Columns
Like the mimosa tree I wrote about a few weeks ago, pawpaws seem like they belong in the tropics rather than in the temperate-zoned Midwest. While the tree itself is not particularly remarkable, the fruits are something like banana-mango-vanilla-custard. Truly unique, and the largest native fruit...
I'm writing this column after one of the most vicious and unfounded attacks I've heard by a Missouri governor against a major Missouri news organization.
It involves the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story published Thursday, Oct. 14, about how a state Education Department website allowed access...
Black walnut is one of the most treasured flavors of my Missouri childhood, right up there with other regional favorites like poke, persimmons, and morels. The flavor is associated with my grandma’s cakes and cookies, homemade ice cream, and my grandpa’s “date candy.” Have you ever had a root...
I know what you’re thinking, “Get that flower away from me before I sneeze!” Guilty by association, goldenrod blooms at the same time as one of its cousins in the daisy family, ragweed, known to torment many a seasonal allergy sufferer. But unlike ragweed’s airborne pollen, goldenrod pollen is...
And here we clearly see agrimony, growing
in orderly rows, clothing the fields in profusion,
found growing as well in the shadowy forest
where nothing else survives. It has numerous
virtues, and if it is crushed and then drunk,
it will eliminate bad stomach pains.
If an enemy’s steel...
At the August School Board meeting in Willow Springs, one member, Matt Hobson, argued valiantly against mandatory masking on school buses based on principle, from ideas about personal freedoms. He was ultimately voted down because the practicality of requiring masks was deemed to be a small...
Not to disappoint anyone, but this article isn’t about the brunch drink made from orange juice and champagne. Nor is it about the tree from the Indian subcontinent which has hallucinogenic properties. Nevertheless, our own Missouri mimosa tree holds its own with its exotic pink plumes and lacey...
I gathered quite a few things this week: heal-all, mullein, mimosa, shiso, princess tree, and bergamot. I finally decided on bergamot for this week’s column because it is prolific right now. You can’t drive anywhere outside the edge of town and not see a huge patch of bergamot. Also known as Bee...
Pokeweed is a native American, and what a lusty, royal plant it is! It never invades cultivated fields, but hovers about the borders and looks over the fences like a painted Indian sachem. Thoreau coveted its strong purple stalk for a cane, and the robins eat its dark crimson-juiced berries. ~...
This month has been the most plentiful for mushrooms that I’ve ever seen. I’ve picked over a dozen varieties, more than I have ever picked in the same year. I’ve seen so many chanterelles, which we talked about last week, and I can’t believe they are still producing! I’ve photographed several...