Au Natural: Ruminations on Nature

By Lucille Bertuccio

Au Natural is a collection of essays by Lucille Bertuccio, long-time president and co-founder of The Center for Sustainable Living based in Bloomington Indiana. These essays focus not only on the beauty and diversity of the Earth as expressed locally by its myriad flora and fauna but also on living sustainably to protect this planet and its creatures. While reflecting on the lives of insects, birds, and bats these stories also play the role of cautionary tales calling on us to change our behavior. Included are paeans to earth, air, water, and fire, the elements necessary to life on Earth, which modern humans have (for the most part) ignored, damaged, and devastated. Beyond this idealistic view of the potential of living in harmony with the Earth, Ms. Bertuccio's essays invite us to open ourselves to the potentialities within ourselves by seeing the broad range and scope of life on this planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481768252

Lucille Bertuccio

Lucille Bertuccio was born in Brooklyn New York on January 31, 1936. Most of her life was spent in the Northeast, living in Brooklyn until the age of 21. Her haunts as a child were Prospect Park the Museum of Natural History and trips into the "wilds" of New Jersey and New York Palisades and Bear Mountain with her sisters Ann, Paula and Gloria and brother Jim. She has lived as long in both Hopewell New Jersey and Bloomington Indiana, two towns with rich culture and with a wonderful natural heritage. These articles were written for The Ryder: Artsm Entertainment, and Popular Culture Magazine, in Bloomington Indiana during the years 1994 and 2006. They still portray some truths that are relevant to our present. I hope you find them interesting and enjoyable.

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AU NATURAL

Ruminations on Nature

Lucille J. Bertuccio

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AuthorHouse™ LLC

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2013 by Lucille J. Bertuccio. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/20/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6737-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6825-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013911256

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Words Of Thanks

Foraging On The Wild Side

Bird Brain? It’s Time To Take Another Look At A Common Holiday Centerpiece

Nine Blessings For 1994

If Winter Comes: Sunlight Works Its Magic On All Living Things

Water Magic

Insex: The Romantic Lives Of Grasshoppers, Fireflies, Sand Wasps And Praying Mantis

Habitat For Herons

Snakebite! A Duet

Greenscape

The Ten Commandments For Living Sustainably In 1996

Natural Born Recycler

Spring Ephemerals: Fleeting Flowers Of Lingering Beauty

A River Of Birds

Sex, Lies, And Nature’s Fakes

The Freedom Lawn: Just Say No To Lawn Drugs

Going Batty

Reflections For 1997: The Biological Principles Of Sustainability

Karstory: Life Into Stone

Dirt

Long Live The Weeds

Who Shall Be The Sun?

No More Sophisticated Than Trees

Reindeer Wishes

Walking

Words

Why Wetlands?

Earthspirit Rising

Samhain: Summer’s End

Sacred Circle

A Precautionary Approach

Walking The Sassafras Trail

American Beauty: Lake Griffy

A Love Tale For The Worms

Blue Moon

Wild City Initiative: Community Wildlife Habitats

Cicadas: Reflection On Enoughability

Fabulous Fungi: Mushroom Confidential

From My Library

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my daughters, Mari and Elizabeth. Strong and beautiful women they are fighting the good fight in all of the ways they can. Both are artists expressing their love and, yes, sorrow at what is happening to our beleaguered planet. Mari’s art explores the damage done to women and to the earth, womanist projects all. Elizabeth celebrates the beauty of nature with her extraordinary bead jewelry.

The picture on the bottom right-hand corner of the back cover of this book is of their work:

Mari in her series of weed boxes—has portrayed those plants whose function is to heal damaged landscapes and provide food for pollinators and humans. The Dandy Lion is one such weed—providing food, beverages and herbal remedies for an ungrateful people.

Elizabeth weaves antique European seed-beads into butterflies, birds, flowers and other natural objects, making the ephemeral into lasting things of beauty. Pictured are Zebra Swallowtail earrings.

Thank you from your mother’s grateful heart.

WORDS OF THANKS

Almost twenty years ago I stepped into the Ryder office and spoke with Justin Foster, asking him if he was interested in a column about nature and the environment for the magazine. He asked me to provide him with some of my writing and I presented him with Foraging on the Wild Side, an article about edible wild plants. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. Justin coined the title, Au Natural, for the articles that started appearing every month or so in the Ryder. I have kept his title for this book.

Justin became my first editor and I remember giving him a hard time about many of his changes. I am softer now and the editors that helped me prepare these articles for publication received only my heartfelt thanks and appreciation. Sorry Justin!

