My Views on Food and Animals

I see so much these days about people boycotting this and that, and people trying to pass laws that adhere to their (sometimes narrow) views about ethical animal treatment. Some of these I agree with, like the brave people who are shown on "Whale Wars". Others I am ambivalent about, like the people who march in front of furrier shops. And still others make me absolutely mad enough to bite nails and spit Rebar, like Vegans and Veggie Nazis telling me how and what I should eat. There are a couple of these who post to a local free newspaper, and their growling, whining and mumbling about forcing our school children to eat a Vegan diet in school finally got to me, and I wrote in. Of course, I got flamed, and one person held these idiots up as saints, for all the stuff they had done to promote Vegetarianism in our area, and the "sacrifices" they had made in this cause. Never mind that I have been promoting the love of Nature for years. Never mind that I have spent a majority of my life teaching Environmental Education, and teaching people of all ages to love Nature, and protect Her in any way possible.
Many of the people the New Age people claim to love are the so called "Native Americans", who actually, if you don't know their Tribal or National affiliation, prefer to be called Indians. Many of these groups produced men and women of great Spiritual acuity, and they ate many kinds of animals, including Bison and deer. All these wannabe veggies and vegans go nuts over "Native Americans", but sort of slide right over the facts that they ate (and still for the most part eat) many species of wild game that these people hold in absolute reverence. If pressed, they will say "well, that is their tradition". Bull feathers. It is my tradition too. My grandfather fed his family during the Great Depression with a shotgun, and I was taught to hunt by my mother's brother. These people will say "we are more conscious than that". Than what? Is the Cougar any less conscious than we when she drops out of the tree and breaks the deer's neck with one great paw? Do we have the hubris to say we are more conscious than she? Do we need to divorce ourselves from Natur Herself in order to be "conscious"? I think not.


You may have gathered that I am what Veggie Nazis call a "meat eater". Oh, I eat all kinds of things, potatoes, squash, beans, corn, other vegetables, but they focus on the meat, and say it is WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

I have a few questions. If a wolf goes out and pulls down an elk or deer, what do you say? Some of these people will cheer the wolf on. What? What's that you say? "It is the wolf's nature!" Really? And it isn't mine? How dare you tell me what is my nature! Wanna turn the wolf vegetarian? You might be able to manage it, but not with Cougar. Cougar requires meat, and the fresher the better. Once again, do NOT tell me that my nature is different from theirs. That is a type of hubris that has separated humans from their nature for thousands of years, the idea that we are somehow outside the natural process. It has also been instrumental in destruction of Nature, the thinking that we are outside Her laws.

A human eating meat is no different from a bear or raccoon eating meat. We are all omnivores, made to eat almost anything, from vegetable matter to raw meat. Not me. I think that fire was probably an adaptation to eating a variety of stuff and not have it kill us. Fire can purify a lot of things

Golden days

The days of late summer are golden, with maybe just a tinge of brass. The sun is following a southward path every day toward the Equinox, and the days turn from a sultry heat to a pleasant mildness. A flush of flowering has begun, following the doldrums of summer, that time when the Mountains are just an unrelieved green with but few spots of color. Late summer is a golden time here with all the yellow composites abloom. Of course, those are not all that is blooming, not by a long shot, but in many places, they are in the majority, and Goldenrod can cover whole fields.

Late summer and early Fall flowers!!!

I am struck by the flowers this year. For once we have had something approaching normal rainfall here in the Southern Appalachians around Asheville, Land of the Weird. Normal rainfall here is something approaching 50 plus inches a year, making some scientists call our forests a "temperate rain forest, but not for the last few years. For the last several grueling years, we have been afflicted with an unrelieved drought. Flowers that normally burgeoned with color were scraggly, or did not bloom at all. Whole sections of forest, rooted on thin soil over rock simply dried up and died.

This year, every field, hedgerow, roadside and wet pasture is lush with growth that just a few weeks ago was a deep hunter green, but now has burst into a myriad of colors, many of them some shade of yellow, but of course, not all. Goldenrod covers many a field and roadside, turning them into burnished gold.

