We spent the mid-August weekend up at Dolly Sods, WV. This designated wilderness offers a taste of the far north, right here in our own backyard (only 3 hrs away). Since my last trips there, I'd spent a few months exploring Russia, and the landscape and plants of the Sods certainly echoed what I'd seen in that land.
We knew it would be a rainy weekend, and came prepared with synthetic clothes, some warm layers and rain gear. We hung a tarp up high, so we had a dryish space for our fire, plus a kitchen and living room, so to speak.
For most of the weekend, seemingly, we were wrapped in clouds. The rain was fairly persistent, but gentle and fine, the air warm (60s).
Blueberries were plentiful, and appeared to be in mid-season (with many unripe berries left on bushes). I was amazed at how many other fruiting shrubs and trees were there too. Hawthorns, crab apples and mountain ash had heavy crops, albeit not ripe yet, and I discovered another edible member of the Rose family: chokeberry (Aronia), not to be confused with its distant cousin chokecherry (Prunus). Aronia has a bland astringent taste, but is apparently widely used in cooking and considered to be very healthy and perhaps even therapeutic.
I was psyched to find red currant growing among the boulders of bear rocks, even if I was several weeks too late. Hopefully I'll be there at the right time next year for those.
Elderberries were still green up there. I didn't make it into the bogs to look at the cranberries, but those ripen later anyway.
We'll be back.
We knew it would be a rainy weekend, and came prepared with synthetic clothes, some warm layers and rain gear. We hung a tarp up high, so we had a dryish space for our fire, plus a kitchen and living room, so to speak.
For most of the weekend, seemingly, we were wrapped in clouds. The rain was fairly persistent, but gentle and fine, the air warm (60s).
Blueberries were plentiful, and appeared to be in mid-season (with many unripe berries left on bushes). I was amazed at how many other fruiting shrubs and trees were there too. Hawthorns, crab apples and mountain ash had heavy crops, albeit not ripe yet, and I discovered another edible member of the Rose family: chokeberry (Aronia), not to be confused with its distant cousin chokecherry (Prunus). Aronia has a bland astringent taste, but is apparently widely used in cooking and considered to be very healthy and perhaps even therapeutic.
I was psyched to find red currant growing among the boulders of bear rocks, even if I was several weeks too late. Hopefully I'll be there at the right time next year for those.
Elderberries were still green up there. I didn't make it into the bogs to look at the cranberries, but those ripen later anyway.
We'll be back.
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