Wow, the number of Oak Watch followers continues to grow despite my paltry output of late... thank you! Or, perhaps, the number of Oak Watch followers continues to grow because of my paltry output of late. Maybe if I stop writing altogether this will become the most read blog in the world!
Huge thank you to reader Walter for emailing a list of fascinating links. I will pass them along to you one or two at a time.
Travel to Poland, to be honest, has never been on my bucket list... until now. Click here to visit the amazing Bialowieza Forest. Incredible.
The oaks of Bialowieza - and we're talking about pedunculate/English/common oaks (Quercus robur) - are truly massive. Quoting from the web site:
In order to emphasize uniqueness of such trees the term
CLASSICAL BIALOWIEZA OAK has been introduced. To bear
this proud name an oak must meet the following criteria:
the trunk's perimeter of such tree at the height of 130cm
should be at least 550cm, the height of trunk up to the
first branch should be at least 15 meters, the total trunk's
height should exceed 25 meters and the tree's height should be
at least 36 meters. While in the Forest there are thousands of
oaks with monumental sizes, only 10-20 meet these criteria.
I think that nowhere in Poland or even Europe there are such
oaks like here, in the Bialowieza Forest.
For those of you keeping score at home 550cm in perimeter measured 130cm from the ground equates to about 5ft 8in in d.b.h. (diameter at breast height). Holy cats.
So take a break this afternoon or evening and travel to Bialowieza Forest, at least via pixels. The druid's Sistine Chapel.
Showing posts with label common oak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label common oak. Show all posts
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Monday, April 16, 2012
The Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse
Amazing oak to get your week started: The Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse.
... although something tells me that treatment of this tree over the years might have violated one or two of the things I learned in my Urban Forestry courses. Apparently, when the already-500 year-old tree re-sprouted after a lightening strike/fire that hollowed it out in the late 1600s the people of the village considered it a miracle (since oaks, of course, rarely withstand fire... gah). And proceeded to memorialize the tree's miraculous survival by... subjecting it to an incredible amount of additional abuse. For instance I think I see an incorrect pruning cut about 1/3 of the way up on the left. The staircase and shingles might be problematic as well.
It is cool, though.
... although something tells me that treatment of this tree over the years might have violated one or two of the things I learned in my Urban Forestry courses. Apparently, when the already-500 year-old tree re-sprouted after a lightening strike/fire that hollowed it out in the late 1600s the people of the village considered it a miracle (since oaks, of course, rarely withstand fire... gah). And proceeded to memorialize the tree's miraculous survival by... subjecting it to an incredible amount of additional abuse. For instance I think I see an incorrect pruning cut about 1/3 of the way up on the left. The staircase and shingles might be problematic as well.
It is cool, though.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
California black oak acorns: I was right
Recently I tasted some raw California black oak (Q. kelloggii) acorns - acorns that had dropped from some of the same trees from which John Muir might have gathered up a handful for an afternoon snack. They had a strong flavor of tannin, but the aftertaste on the tongue was very short lived. This led me to speculate that the tannins in California black oak acorns are highly soluble in water and could be quickly and easily leached away.
I finally got around to testing my theory. Turns out - and let me tell you I'm as shocked as you and find myself on completely unfamiliar ground here - I was right.
I shelled a handful of them, and coarsely chopped the nut meats. I dropped them into a small pot of boiling water, and boiled them for about 3-5 minutes, at which point I drained them and tasted a few. The bitter tannin flavor was still there, but already greatly diminished. After repeating the process the bitterness was almost completely gone. After a grand total of 6 to 10 minutes of boiling I had acorns - from the supposedly bitter red/black oak group - that are sweeter than many of the supposedly sweet acorns of the white oak group I have tried. Here I'm thinking particularly of English/common oak, (Q. robur).
In "Use of Acorns for Food in California: Past, Present and Future," David Bainbridge gives the nutrient content of California black oak acorns as:
Water - 9.0%
Protein - 4.56%
Fat - 17.97%
Carbs - 55.48%
That will keep you going when hiking/mapping/preserving the splendor of the Sierra!
I finally got around to testing my theory. Turns out - and let me tell you I'm as shocked as you and find myself on completely unfamiliar ground here - I was right.
I shelled a handful of them, and coarsely chopped the nut meats. I dropped them into a small pot of boiling water, and boiled them for about 3-5 minutes, at which point I drained them and tasted a few. The bitter tannin flavor was still there, but already greatly diminished. After repeating the process the bitterness was almost completely gone. After a grand total of 6 to 10 minutes of boiling I had acorns - from the supposedly bitter red/black oak group - that are sweeter than many of the supposedly sweet acorns of the white oak group I have tried. Here I'm thinking particularly of English/common oak, (Q. robur).
In "Use of Acorns for Food in California: Past, Present and Future," David Bainbridge gives the nutrient content of California black oak acorns as:
Water - 9.0%
Protein - 4.56%
Fat - 17.97%
Carbs - 55.48%
That will keep you going when hiking/mapping/preserving the splendor of the Sierra!
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