 Bill Hilton at Hilton Pond http://hiltonpond.org has written several articles about Goldenrod, and if you go to his site, you can enter "goldenrod" (without the quotes) into the search box, and get lots more info. Bill is a top notch Naturalist, and writes great articles. (He writes in the third person with the "editorial we" which I find mildly annoying, but everything he writes is solid.)

I have heard so many people say "oh, I'm allergic to Goldenrod". My first response is to say "no you're not". Of course, I often get the "are you callin' me a liar?!" of ignorant folk. My usual reply is "no, I am saying you are an ignorant so and so". I hate it when people do that, just so you know.

No, the real culprit is Ragweed, a rather camouflaged and cryptic member of the same family that is wind pollinated. Notice the wasp on the Goldenrod in the last picture. It is transferring pollen. The pollen of Goldenrod is heavy, and must be transported by insect. On the other hand, pollen of Ragweed is light, and is carried by wind, often miles from the parent plant.

This one blended in so well with its background, I put it on the hood of the car to photograph it. Notice the green flowers all along the top.

Another that was made famous by a book and a movie is a purple flowered plant made famous by a book and movie of the same name, namely Ironweed.

Ironweed is found in low pastures near a stream where it usually stays rather damp. This one was found on a stream bank.

Speaking of stream banks. The Swannanoa River near Asheville, particularly the Azalea area is hopping with flowers this year. Goldenrod is everywhere, painting whole areas of the riverbank gold, and in other places the Joe Pye Weed is king.

Remembering

Check the political and social blog of Blue Ridge Discovery at http://alexnetherton.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/.

Revisited

Mid Summer and Morning Glories

I was driving somewhere the other day, and a puff of warm air blew into the car carrying the scent of clover blossoms and other fragrances, and it took me back to the days of my youth in western Buncombe County where my grandmother lived. The sense of smell, they tell me, is one sense most closely tied to memory. I just sat and remembered.

One of the things I remember most about those days, and one of my favorite flowers, is Morning Glory. Though most of our Morning Glories are introduced, and can become rather weedy, I still think they are an icon of summer, and will always be part of the summers of my youth.

Purple form

I remember the corn growing high at this time in my grandmother's garden, the bean vines growing up around the corn, the old time bean called by Mountain people "Cornfield Beans", a bean probably gotten from the Cherokee, and in a riotous confusion of vines and purple and pink blossoms, the Morning Glory vines. We would pick beans, break corn from the stalks, and I would admire the Morning Glory as we got our food for supper. I remember the sights, sounds and smells of the corn fields, and the way the Morning Glory would close up before noon. I remember that my favorite color of Morning Glory was (and still is) the pink.

Pink Form

The cornfield was not the only place for Morning Glory though, and it could be seen in almost any disturbed ground, lawn edges, fallow fields, and flower gardens meant for other flowers. As I said, it can get a bit weedy. At first frost though, it was all gone, to fold up for another year.

Also along the roadsides, in the awfulest clay soil of the road cut was another member of the Morning Glory clan, the Wild Sweet Potato or Man Root. It has a white flower, and is actually native to our area, while the Common Morning Glory is thought to have originated in Mexico.

Wild Sweet Potato or Man Root near my home

The root is said to be medicinal (thought to regulate hormones, having a chemical related to Estrogen and Testosterone), and is huge - I tried to dig one once to move it into my yard at home. It was already partially exposed from the activities of a road gang, but it was as big around as my arm, and easily six feet long, and that was when I gave up digging. I just admire them on the roadside now.

Wild Sweet Potato at Cradle of Forestry

There are others found in other parts of the country, and there are beach Morning Glories, one of them called Railroad Vine because it sprawls out along the beach and makes lines in the sand like railroad lines, very straight. Another I found year before last on a trip to the beach (and brought home seeds) is the Ivy Leafed Morning Glory, with sky blue flowers.

Ivy Leaf Morning Glory

Though native to Puerto Rico, it is introduced to our area, and is generally found in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. I found the parent to this plant in a rest area in South Carolina and managed to find some seed pods. A couple of the seeds came up, and the plant climbed up a 6 foot bamboo pole and onto the house. The plants this year have done the same. Though not as prolific a bloomer as the Common, nor are the flowers as big, it is still lovely, and worth having.

The old home place is gone now, and most of the area around my grandmother's house has transmogrified into a sort of country suburb with cracker box houses and tract developments. In my mind it will always be country, with fields and pastures. I still yearn to live in a place like that.

Trout, oh yeah

As a Western North Carolina Native, I have always had a weakness for trout fishing in all its forms. I have done fly fishing, but most of my fishing is done on what we call "Hatchery Supported" streams. Let me explain.

Many streams in Western NC cannot support a naturally reproducing population of trout for a variety of reasons. The water might get too warm in summer for most species of trout, there may not be enough prey species in the stream, the bottom might be too silty to allow nesting, or it just might get too much fishing pressure to allow trout to effectively reproduce. However, trout can live in the streams just fine, so the state takes a hand. Our state has three trout hatcheries that produce a half a million fish a year, and I for one think we need more, as the fisherman population has grown, and the hatcheries have not grown to keep up. These hatcheries stock the Hatchery Supported waters of the state with catchable sized trout all summer, giving fishermen (and women) the chance to catch pan sized trout all summer. Unfortunately, there are people I call "game hogs" who follow hatchery trucks and fish every fish out as soon as they are placed. I have heard these people bragging of catching 40, 50, up to 100 fish as soon as the truck has moved. I only wish there were a Game Warden nearby. The limit on Hatchery Supported water is 7 per day.

There are other types of water, particularly the "Wild Trout" water, that has naturally reproducing trout, and generally has a smaller limit. There is also what is called "Catch and Release" water, where no trout can be kept. But enough of regulations. They can be found at the Nc Wildlife Fishing Page, which will tell you all aboout the hatcheries, seasons, regulations and all that. I want to talk about the trout!

We have three species of trout here in Western NC, only one of which is a true Trout, and only one of which is a native of this area. The true trout is the Brown Trout, Salmo trutta, and is from Europe. It is, as are all trout, a member of the Salmon family (Salmonidae), and in the right waters can grow quite large. It breeds quite well here in our waters, and can take over a stream, pushing the native Brook Trout out and up into the headwaters. They are also tolerant to higher water temperatures than are the Brook Trout and Rainbow Trout, and can exist in streams where these others would be stressed.

A small Brown Trout, Swannanoa River, probably "native"

Browns are very wary, even the newly stocked ones, and can be spooked very easily. On a stream containing stream raised (called "native", simply meaning hatched in the stream) Browns, any motion of the fisherman will cause the fish to go into hiding. I worked a whole summer to catch one on a small stream near Boone NC one year. This caused them to be called "more sporting" than the native Brook, thus causing anglers to import them.

Another small Brown from the Swannanoa. Pretty. Also likely a "Native"

Browns eat a variety of food in the streams, insects being one of the most common foods. This allows them to be caught by fly fishermen using a variety of dry and wet flies. They also are known to eat small fish such as dace, sculpins and darters, and crayfish, making them susceptible to streamer flies. Of course they will eat earthworms, making them prey for the "country boy" fisherman using live or natural bait. They are also known to take bits of bread balled up on a hook, small balls of cheese, and even whole kernel yellow corn, a very popular bait on Hatchery Supported streams.

Browns breed in fall and early winter, laying eggs in scooped out areas called "redds" in gravel pools. They, as do all trout, require gravel runs and pools to breed, so in many of our streams they have limited areas for breeding due to farm runoff and construction.

Browns are a close relative of the Atlantic Salmon, sharing many characteristics with them, and Brown Trout in coastal areas can be anadromous, spawning in the fresh water and living in the sea as adults, just like Salmon.


