Solstice: Celebrating Winter

Mid-winter or Solstice (December 21) is upon us. Here in Wisconsin the sun is already setting at 4:30pm and not rising again until 7:30am.That's a loooong winter night! Winter Solstice, the time of nature's darkness, has long been celebrated by humans around the world. In Northern climates celebrations often include fire and light to signify welcoming back the sun, and turning toward the renewing days of spring.

While the nights are long, the days of mid-winter in Wisconsin are often sunny and bright.  Taking long walks in the winter sunshine can be rejuvenating and so very interesting. What do you see, hear and find? Where are all the animals and what are they doing to stay warm?  Where do they shelter and what do they eat? How are the trees living through the cold?

To supplement your winter wonderings (and wanderings) you might check out these amazing books. There are some for adults and some for children.

Winter World by Bernd Heinrich

Stokes Guide to Nature in Winter by Donald Stokes

The Longest Night by Marian Dane Bauer

Dear Rebecca, Winter is Here by Jean Craighead George

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper and Carson Ellis

Indoors there are many ways to continue to observe nature. A favorite is feeding and watching the birds outside your window. Young children can have an up-front seat to bird observation in the comfort of their homes. Many hours can be spent observing the ways that birds use their beaks to eat seeds, how they preen their feathers and how they chase away intruders at the feeder! KVR Instructor Barb Duerksen wrote a great post with tips and reminders about bird feeding back in October.

Collecting bits and pieces of nature and bringing them inside can be another wonderful way to observe and explore winter in the warmth of your home. Create an ever-changing seasonal nature table in your home! For more about creating nature tables, check out The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Year's Cycle with Seasonal Tableaux by M.V. Leeuwen and J. Moeskops.

Stargazing after the sun sets continues to delight during the winter season. Tonight, if the skies are clear from your corner of the world, check out this rare event with Jupiter and Saturn that is happening on solstice. If skies are cloudy in your area, there is a livestream available on the link. KVR Instructor and Astroeducator John Heasley also wrote about Winter Solstice Great Conjunction here. 

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The Learning Outside blog will take a break until the week of January 11, 2021. We wish our readers everywhere opportunities to notice and appreciate the light of the new season. Thank you for joining us in 2020.

Fall Foraging in the KVR

Guest Post by KVR Instructor Nicholas WazeeGale

The vibrant colors, shorter days, and cool nights signal to all our senses that Autumn is here. It may seem that with all the plant life fading away, nature’s abundance is going with it, but the truth is just the opposite to the forager. As many plants are readying for the cold they create so many of the best and most hearty foods of the seasons. Roots and tubers, nuts and some seeds, certain greens, a fruit or two, and many mushrooms all offer us much to look forward to.

Many folks do some foraging at one time or another during the year. Morels, black raspberries, that asparagus patch down the road, or perhaps hickory nuts get us out there to seek nature’s bounty in the woods and fields. And though this activity has gained much popularity in recent years, it is obviously nothing new to folks of older times, be they Native Americans who originally held these lands or older farm families of the area.

Here are just a few local plants and fungi that you may want to be keeping an eye out for in the weeks to come.

Elm Oyster Mushroom

There are more mushrooms coming out than you can shake a stick at, but I would hope we have outgrown that behavior. Wondrous though they are they can seem overwhelming to sort out, especially if you are looking to identify and confirm one for edibility. As with many things there are some that are unique enough for beginners to take on. One that I teach during this season is the Elm Oyster, a robust white mushroom that sprouts from wounds on live trees this time of year. You can come to know this mushroom well, for it has some good recognizable features like a tough stalk and gills that stop just short of the stalk. Between these features and it’s growing habits, many come to find it comfortable to identify. Mushrooms are definitely a more difficult aspect of foraging, but with proper education they can safely add much diversity and richness to your cuisine, and a great deal of enjoyment to your walks!

Jerusalem Artichoke

                     

Jerusalem Artichoke is a tall and robust stalked plant of creek-side meadows. It is one of many wild sunflowers of our area, and looks not unlike a slender version of our garden sunflowers with multiple smaller yellow flower heads. It is now wrapping up its flowering, but the stalks are still there and the trick to confirming that you have found this fine friend of the forager is in the more slender but sunflower-like lanceolate leaves and the distinctly rough stalk. The edible treasure is underground around the base of the stalk. This plant grows elongated segmented tubers that taste earthy, nutty and sweet. They are formed now, and tasty, but get more digestible as the plant dies back.

Walnuts

Black Walnut trees have a reputation as a nuisance for the mess the nuts make or the chemical alterations to the soil they make to reduce competition. However if you are looking for something that is relatively easy to identify and stock up on for the winter months, here’s your willing guide. With tall stature, long divided leaves turning yellow, and soon to be piles of round green hulled nuts, you should be able to find a walnut tree nearby. Many may have had their flowers nipped by frost this year, but some ought still to produce nuts. This nut needs to be hulled (all unprotected hands will be stained dark brown), rinsed, dried and cured for later cold season cracking. Drying must be done in a single layer of nuts in a sunny, airy, yet squirrel free spot for a week or two, and then the curing can be done with them in boxes, two or three nuts deep for at least a month in an indoor location. Walnuts need a hard crack but have a large meat and a distinctive flavor and richness.

