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Mulberry Pie

7/26/2016

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​I had a conversation about mulberry trees with a man in my dentist’s office recently, and although it was fun talking to him, the conversation left me feeling sad. The man has recently moved into an older house with several mulberry trees in the back yard. He hates them so much, he plans to cut the mulberries down. He hates the mess from the fallen fruit, he hates that the berries attract birds. The trees are messy, the birds are messy and he used the word ‘weed’ to describe the volunteers that pop up from fallen mulberry seeds. He was lively and animated and had a great sense of humor about his problem, but he has definite plans to cut down the mulberry trees in his new backyard. I didn’t get the chance to ask him how old the trees are, and there was no time to talk about how lucky he is to have fruit trees in his own backyard because I was called by the technician, and I had to say goodbye to the man. By the time my teeth were cleaned, he was gone from the waiting room. The conversation got me thinking about mulberries, however; so I did a little googling and found out that there are lots of people who dislike mulberry trees. My tree-felling acquaintance is not alone. 


William Shakespeare, on the other hand, liked mulberry trees very much. It is believed that Shakespeare was an avid gardener because he made so many learned references to plants in his plays and poetry. The ancient mulberry trees in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s, New Place Gardens, are said to have been grown from cuttings of a mulberry tree that Shakespeare himself planted. There is a story about how that original tree was cut down by the Reverend Francis Gastrell in the 1750s. Gastrell lived there at that time, and became so irked by all the visitors asking to see the tree that he cut it down. Shame on him. He's long gone of course, but what a way to be remembered.

Shakespeare describes the difficulties of mulberry picking in Coriolanus, when our protagonist is asked to show humility:

Now humble as the ripest mulberry
That will not hold the handling.
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Shakespeare also refers to the mulberry tree in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. The play within this play is taken from the classical Greek story of two Babylonian teenagers, Pyramus and Thisbe who, like Romeo and Juliet, are forbidden to meet because their families hate each other. They communicate through a chink in the wall between their homes. Madly in love, they concoct a plan to disobey their parents and meet under a mulberry tree. Thisbe gets to the tree first. She sees a lion with a bloody mouth, runs away, and drops her cloak as she flees. The lion picks up the cloak, gets it bloody and then drops it. But when Pyramus shows up, he sees a red mouthed lion and Thisbe’s bloody cloak, so he assumes that Thisbe has been eaten by the lion. Bereft, he stabs himself, spilling blood on the mulberry tree. Thisbe returns to the mulberry tree, sees her dead lover and kills herself. 
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Played by bumbling goofballs in Shakespeare’s version, the tragic tale of two star-crossed lovers is made into comedy. According to the mythical tale as told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, this is how white mulberries became red. In Ovid’s version, which was adapted from an even earlier myth, Thisbe sees a lioness, not a lion, and drops a veil instead of a cloak. Shakespeare’s royal audiences would have been familiar with the story and would have recognized the importance of the mulberry tree in the classical version: The sympathetic gods permanently turned the color of mulberries from white to crimson out of respect for the ill-fated lovers.  

I had not considered how much poetry and emotion mulberries could incite, but they have a long literary history. The domestication of silkworms originated in China several thousand years ago, and mulberry trees figure in many Chinese songs and poems. The mulberry as an image of love and seduction is deeply rooted in Chinese civilization. 

Mulberries are beautiful, delicious and highly nutritious. The leaves of the white mulberry mentioned above, are the sole food source of Bombyx mori, the silkworm. Unripe fruit, leaves and other green parts of the plant are intoxicating, mildly hallucinogenic and sometimes toxic, so the mulberry has a lot going on. 

I wish the man I met in the dentist's office appreciated his mulberry trees. I'll probably never see him again, but he’s inspired me to plant a few of my own. When they’re grown and producing their luscious fruit, the first thing I will make is mulberry pie. 



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More Trees, Please

7/18/2016

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We have a neighbor who many years ago suggested that we cut down the trees on our property. We inherited our old house with all of its wonderful trees, and the neighbor’s assumption was that we couldn’t possibly be as unreasonable as my husband’s parents were when they were living here. Certainly we would want to do the obvious thing and clear away all the trees. Our neighbor has exactly two trees, and believes that having more than three trees on your property lowers property values. We have so many trees, I couldn’t begin to count them. This neighbor has not spoken to us for many years now.

