Yesterday in the forest,we found pawpaws blooming and blueberries flowering and fruiting, and in the clearing we found our first cover crop of crimson clover flowering. Butterflies and other insects were enjoying the flowers.
We are constantly amazed by the abundance of food growing naturally in the forest. We look for ways to encourage and support the continued growth and development of a healthy and sustainable ecosystem.
Yesterday we went over for a quick visit, and to our delight, we saw the blueberry bushes were flowering and getting berries.
We’d been watching them and noted a few weeks ago they were leafing out. We have observed hundreds of them all throughout the forest. We’ve read that they are more productive when they have plenty of sun.
These fruits are eaten by terrestrial turtles, black bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, deer and many bird species including wild turkeys, grouse, blue jays, robins, wood thrush and eastern bluebirds. These wild blueberries are smaller and sweeter and grow in acidic soils that are moist and well draining.
We continue to marvel at the abundance of food growing wild in the forest and feel lucky to be able to caretake this incredible environment.
We also noted the tulip poplars, dogwood and sugar hackberry trees are all beginning to leaf out. The transformation of the forest to green for summer has already started.
We had a big day of mowing and cutting back several overgrown areas along the southern set back line. We used our new roads through the forest we’d cut a few weeks ago to drive the tractor over to the southern border. It was a success. Our old Husqvarna tractor is a workhorse.
We found a few other plants and are looking into identifying them.
We were happy to cut down a few more black cherry trees which had black knot fungus and bag worms. We are slowly taking diseased trees from the farm and burning them.
It was dry out today with rain expected tomorrow and Friday. We hope after a rain with warmer weather into the 70s, the morels may finally pop up. We are on the lookout and can’t wait to get back out there.
We have a house guest later today but with the wet weather this week, we could not resist a quick run out to Buckingham for a foray. The cool moist April weather all week long seemed to offer another chance for morels.
As we neared the Farm a large male Bald Eagle suddenly commanded our attention by swooping down from a tree to seize a hapless rabbit in a stubbly corn field. He seemed to stare right at us as we drove by, in awe, waiting until we passed to begin his feast.
Once in the gate at the Farm we wasted no time getting to the forage. We walked Fern trail, past the row of blooming redbud trees, and then stayed to the south side of the Ridge, spying the Mayapples near the setback line. We looked closely, but no luck there.
We continued down the hill to the oaks and main waterway. We cross and explored the mayapple communities adjacent to the pawpaw grove. Many old and young oaks, poplar, beech, hickory, pawpaw, maple, as well as year-round vernal pools. But no morels yet. It is cold, mostly overcast and windy, the oak leaves are crunchy underfoot.
On the drive to SAFF and back, we note a marked difference in the relative development of “spring” in Augusta, Albemarle, Nelson and Buckingham counties. It seems notably cooler once we cross the James River. The trees in Buckingham have been slower to develop their leaves and buds. The spring vegetation at SAFF is not as far along, not as green or flowery yet. The trees know it’s too soon, they are holding back, just a bit longer. This will be something to remember for the future, an entry in our almanac.
We thought today would be the day. The ground temperature was perfect ranging from 50 to 55 at various depths. We got a call from a friend who lives by a lake in Arrington Virginia—the next county over—and he’d found buckets of morels. It had been raining for days with a giant storm moving through. We went over to see if we could find any. The water was too high to cross at the bottom of the slope. We didn’t find morels but we had a great walk. The water was really moving through. We’d never seen it so wet. We will go out Friday morning to check again. These were our finds today.
Of course we went over to continue to search for morels. It was a beautiful day and the farm was burgeoning with spring. We saw multiple colonies with thousands of mayapples emerging. Only a couple of the largest ones have flattened which is a great indicator of timing for morels to begin coming up. We found these new colonies of mayapples emerging in the pawpaw grove where we also found Virginia bluebells popping up. We noticed that the blueberry bushes are starting to leaf out.
We got plenty of rain yesterday and can’t wait to go back out to search for the elusive morels.
Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm 