late prehistoric artisans would have used to create fabric, scientists still don't know everything about it, Dowd said. There's no way to tell whether the lace came from a blanket or a piece of clothing, she said.It's also difficult to say for sure whether the lace was made nearby or if it, like many of the other artifacts found in the mounds, was brought from far away.“We make educated guesses,” she said. “We try to make the best theories we can based on the evidence, but there's always some uncertainty.”
We have often heard that “it is better to give than to receive Without such understanding, many who say that they believe this to be true, will seldom put into practice as they have expectations of Wholesale beads , Or, if they do believe they will often embrace the false nobility of " I always give " , there by denoting their selfish motive of giving ,killing their very joy of giving .
Usually as a rule " giving must precede receiving ". If a farmer does not give his fields the seed that they need to produce a crop, then he can hardly expect to receive a bountiful harvest .Giving opens the way for receiving. The natural law of energy states that when you give, you receive. Space is vacated in the giving so it can be filled in the receiving, keeping the energetic flow of the universe alive. Without giving we become stale, our knowledge becomes stagnant and our ability to perform from our wisdom wanes.
God is our source of receiving and giving . HE is the DOER , shed the EGO .Therein lies the secret of true Spiritual Giving , yet in times of need, we consistently turn to the world as the source of all that we have and get .We look to family, friends, employers, bankers, and the generosity of others to resolve our financial situations. We fail to see is that our prosperity does not come from what we get from others, our prosperity comes from what we get from God, through others .What we get from God through others, is the result of what we give to God, through others. The way to increase what we get from God through others, is to increase what we give to God through others. No gift is truly given until it is given back to God.
Read the full products at http://www.bestjewelrybeads.com/!
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