Thanks are also due to Peter Lopilato, the alpha and omega of the Ryder Magazine. He could have nixed the whole idea.

Carol Polsgrove, a retired Journalism professor from Indiana University and wonderful hiking buddy, helped clean my prose and clarify my ideas. She provided encouragement and praise. Our walks in the beautiful areas in and near Bloomington are an inspiration and the impetus for many delightful conversations. Thank you good friend.

Mim Eisenberg, an old comrade from my glory days in Queens and Manhattan 35 years ago, made sure that punctuation, spelling and citations were correct. I remember our trips to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Forest Park with a great deal of nostalgia. What great times and what a great friendship.

Mike Englert, a long-time friend and former colleague, as well as 5-year president of the Center for Sustainable Living in Bloomington, IN, helped edit this book when I could not. Mike is a holistic thinker who loved the same things as I: wilderness, outspokenness, and simple beauty. Thank you Mike.

These wonderful people did what they could to correct my runaway prose; any transgressions in the text are due to my shortcomings, not theirs.

Filiz Cicek, a housemate and friend offered to create the cover and help with the pictures that are included in the book. I have been astounded at the willingness of friends to help me finish this publication. No amount of thanks would be enough to signify what this means to me.

A word of thanks must also be tendered to the Earth, this precious planet that we are bent on destroying. I have loved her since I was a child in Brooklyn, roaming Olmstead’s Prospect Park. She has always provided beauty, solace and sustenance for all, humans and other organisms as well. Our sin is that we do not know how to care for her; we take all she has to offer without reciprocation. My hope is that we will learn this important lesson before it is too late.

Lucille Bertuccio

Spring Equinox, 2013

chapteronforagingonthewildside.jpg

Top left; hickory nuts, Asian chestnuts, gingko nuts,

black walnuts, acorns, hazel nuts

FORAGING ON THE WILD SIDE

Autumn brings cool days and long nights, and in our area, it is usually the most beautiful season. In ancient calendars, fall is the beginning of the New Year, and ancient celebrations of Samhain and harvest alleviate the primeval fears of dark and cold by means of public festivals and bonfires. Harvesting wild edibles can be a part of these joyous celebrations.

Central Indiana is bountiful with the gifts of the earth. The wild plants that adorn our woods in the spring can provide sustenance for the body as well as the soul. However, I don’t harvest our spring wildflowers; their existence is fragile enough between the competition of alien species and the encroachment of human habitations, roads and businesses. Summer and fall, in contrast, can provide a feast for the stomach as well as the eyes for those knowledgeable in plant identification.

Most wild and some domestic fruits were meager this year from a combination of severe cold winter temperatures, a late frost—just when the trees were flowering—and drought conditions when the fruit, such as it was, was setting. Normally the wild fruit season starts in late May, with wild strawberries, and ends in September, with crabapples. This year, although most fruits were scarce, I did manage to prepare and store Juneberries, elderberries, and crabapples. My jams, jellies, and wines have been made; the wines are now aging and will provide a lift to the spirit during the cold, dark months of winter.

Fall is the perfect time of year for foragers to begin exploring the woods and meadows near home, checking out the biennials and perennials. Locating them in the fall can make gleaning easier in the proper season. I have identified stands of pokeweed and milkweed and will garner and prepare the young shoots and leaves in the spring. The flower-buds and young shoots of the milkweed will also be available in the proper season, and after careful preparation will be a delicious addition to summer menus.

The leaves of amaranth, lamb’s quarters, and purslane are still useful now, and can be gathered for salad and potherbs. The seeds of these herbs are edible, but collecting them is tedious due to their tiny size. Once gathered they can be used as cereal or ground into flour. The dandelion, that most maligned yet supremely edible and botanical wild plant, can contribute its roots to provide a mocha-coffee-flavored beverage—a satisfying drink for those who cannot tolerate caffeine.

I myself am not particularly a root person. As a forager rather than a gardener, I am much too lazy to expend so much energy. Nuts are easier to collect, and another matter altogether. This year the beech trees have produced a bumper crop of beech-nuts. The small, prickly pod opens to disclose twin nuts. The shells are easily removed and one can savor the nut meat without preparation. They have a flavor similar to English walnuts. Black Walnuts are also dropping their huge green husks all over town and on the campus. I gather them and spread them across my driveway—cars can remove this husk, revealing the black, hard wrinkled nuts without dying my hands with their deep-brown tannins, in the process. The nut must be husked and aged before it is used. They possess a distinctive flavor and aroma that some people love and others hate. Find out for yourself which person you are.

