Clearing and Discovering

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Now that Spring showers and the warm weather have finally arrived, we find ourselves spending most of our time weeding and clearing land. Since we refuse to use herbicides, weeding is a never ending story. By the time we finish all of our rows we need to start again. Somewhere down the line we'll have to find new techniques.

With the ever present Wild Grape, Wild Rose and Virginia Creeper, clearing is no less a challenge but it is exciting since we always seem to discover and find new useful plants.

This week we began clearing the west side of our creek, starting with the an area next to the Kiwis. It turns out that the Kiwis themselves have become quite invasive.

We managed to free up a rather large and beautiful Birch. Our prized producer of sap for Birch syrup production.

Freeing a magnificent old Birch

We even managed to free a Tulip tree and a Pin Cherry tree which the Kiwis had almost completely taken over. The vines were a couple of inches in diameter and had traveled as much as 50 feet to the top of the canopy.

A canopy covered with Kiwi vines

So far on the other side of the creek, we managed to find a patch of Elderberries and a sad looking Mulberry tree. In fact it was a surprise to find that not only was the Mulberry still alive, but it was fruiting. Hopefully some sun and proper pruning will bring this tree back to production.

A sad Mulberry finally seeing the light of day

In fact, this Mulberry reminded us to check on the two trees we pruned earlier this year. We were not certain of our approach, however whatever we did seems to be paying off. All branches are loaded with fruit and the fruit does seem to be larger than last year.

Branches loaded with Mulberries

Elsewhere on the farm, other berries are starting to take form and ripening. The first to be picked will likely be the Gooseberries. This is a red variety so we're now patiently waiting for them to ripen.

Our Gooseberries are slowly ripening

We'll close this week with another foraging notice: the Black Locust is flowering. These fragrant flowers will not last long, perhaps 10 days. They are extremely useful for the production of honey and are in fact the source of pollen for Acacia monofloral honey in France.

These trees are pervasive in this region yet few are aware that the flowers of this tree are edible. Not only are they edible but also quite delicious. They are sweet with a cucumber-like crunch. As a result, Chef tends to use them as a garnish.

In Europe, they are coated in batter and deep fried; this is also the case for Elderberry flowers which are now starting to form.

The edible Black Locust flowers