Another famous trout that seems to get a lot of attention in local restaurants is the Rainbow (Onchorynchus mykiss), where you will see advertised on the menus "Mountain Rainbow Trout". Interesting, in that they are not native to this area, being from west of the Rockies, and are not really a trout at all, but a Pacific Salmon. Also a member of the Salmonidae, they are common in our streams, being in the middle of the tolerance range as far as water temperature goes, being less tolerant than the Brown, but more so than the Brook.

A young Rainbow from the Swannanoa. Note the "parr marks"

Rainbows are a colorful introduction from California, and are sought after by many anglers due to their tendency to jump when hooked - Browns head for the bottom and Brooks head downstream - so were also considered more "sporting" than the native Brooks, and were in demand by anglers. Rainbows eat much the same foods as Browns, though may not eat so many fish or crustaceans. They also push out Brook Trout, and can take over streams that historically held native Brook Trout. They can grow rather large, and are generally colorful (see photo), especially when small. Rainbows are also wary, but are not in a league with Browns; moderate skill will get a Rainbow to bite, and a few mistakes can be made without spooking them.


Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) are my favorite. They are considered by many to be the Jewel of the Southern Appalachians. An item of controversy for many, the Southern Appalachian form is called by many Mountaineers "Speckled Trout", and held as a different creature from other trout; many fights have erupted over whether the "Speck" is a separate species. The current wisdom is that it is a separate subspecies of the Brook Trout, though I had a friend growing up that would get angry enough to fight when told this.

Brooks are the only "trout" native to the Southern Appalachians, though they are not a trout at all, but a Char, genus Salvelinus, related to the Arctic Char, the Lake Trout, and the Dolly Varden of the West. They require clear cold streams, and cannot tolerate warm temperatures as well as Browns and rainbows, limiting them to higher elevations and colder water.

A Brook Trout, hatchery origin, probably Miane variety. Swannanoa River

The Southern Appalachian Brook Trout, or "Speck" is designated as the State Freshwater Fish of North Carolina. They are more colorful than their stocked brethren, and are called the "Jewel of the Southern Appalachians" as shown here in the Land o' Sky Trout Unlimited page.

Brooks here in Western NC are of two different origins. The hatchery strains were taken from Maine in the 1800's and transported here, as the Maine strains seemed to do well in hatcheries. The Appalachian strains did not do well at all. Maine Brooks were transplanted into almost all the streams here, and soon became the prevalent type in almost all the local streams. The Appalachian types, the only native trout to this area, were pushed by all these introductions into the tiny headwaters of streams, and almost all of them have some growth stunting because of this. They hang on except where the local authorities take out all the introductions and provide some way to protect the natives from them.

Brooks in general are not as wary as Rainbows or Browns, allowing the fisherman to make some mistakes and still catch them, and do not feed quite so discriminately (eating just one kind of fly at a time) as do Browns and Rainbows, allowing the fisherman to throw in most any kind of fly and catch Brooks. This led the "purists" of the last century and the one before to look down on brooks and want something more "challenging", thus the call for Brown Trout and Rainbows.


Catching trout can be easy as baiting a hook and tossing it in a Hatchery Supported stream the day after the hatching truck has passed, or as difficult as a multi mile hike into a high mountain "Catch and Release" stream and "matching the hatch" in order to catch the wary fish of these remote waters. Of course there are places in between, where you can drive up Davidson River, park, and be on a famous NC catch and Release stream with very wary fish (due to fishing pressure, these guys are smart), or go up a nice small stream and fish in Wild Trout waters with natural bait. Fly fishing is a subject in itself, one which I am not terribly familiar with, but I have done the "country boy" fishing for years. I usually use red worms or night crawlers from the bait store or that I have dug myself, and fished without sinkers, just drifted. I have discovered that hook size can make a difference in whether a fish can swallow the hook or not; smaller hooks lead to gut or gill hooking, and I do not like that, as I like to be able to release the fish if I am not wanting a fish fry. Many trout fishermen recommend a size 8 or 10 hook, but a trout's mouth is bigger than that; I use a 6 or even a 4.