Shagbark hickories also have a nut covered by a green husk. While the black walnut husk is seamless, the hickory husk is quartered by the seams. The husk is easily removed disclosing the smooth, pale-brown nut. Both hickory and walnuts require a hammer to break open their tough shells. Shagbarks are the best of the hickory nuts—the others are bitter. Hickory nuts are usually small, although now and again, a specific tree will produce nearly English-walnut sized nuts. A former student has one such tree on her family’s farm and has shared them with me on occasion. For her, hickories are a crop, collected and enjoyed every year.

Acorns, once the staple crop of North American Indians, can also be gathered and used. My trees have produced only a few acorns this year, although last year’s crop was wonderful. I still have acorn meal in my freezer. Acorn nuts are full of tannin and must be processed before they are used. Red oak acorns stay on the tree longer and have more tannin to deter squirrels and other nut eaters, while white oak acorns are produced every year and thus contain less tannin. The best crop of acorns I ever collected was from the beautiful burr oak that spreads its branches by the Jordan River in front of the Indiana University Memorial Union. Its two-inch nut was very sweet and did not require nearly as much preparation. Luck prevailed that year and I managed to get them before the squirrels. As you can imagine, those large sweet nuts were prized by all nut-lovers, human or otherwise.

Foraging provides information about our area, what plants are available, and in what season they can be harvested. Foraging encourages attention to the environment, weather patterns, and the identifying characteristics of plants. It connects the forager to the spirit of the place—the Genus Loci—and to the changing moods and provisions of the Earth. It encourages celebrations and sharing. During the Holydays of winter, the golden color of dandelion wine evokes spring; the bitter-sweet flavor of elderberry is the embodiment of lasting friendship.

When you prepare and eat or drink the gifts that the Earth has provided for you, don’t forget to thank her. Good foraging and bon appétit!

(October/November 1994)

BIRD BRAIN? IT’S TIME TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT A COMMON HOLIDAY CENTERPIECE

Pray reader, by what word will you designate the recognition made by my favorite Turkey of a dog which had been long associated with it in the yard and in the grounds? Was it a result of instinct, or of reason, an unconsciously revived impression, or the act of an intelligent mind? (John Audubon)

Audubon had hand-raised a young male turkey, which had eventually reverted to the wild. One day, while out walking with his dog, he saw a fine gobbler and ordered his dog to secure it. The dog ran quickly to the bird and was on the point of seizing it when he stopped and looked back at his master. In that moment, both animals, natural prey and predator, recognized each other and refrained from either attack or flight. Audubon ends his essay on the Wild Turkey with the quote above and expresses the dilemma concerning animal minds—still hotly debated today.

Reason, according to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, is the capacity for rational thought, inference or discrimination. Although Audubon appears to be undecided, it would appear to me that both creatures in this instance, showed discrimination in recognizing their former relationship and ignoring the dictates of what we loosely call instinct.

Donald R. Griffin, the scientist who explained the mysteries of echolocation and migration, has become the thinker at the forefront of this new frontier. He has written several books exploring this fascinating area, the most recent being Animals Minds, published in 1992. Griffin makes tangible what most owners of pets know: those animals understand and weigh possibilities, recognize other animals and people, and are capable of asking for what they want.

Birds are often characterized as having small brains and therefore are not very bright. However, Griffin feels that many activities that are identified as instinctual seem to be adaptive to a particular situation. For example, not all nests of specific bird species are built exactly the same, or in the same sequence. Thus, even instinctual behaviors are modified by the environment and the bird’s individual experience.

Recognition of others is adaptive, among the birds especially, some species of which mate for life. Loren Eiseley, one of our literary scientists-cum-naturalists, tells of a male kestrel that he had captured for a zoo. He had caged the bird in a barn awaiting someone to come and pick it up. All night, the male cried his high, piercing call, and the female, free but reluctant to leave her mate, keened back. All night the exchange between the prisoner and his free partner continued. In the morning Eiseley, unable to stand what he felt was the pain of these two birds any longer, gave the male his freedom. The male flew spiraling upwards to meet his mate, and the birds circled each other high in the air and cried with such exuberance that Eiseley had no trouble indentifying it as joy.

Reason means assessing a new situation, and for this, curiosity is an important trait. A colleague, who shared an office with me in lower Manhattan, once used the outside window ledge as a refrigerator on a cold winter day. He did this once only because as he looked out the window he saw a Herring Gull in the act of opening the paper sack and flying away with his sandwich. Curiosity and experimentation also enabled the Blue Tits of