Foraging is a connecting, rewarding, and habit-forming outdoor activity, but it comes with some serious responsibility. Always know with certainty what you are harvesting and consuming, and cross reference between field guides when learning something new. Make sure those who teach you are knowledgeable and eat what they teach. Always eat small amounts of any wild food, particularly mushrooms, the first time you try them. Harvest responsible amounts of these plants and fungi as some species are uncommon or reproduce slowly, and we must respect these organisms, their natural communities, and others of our kind who forage. After covering these cautions it is also very important to have fun and enjoy the adventure of foraging! What better way to participate in nature and get to observe and learn so much of what is out there than a lifelong natural world treasure hunt! We were literally made for it. And I truly believe that those who forage with care inevitably become some of the most aware and concerned advocates for wild places.

If you are interested in learning more there are many directions to go. You can get some good guides, like Sam Thayer’s books on wild edibles which are filled with great stories and information. You can find credible edibles classes near you, like my upcoming class with the Driftless Folk School. Also, seeking out groups in your area that do foraging is potentially a good way to learn from knowledgeable and experienced foragers. And feel free to check out my Instagram posts that are frequently edibles-related during these seasons @nicholas.wazee.gale

Collection

A guest post by Meaghan Gustafson, La Farge Schools District Administrator, Parent and KVR Enthusiast

We are a family of collectors. Even though I am drawn to the clean lines and bare walls of a minimalist aesthetic, the collection clutter wins. Stacks of books, shelves full of trinkets and old treasures, a pile of found objects by the front door. 

As our time away from normal routines extend, we find ourselves settling into a different type of family life. New rhythms, a smaller circle, and extra time spent outside (not to mention the challenges of working from home, an escalation in sibling rivalry, and daily wondering how this or that area of the house became messy again). A collection of a different kind of day, and new memories.

Our go-to family activity is hiking. We throw a water bottle and a few snacks in a backpack, and head out with our oldest (freshly 8), and youngest (4), and dog and see what we can find. Some whining or minor injuries or arguing over who gets to be first are always a feature, but we find fun. We poke around, walk on logs, hang on branches, throw rocks in streams.  Our eyes remain watchful for whatever natural treasures we can find. This early spring, on one hike alone, we returned from our woods with six (6!) antler sheds! A banner day for our collector hearts.

This spring, although my kids have certainly had more screen time than they ever did pre-pandemic, they have also had much more time outside.  I have enjoyed watching their evolution into independent outdoor explorers, and through this gift of more time with them I have noticed their play often includes a form of collecting. Whether it is a challenge presented for one by the other (how many mayapples can you find?) or their own interest-led collecting (gathering acorns as bait for their “bear trap”), collecting both captivates their attention and captures their imagination.

As it turns out, collecting is a good brain-builder too. 

Collecting provides an obtainable challenge for kids, and provides a situation where they retain an element of control and autonomy over what, when, how, and where to collect.

Adding to a collection requires the collector to be alert and watchful for the item or features of an item not yet found. There is the moment of discovery (!) and then a sense of accomplishment.

A collection itself provides additional opportunities for investigation. Collections can be sorted by type, size, shape or color. Patterns can be created, arrangements prepared for presentation. Examination of collected items can lead to new questions and curiosities to research. Vocabulary grows.

Collecting can take many forms.

• Bird sightings- mark the date and location in a bird book

• Gather rocks - always on the hunt for interesting looking rocks, my son found a great shell fossil on our driveway this past month!

• Steps or miles- how many can be accumulated in a day, a week, a month, a season?

• Animal signs- how many and of what types of tracks, scat, holes, nests, feathers or fur can be found on a hike? 

• Sticks- a collection of sticks can be a great many things! A tool kit, a pretend-play family, or the makings of a fort. Also: acorns, pinecones, nuts of any kind.

• Berries - a handful of berries or another wild-foraged food makes a satisfying snack.

• Paths- My family has been working on tackling the 2020 KVR Trail Challenge during the Safer at Home order. 

• Nature Table- arrange an assortment of seasonal finds on a shelf, windowsill, or tray.

To collect is to continuously experience the thrill of the find. Even without a target in mind, the search, the discovery, still delights!

Keep in mind that in many places the physical collecting of flowers, animals, or rocks is not allowed and there are restrictions on collection of certain migratory bird specimens. They can still be added to a collection through photographing or journaling.

Here are a some great related reads for collectors and their families:

Cabinet of Curiosities is a treasure of a book to inspire young collectors. Every page is filled with beautiful images and information on classification, tips for curating treasures, and the history of collecting. The author was interviewed on Science Friday here.

Grice, G. (2015). Cabinet of curiosities: Collecting and understanding the wonders of the natural world.

Art Forms in Nature is based on Ernst Haekel's prints from around the turn of the 20th century. These delicate illustrations of microscopic organisms, plants, and animals help provide an understanding of geometric forms and the beauty of studying closely and carefully. 

Haeckel, E. H. P. A., Breidbach, O., & Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (2019). Art forms in nature: The prints of Ernst Haeckel.