May 7, 2024 Pawpaws are fruiting at Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm

After going out on April 27 (a little over 2 weeks ago) and hand pollinating the pawpaws, we were delighted yesterday to see them beginning to grow the tiniest fruit. About 10 trees have fruit forming so far. These were the trees we found flowering and used Q-tips to pollinate. There are at least 100 pawpaw trees down there. We have plans to bring more sunlight into the pawpaw patch and move some of the pawpaws to spread them out. We are beyond excited for these fruits and can’t wait until fall to harvest them. We hope to grow our population of pawpaws and increase their productivity.

Young pawpaw fruit.

The blueberries continue to develop and we find more and more plants flowering and growing small green blueberries. We hope to taste a few before the animals get to them.

We expected to find many mushrooms at the farm since it’s been raining a lot this past week, but we only found these Gloeophyllum along the sunny southern border.

We found this colorful pair of six spotted tiger beetles down by the waterway at the south side. They feed on a wide variety of arthropods and over winter in larval burrows.

Cicindela sexguttata, a common North American beetle.

We continue to pull up and clear out invasive trees as we find them. So far, tree of Heaven, mimosa and paulownia are the invasive species and we find them mainly along the road. We also continue to take down black Cherry trees that are diseased and dying.

We’re taking back our southern border and clearing out overgrown brush. It is so satisfying to cut the tangled overgrown weeds back. We are thrilled with our old Husqvarna.

Brush we are cutting back along southern border.

Pollinating the pawpaws.

April 10, 2024 Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm

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.

Viola hirsutula, Southern wood violet found along the south wet weather gully.

Viburnum prunifolium, Blackhaw, found in the wet weather gully on the south side.

Genus Galium, bedstraws.

Terrapene carolina carolina, Eastern box turtle. South side near mayapple colony.

Carya ovata, shagbark hickory. South end of SAFF.

Our first red Russula of the year. We saw many of these last year. There are over 500 species. This was found on the north side of the clearing up top.

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.

Salvia lyrata, lyreleaf sage. Found along the road while mowing. There was a patch of it.

March 27, 2024 Springtime at SAFF

Yesterday was a rainy spring day with temperatures in the 50s at Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm. We went over to walk around the woods and look for early morels since the soil temperature has been in the 50s for a week. We saw vernal pools up top and at the bottom of the slope. The springs and waterfalls were all flowing. We found hygrocybes, commonly called waxycaps. They have bright red caps and yellow gills. We also found oyster mushrooms growing up top in the clearing on a stump.

Blackening wax cap or witches hat.

Oyster mushrooms

We also found several clusters of mayapples. We were delighted to see these as they are associated with morels as they grow together in the same wet, well draining soil.

Mayapples emerging along south slope.

The water levels were up with even more rain expected today. We can’t wait to get back out.

March 9, 2024 Wet weather and Morel hunting

Witches butter

We’ve been going over most days this week as the soil temperature has been above 50 degrees Fahrenheit which is when morels begin to pop up. We have not found them yet but are delighted to continue our search. We’ve been looking especially near tulip poplars, oaks and beech —and near the waterways.

Ink caps, usually one of the first mushrooms to appear in early spring.

Wet weather gully along the southern side of SAFF during a rainy day.

We’ve also been going over often to be sure our neighbor at our southern border isn’t hunting on our property. He built a stand and a bridge and also cut down 30-50 trees all on our side. He’s confused about the unambiguous property line that runs right along the electricity line. We are planning a fence and have sent him letters. We will engage with the sheriff’s office next. Yesterday, we found deer bones on that side and we mourned for these creatures and wish he would contain himself to his land at the least.

Water was collecting everywhere up top and along the slopes.

February 23, 2024 SAFF on a drizzly, cloudy winter day.

Bryoandersonia illecebra,

Millipede hiding out among the Stereum complicatum or common named crowded parchment.

Today we startled a rabbit as we walked through the woods in the misty rain. Somehow we caught him by surprise, crunching up the hillside behind the shed. He startled and panicked, ran 50 feet away, then stopped, stretched his legs and shook it off.

There were a few puddles of water collecting in depressions up top in the clearing.

I just heard on NPR that as of today, there’s no county in Virginia in a drought. This is as a result of the wet month we’ve had.

Auricularia auricula-judae (Bull.) Wettst. – Jelly Ear Fungus.

 Mainly seen in winter and spring. It grows on dead elder trees and on fallen branches, but occasionally you may also find it growing on other kinds of hardwood. Jelly Ear is sometimes used in cookery, where it provides an interesting texture but is nothing special in terms of flavour. Young fresh fruitbodies (above) are generally considered the best. We have not tried it although we hear it’s good in soups and adds nutrients.

