Trees

Apple

Apples natives of Asia and Europe were not brought to Massachusetts until some nine years after the arrival of the Pilgrims but they soon escaped into the wilderness. Nearly 200 years ago the pioneer preacher named John Chapman better known as John Apple seed, traveled some 100,000 miles between Massachusetts and Missouri planting seeds and seedlings. Apples and crab apples now grow wild in every state of the Union.

Recipes

Applesauce-cut up the apples, removing the cores. Barely cover with water, bring to a simmer and cook with only an occasional bubble ascending to the top until the fruit is soft. Transfer at once to the blender, whirling it in this until nothing remains of the peel but the savor and color. Then add sugar to taste preferably stopping short of obliterating all the tartness. You may also like what a little cinnamon and lemon juice will do for applesauce. A bit of salt will help bring out the deliciousness.

Apple slump- geared to 6 cups of wild apples pared cored and thinly sliced. Start with 1 cup of sugar also adding a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a simmer in a large sauce pan with a tightly fitting cover. Now correct the sweetening. Sift 2 cups of sifted all purpose flour 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives cut in 1/3 cup of shortening until the texture of the mixture is similar to that of coarse corn meal. Using a fork stir in enough milk bit by bit to make a soft dough. Drop this from a tablespoon atop the hot apples cover tightly and simmer over low heat without lifting the cover for a half hour. You may occasionally like to vary this recipe by cutting one half cup grated sharp American cheese into the flour mixture along with the shortening.

Apple Snow. Peel core and slice your apples. Simmer them in just enough water to cover until they are soft enough to press through a sieve. Sweeten to taste with a minimum of white sugar and allow to cool. For each cup of apple fold in stiffly whipped egg white. Serve either with cream or whole milk.

Animals

Deer, bears raccoons and foxes - apples ruffed grouse - apple buds Pheasant, quail, and prairie chicken - fruit seeds and buds

POPLAR

Sweetish starchy sap layer is edible both raw and cooked. This lies between the crook of trunks branches and twigs and the outside bark the latter being in itself bitter with salicin.

Info

One of the most common trees on the continent the life giving poplar grows about as far north as any other on the great barren of Canada. Cottonwoods as well as aspens are poplars. On the other hand the so called yellow poplars of the south east are not a poplar at all. In numerous northern areas poplars quickly spring up in burns and clearings. The poplars members of the great willow family which has saved more than one man from starving, have alternate leaves with toothed and sometimes lobed edges. The stems are long and slender occasionally being definitely flattened. The branches are characteristically brittle and breaking easily from trunks and big limbs make excellent firewood for campfires burning with a clean medicinal odor. Pollen fill the wind when the flower growing in drooping spikelike clusters appear in the first warm weather of spring before the light green leaves blaze forth like pale green fire crowning the forest. The cottony aspect of the later splitting capsules of seeds each with its long fibrous hairs has brought the name cottonwood to some species. The soft formative tissue between wood and bark can be scraped off and eaten on the spot. One of the modern ways of obtaining such nourishment is in tea. it can also be cut into strips or chunks and cooked like noodles in soups and teas. Dried and powdered it is a flour additive and substitute. No matter how it is eaten, however it can by itself keep you going for weeks.

Animals

salicin, poplar bark, - moose, beaver, and rabbit twigs, foliage- deer, elk, mountain sheep buds catkins, seeds- quail grouse, prairie chicken