Salt marshes are amazing places. Some of the toughest environments exist right between the land and the sea. Places where extreme changes in salinity, temperatures, and water level can be a daily event. This marsh is on the eastern edge of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area along the Morse River. Click on the image for a larger view.
Tag Archives: Nature
Blue Wood Lettuce—Edible Weeds
Wild lettuce comes in many varieties and is hard to identify. It is important to refer to guidebooks or local foraging experts to identify plants. Please look at our posts as starting points, not as definitive references on plants.
Blue wood lettuce or tall blue lettuce, Lactuca biennia, is a common species of wild lettuce. The accounts we have read are contradictory: some say it is edible, some not. The leaves can be very bitter. We use very young leaves in smoothies with other greens. We do not eat this very often.
Like the Canada wild lettuce, this can grow to great heights. The flowering head is very different from Canada wild lettuce.
Hakusan Creation cannot take responsibility for any adverse effects from the use of plants. Always seek advice from a professional before using a plant or consuming unknown or wild plants.
Canada Wild Lettuce—Edible Weeds
Like most of our cultivate crops, lettuce came from a more primitive ancestor. Wild lettuce comes in many varieties and is hard to identify. It is important to refer to guidebooks or local foraging experts to identify plants. Please look at our posts as starting points, not as definitive references on plants.
Canada wild lettuce or tall lettuce, Lactuca canadansis, is thought to be native to North America. In its first year, it hugs the ground very much like dandelion. In the second year, this plant can take off—we have plants over eight feet tall, tall lettuce indeed. The thin leaves are best when young or the plant reaches about a foot—mature leaves can be very bitter. We use this in salads, smoothies, or cooked like spinach. Avoid the white sap.
The yellow flowers of Canada wild lettuce are small. Except for its amazing height, this plant is not grown for its beauty.
Hakusan Creation cannot take responsibility for any adverse effects from the use of plants. Always seek advice from a professional before using a plant or consuming unknown or wild plants.
Winter Forest
We had a wet snow last weekend. This is the type of snow that sticks to branches and creates the classic snow scene. Because it is near freezing and heavy, it does not stay on the trees for very long.
January Thaw
While historically January brings the coldest temperatures to Maine, we do sometimes get a warm front. Last week, the thermometer went over freezing and hit 50F/10C. A fog is produced when the warm air passes over snow. Our forest seems smaller and the world further away.
Rock and Tides
The tides flowing into the marsh at Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area coat the bottom of the rocks with ice. Click on the image for a larger view.
Alpine Gardens, Mt. Washington
Just below the summit of Mt. Washington in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire is a place called the Alpine Garden. A trail between the heads of Tuckerman Ravine and Huntington Ravine takes you through this rich alpine meadow. This image is taken from the top of Huntington Ravine looking south into Pinkham Notch. Click on the image for a larger view.
Sky, Sea, and Land, Part 2
Sky, Sea, and Land, Part 1
Naomi and I went out to Pemaquid Point on late on Sunday to watch the storm swells. While the place is always the same—the land sliding into the water which stretches out until it meets the sky at the horizon—it is always hypnotic.
Deep Winter
A snow cover salt marsh in Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area in Phippsburg, Maine. Click on the image for a larger view.