Bait that is often used for trout include:

• Corn, particularly Green Giant "niblets". This is the most popular bait on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
  
• Bread, moistened slightly and rolled up into balls and placed on the hook.
• Cheese. Go figure.
• Berkeley's Powerbait. I do not endorse it, but a lot is sold. Some swear by it, some at it.
• Worms, both "Red Worms" and "Night Crawlers", which are simply types of Earthworm.
• "Stick Bait", the larvae of the Caddis Fly taken out of their shell and placed on the hook. Just remember when collecting them that it is illegal to collect fish bait or bait fish from a designated trout stream.
• Minnows can work, especially on Brown Trout, as can crayfish.
• Though not a bait, many brands and variety of spinner and other artificial lures are used.

So go trout fishing. You are sure to enjoy it!

Mid Summer, Garter Snake, Flowers and stuff.

I went shooting yesterday. Right. I am a Liberal, a Conservationist, and Environmentalist, and I love to shoot. I am not averse to hunting either, legal hunting of a plentiful animal. I am not against gun ownership by honest people who have no trouble with the law. Oh, and are not crazy or have a history of domestic violence. You have a problem with gun ownership? Then don't own one. Simple. Don't believe in gay marriage? Don't marry one. Don't believe in abortion? Don't get one. Just don't try to take my rights away because you believe another way.

Okay. Soapbox out of the way. While digging for brass that other shooters had kindly left in some trash bins, and brass others had left where it fell, I espied a Garter Snake, whom I proceeded to grab. I had steeled myself for a bite, as many Garters will certainly nip when handled, but she didn't, and did what I did not expect (though I should have, really), which is a Garter's main line of defense anyway, and musked me.
Now, think of your garbage can on a hot July day. It hasn't been cleaned in weeks, not since winter, and the smell coming off is almost visible. That is what Garter Snake musk smells like. They will start their tail to whirling like a helicopter, and spray it all over you, then try to rub it in by wiping their tail all over your hand. Then, as she did, they will also poop on you. Smells wonderful... Of course, think of yourself being picked up by a much larger animal like an Elephant - you might poop too. Anyway, I grabbed out my camera and started taking photos. I did not realize until looking at the photos that she had only one eye, but otherwise she looked healthy. I suspect a crow or jay of trying to kill her for this disability. Here are some pictures.
This is after she calmed down, though she still was sort of tied in knots (I couldn't resist). I also got a couple of nice ones of her on a rock, where I managed to get her to calm down enough to be still a few seconds.
When I started home, I felt the need to stop somewhere to wash my hands, as the smell was driving me crazy. The shooting range is near a place called Sunburst, a former sawmill town that once cut spruce for US warplanes in WW I. There is now a cozy little campground and a small picnic area there, and it fortunately has a bathroom. After getting the smell off my hands, I noticed that the Rhodendron, called Mountain Laurel by the locals, was blooming, and I got a couple of shots. They are just about gone at this elevation (around 2700 feet), though may be in full bloom at higher elevations.

The photo is a bit blurry, as I could not get the camera to focus on the flowers. Oh to have an SLR!

While going to a drug store to get some alcohol to make a tincture (external, so it can be Isopropyl) of Yarrow for a friend's Poison Oak, I saw a Sourwood blooming where I could get to it, and got a couple of shots of it too.



Thankfully, these are not too blurry, and you can see the tiny flowers that make some nurseries try to sell this as "Lily of the Valley Tree", though it is not related to any Lilies at all, but to Blueberries, Rhododendrons and others (Heath Family). More on Sourwood in a later blog.

Next I saw a Sumac, probably a Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra L.) growing nearby, a pretty plant that also has an edible component, the "berries", which can be steeped in water to make a "pink lemonade". My aunt, my mom's sister, was told by a doctor back in the 1930's to eat these for a kidney infection; antibiotics were unheard of in that day. She lived well into her 80's.

Well, enough for that. Just wanted to share some photos. I will probably do a blog on each of the pictures, but enough for now.