We’re excited to report we’ve almost finished insulating the shed. We cut down a few more black knot infected black cherry trees and some other standing dead trees. We have so much work to do in the forest. The ground was wet and squishy in areas especially down at the bottom of the slope and around the waterway. We found a few more downy rattlesnake orchids. The leaves on the beech trees are showing buds. We went across to look at the waterfalls in the wet weather.

We pulled out vines, found mosses, worts and lichen in abundance. Even in the wintry weather, we found the jelly wood ear and crowded parchment fruiting bodies.

February 21, 2024 Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm

Waterway at bottom of slope where we saw tiny minnows swimming today.

Eyelash lichen with hairs growing from it down by the waterway.

Oyster mushrooms sporing on a tulip poplar stump.

Running cedar in the paw paw grove.

Another downy rattlesnake orchid spotted right off of the main clearing up top.

We went over today and we are almost finished insulating the shed. We also chopped up several trees we had felled a few weeks ago and brought them home to burn. One was a black cherry with black knot fungus and the other was a standing dead tree. We walked down North Trail and around the bottom. We crossed over the waterway to explore some in the paw paw grove and up the Ridge Trail. It was a gorgeous day. We were very pleased to find the tiny minnows in the waterway.

February 11, 2024 Insulating the Shed and a Look Around

Stereum ostrea, false turkey tail, at the top of North Trail.

It was drizzling rain and the high temperature was in the 50s. We saw many plants on the forest floor greening up. As we walked through the woods, we pulled out vines or cut them to kill them and stop them from strangling the trees. We took down some standing dead trees as well. We walked down from the top by the driveway and wound around the southern wet weather gully to the waterway at the bottom of the slope. We followed the waterway around to the wet weather gullies on the north central slope. It was lovely out. We also found a cluster of oyster mushrooms.

Pleurotus ostreatus, oyster mushrooms growing from a buried stump.

We were able to get most of the insulation in the shed completed.

February 3, 2024 A Visit to the Farm

A fern moss

Deer lichen in the sunshine and New York scalewort on the log in the shadow.

A small fern found along the north side of Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm. They were abundant throughout the forest and along the wet weather gullies.

We took a quick trip over and found more mosses, lichen and worts. No mushrooms today. It’s just too cold. We trailbrazed some through the dense trees. We cut back vines. We repositioned the trail cam to catch images of the red fox family. We also dreamed about building log cabins, more trails and meditation spots in the forest. We stayed in the north central area and passed by the culvert with the shoe lasts.

We strengthened the internal structure of the shed some more by adding hurricane clips and other strong ties. Next time, we will insulate and put up interior walls.

The tiny black cup fungi, Urnula craterium, hiding among the pine needles and lichen caught our eye when we looked twice!

February 1, 2024 A Winter Walk around the Southern side and by the waterway at SAFF

Cup lichen

Greater whipwort, Bazzania trilobata

Cladonia peziziformis, turban cup lichen

Snakewort, Conocephalum salebrosum

Brachythecium rivulare or Waterside feather moss

Dicranum scoparium, Broom forkmoss

Leucobryum glaucum, pincushion moss

We were delighted to find all of these mosses, lichens and liverworts. They are so alive and colorful in the forest while everything else has gone drab for winter. We are going to walk around the north side of the farm and look for more types as soon as we get back out there.

We moved our big table and two benches as well as firebox grate to the farm and will be happy for this if we ever sit down to relax. lol.

When we camp, we can use this for fire until we dig our fire pit.

January 30, 2024 Shed work & A look about SAFF

We thought we’d found a new type of moss but it is also a Haircap moss.

Lichen and moss are the stars of the show in the forest right now.

These turban cup lichen are so fun. How have we never noticed them before?

Ok, last one for today.

Top of the cap of Laccaria.

Beautiful reddish brown and emerging in a warm snap during a particularly cold winter near pines and poplars.

A spring that is active after rains. We noticed a bit of a larger hole inside of this.

Water pooling just above the wet weather spring with the small hole.

The larger spring that has trickled throughout the driest weather conditions.

The inside of the shed. Finally ready for insulating.

So far we have seen a large deer missing half his antlers walking by the waterway at night and a black dog with a white face strolling through at night as well since we moved the trail cam to the waterway. We saw the black dog and hoped we caught a glimpse of the bear. Not yet! We moved the trail cam to try to catch some images of the red fox family.

We continue to cut down and clear out black cherry trees and tulip poplars that are diseased and dying. Since it’s been cold this winter, we are burning them in our fireplace. It’s been nice.

Later this week, we plan to take a table and a couple of benches out to the farm to have a place to sit other than the truck. 😀

We are also looking to begin to put together a fire pit in the middle of our main clearing. A big tree stump sits there and we will dig in and put rocks inside. It will be nice to stay warm when we camp.