Attitudes like our neighbor’s are not that uncommon. Many of the people in this area don’t do their own yard work, so they don’t have to think about the environmental problems an immaculate, grassy, almost treeless lawn creates.

A lawn like our neighbor’s requires the application of countless chemicals which go straight into our water supply and wash directly into our waterways. The downstream effect is that some of these chemicals create algal blooms, diseased fish and die-offs. Treeless lawns also contribute to flooding problems. They harm insects and birds, contribute to habitat loss, lack of biodiversity and high extinction rates. In addition, the maintenance of lawns requires an enormous amount of water and fuel. Lawns are just not healthy for children and other living things.

The idea of the manicured lawn as a status symbol is not new. Like many American ideas, we took the idea of perfect expanses of grassy, weed-free, tree-free lawns from the English and French aristocracy. In the 16th century, lawns and fields surrounding European castles were kept free of trees so that guards could have a clear view if an enemy tried to approach. At that time however, lawns were probably a mix of grasses, chamomile and thyme. In the 17th century all-grass lawns became popular with wealthy landowners. Those expansive lawns were maintained by the hard labor of servants wielding scythes, and the grazing of sheep. These days, the servants have been replaced by landscape firms with loud equipment and the sheep are not allowed by most health departments.

Not only did the idea of grassy lawns come from Europe, many of the grasses used for American lawns are from Europe. Native American grasses are not as easily controlled as the kinds of grasses European landowners used for their lawns, so when wealthy landowners in America built their large estates, they had their lawns sown with grass seed from elsewhere. Blue grass, fescues, and bent grasses are all from Europe, and Bermuda grass comes from Africa.

The popularity of golf and lawn bowling also contributed to the proliferation of large-scale lawns in America, and in the mid 19th century cities all over the country began beautification campaigns. Public parks became common in even the smallest American towns, and the elegant, landscaped features of the grand English estate became democratized for all. 

Slowly, the American craving for grassy expanses caught on, moving from public to private spaces, and as suburbs began to develop in the mid to late 19th century, so did the ubiquitous American lawn. The first lawn mower was invented in 1830 by Englishman, Edwin Budding. It was a push mower and wouldn’t be steam powered until around 1893. In 1900 the gasoline powered lawn mower entered the scene.

By the late 1940’s the need for affordable housing got a shot in the arm from returning GIs and their new families. Conformity was the norm, weeds (and Communism) were the enemy, and chemicals were the panacea. The population of America was growing and so were the suburbs.

One of the largest and most well known development firms of the time was Levitt & Sons, Inc. The firm created and sold ready-made suburbs beginning in 1947. The first of these planned communities was Levittown, NY. Levittown homes were designed to be affordable, and when buyers moved in, lawns were already in place. Abraham Levitt himself stated “No single feature of a suburban residential community contributes as much to the charm and beauty of the individual home and the locality as well-kept lawns.” His opinion stuck, and here we are.


I’ve watched more and more healthy trees come down in our area since Hurricane Sandy, and while I understand my neighbors’ fears, it will make our flooding problems that much more of an issue in the long run. Some people in the area are becoming aware of the environmental problems lawns create,  but there are still too many homeowners who cling to old fashioned, environmentally destructive practices.

It took almost 200 years for Americans to create all the problems that come from unsustainable lawns, and I wish we had the luxury of 200 years to fix those problems. What we can do is plant more trees. Please.

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Keep Breathing

7/11/2016

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Photosynthesis is a Greek word in origin. It means “putting together with light”. The process itself is miraculous. Almost magical - Out of thin air, sunlight, and water, plant life and trees are born.

The process is used by green plants and trees to convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy. Trees store this energy in their leaves, using it to grow, form flowers and produce fruit. Like most plants, a tree’s chemical energy is stored in  simple sugars which are made from taking in carbon dioxide and water. Oxygen -- the waste product -- and water vapor are then exhaled from the leaves.  Without photosynthesis, there would be no life on Earth. Trees and plants literally breathe life into the atmosphere.

When winter arrives in the northern hemisphere, where the largest number of the world’s trees grow, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at their highest. The trees lie dormant, resting through the colder months, but in the spring, when leaves begin to breathe again, CO2 levels go back down. Trees return to the job of absorbing carbon dioxide, and cleaning up the air. Trees breathe like we do, only in reverse. Carbon in. Oxygen out. NASA has actually created a computer model allowing us to watch this global breathing process, and it is breath-taking.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1SgmFa0r04 

The model is a powerful visualization, showing us how winds and weather patterns travel around the globe, and it illustrates the fact that everything is connected.

New research published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management shows how crucial the breathing of trees is to our future. This recent news about California’s redwoods is helping to prove in no uncertain terms just how important trees are as a weapon against climate change. 

The seven-year study by Humboldt State University and the University of Washington indicates that California’s redwood trees manage to store about 2,600 metric tons of carbon for every 2.5 acres of forest. Led by Robert Van Pelt, the enormous team meticulously studied 11 forested areas spanning about 500 miles, from the Oregon border to UC’s Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve in Big Sur. 

​Of all the tallest trees across the globe, including the giant sequoia, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, Australia’s mountain ash and the Tasmanian blue gum, California’s redwoods are the best at storing carbon because they live the longest. Even after redwoods die they continue to store carbon in their heartwood, which takes a much longer time to decompose than wood from other kinds of forests.

"We finally got the numbers," said Van Pelt. "No one has ever gotten them before. It took an army of people seven years to get all that. It was very satisfying." 

Breathing is the rhythm of life, and if we hope to keep breathing ourselves, we must nurture the breathing of the trees.

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Tweet Tweet Tweet

7/5/2016

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The best thing about living in the suburbs is being surrounded by trees. With an exception or two, most people value trees here, and most towns have shade tree commissions, as well as environmental commissions to keep an eye on tree planting and removal. But in many urban areas, trees have a harder time. Tending and planting trees is expensive, so despite the long-term benefits, trees aren’t always prioritized.

There has been a recent proliferation of scientific research confirming the benefits of urban trees. They provide shade, they pull pollution out of the air, they assist in storm water retention and they drive up real estate values, but in too many areas, trees are declining.

It’s difficult in many cities to keep up with dying and fallen trees, but another problem facing some urban areas is a multiplying influx of invasive species. Keeping up with diseased trees is an obstacle. Beetles, moths, weevils and adelgids and fungi of several kinds have contributed to the demise of millions of trees over the years. According to new studies, city trees are often not diverse enough to battle all the new diseases. If there is only one kind of tree planted, the trees are that much more vulnerable.

One of the ways tree-killing insects and diseases have spread is through firewood. Insects often live in felled wood, but they don’t move great distances on their own. When firewood with insects hiding inside is moved, it can often mean a leap of hundreds of miles. It only takes one or two tiny insect eggs, or a few microscopic fungus spores to spread contagion.

Some packaged, heat treated firewood sold by retailers is considered safe to move, but the best bet is to use firewood that is from the area in which you plan to burn it. don’tmovefirewood.org is a great resource for all kinds of information about firewood and tree-killing invasives.

New York City’s tree planting efforts have made the city healthier and more attractive, and for those who can still afford it, it’s a beautiful place to live. But in Jersey City, just across the river from NYC, trees are tweeting about what it’s like to be a tree. #Tree Speech is a Jersey City campaign to raise public awareness about the many sustainability issues facing the city, including a seriously jeopardized tree canopy. Twenty percent of Jersey City’s trees are dead or dying.

Environmental artist, Anne Percoco was interviewed by The Jersey City Independent, and she believes that #Tree Speech is “a kind of whimsical experiment in empathy. If we can converse with trees, how will our actions towards them and thoughts about them change?” It sounds like a great idea to me.

They have assigned names and Twitter accounts to selected trees, and the trees have now joined the Twittershpere. Percoco says that Twitter is the perfect vehicle for giving voices to trees, and at first she was going to start the campaign on her own. She found out, however, that Sustainable Jersey City is leading several tree-related initiatives with the NJ Treekeeper’s Workshop and the OpenTreeMap.org tree inventory, so she began working with them. 

​According to Percoco, “#Tree Speech is also a metaphor for the wood wide web, an underground fungal network that trees use to share information and resources. And I love that Twitter’s logo is a bird.”


The #Tree Speech campaign is running through September, but participants are encouraged to keep it going as long as they can. 

Maybe it should be a global campaign.





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    Brenda Cummings

    The Green Machine

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