the wild thing sleeps

...everyone should have a Nantucket

We just returned from a long weekend visit to one of our favorite places. Nantucket is so many things....full of history, unique architecture, beautiful landscapes, and it just plan has character. One of the highlights of the weekend was attending the Annual Cranberry Festival.















A little cranberry lesson
Cranberries have been grown on Nantucket since 1857 and were an important part of the Island's economy until just prior to World War II. Before 1959, all 234 acres of bog were under cultivation on the Milestone Road, download this bog the largest contiguous natural cranberry bog in the world. Since that time, intensive efforts to conserve water resources have resulted in the construction of a complex network of ditches and dikes that subdivide the bog into smaller and more water-efficient units. Unfortunately, these measures led to the Milestone Road bog losing its status as the world's largest bog.
The cranberry, named such because its pink blossoms resemble the head of a crane, was first cultivated in the United States in 1816 on Cape Cod. Henry Hall of Dennis found that cranberries flourished when cultivated under growing conditions similar to those found in the wild. These include: an acid, peat soil; a surface layer of sand that is frequently replenished (sand stimulates the growth of new roots, adds nutrients, helps control certain insect populations, and diminishes the toxic effect of decaying plant material); and an ample supply of fresh water.

Cranberry vines are planted by gently pushing vine trimmings into a prepared bog that has been leveled and covered with a layer of sand. New plantings must grow for about three years before they will bear harvestable fruit. If properly cared for, the 6-8 inch tall plant will produce berries indefinitely. Modern management practices include weeding in the spring, fertilizing in the summer, pruning in the fall to keep the vines at their optimum length, and periodic re-sanding in the winter. A complex water distribution system must irrigate the bogs in dry weather. This same system is also used to protect flower buds and the ripe berries from spring and fall frosts. Also, flooding is required during the fall harvest and throughout the winter months to minimize the effects of cold and wind damage.

On Nantucket, the Early Black variety of cranberries (small and black-red when ripe) are harvested during late September; the Howes variety (larger, oblong and medium-red when ripe) is picked from early October into November. Cranberries were individually hand picked until the early 1900’s, when the wooden cranberry scoop was developed. The cranberry scoop method of harvesting was faster, but it left a great number of berries on the vine and was very labor intensive. Since World War II, growers have used an assortment of mechanical pickers, including the Western picker and the Darlington picker. Tines (metal fingers) on these machines scoop underneath the berries and hold them, while the forward motion of the picker plucks them from the vine. The machines damage the vines less than the use of the scoop, but as much as twenty percent of the fruit can be bruised using this method.

Today, more efficient and less damaging mechanical techniques are used. During wet harvesting, a section of bog is flooded with a foot or so of water. A machine called a water reel beats the submerged vines with a series of horizontal paddles. This causes the naturally-buoyant cranberries to detach from the vines and float to the surface of the water. They are then corralled and pulled to the edge of the bog with floating wooden booms. The fruit is loaded into large dump trucks by a conveyor. Following washing and screening, the berries are shipped by tractor trailer to the mainland to be processed by fruit handlers.

Nantucket's cranberries are processed in three steps. First, they are washed and blasted with a strong current of air to eliminate leaves, twigs, and other debris. Second, they are sorted using a Bailey Separator, where the berries drop vertically through a series of seven compartments. At each level they may either bounce over a four-inch high board into the "good berry" side of the machine or drop down to the next lower level. Firm (good) berries bounce; soft berries are overripe and will not. Those berries that are overripe will continue to drop until they reach the bottom of the sorter and are eventually discarded. The good berries are bagged and sent to freezer storage for future processing into juices, sauces, or relish.

Because wet harvesting causes the fruit's protective wax coating to break down, only dry-picked cranberries are sold as fresh fruit. After they have gone through the same sorting routine as outlined for wet-harvested berries, dry-harvested berries are visually inspected for color and appearance and polished by soft brushes. They are then bagged and immediately sent to market.
Content copyright ©1999-2006 Nantucket Conservation Foundation


Our last three visits to the island, we have stayed in the village of Siasconset. It is my favorite place on the island....we enjoyed some of the last hydrangea blooms of the year and spent a great deal of time at Great Point fishing. Each day on the way to the beach, we passed the fabulous Wauwinet where I snapped a couple of images of the munchkin among the fall landscape.

wouldn't it be cool to know....

...what he was thinking at the moment I snapped this image? My oldest nephew is definitely a thinker and I caught him in deep thought on our recent trip to the panhandle of Florida.

fresh

We have been really enjoying our fresh eggs since our hens have begun to be consistent. It is such a cool thing to be able to go out in the morning for eggs. The "guessing game" we play is so much fun...."how many eggs today...which hen do you think laid this egg?" We are blessed.

Enjoy something fresh today.

sweetness

It was my pleasure recently to photograph one of my favorite clients and the newest addition to her family. Here's a little sweetness......enjoy.

some things never change

This year has certainly been full of milestones for my little one. Some things never change, though. I can still see that precious little baby born five years ago each time I look into those eyes.

reminded of what I wrote a year ago...

This morning, as a reminder, I read the following post I made a year ago....I can't find any better words today.





"I have been brought to tears so many times today....remembering where I was 7 years ago ....I have cried today because of the memories; the atrocities of that day and the many days after. I cried because of the memories I have of my visit to the site in January 2002...the smell, the pictures/memorials, the rescue workers as they came up from the pit after hours of work. There really are no words... but I have cried more today because of what I see as an increasingly apathetic society. Apathy is dangerous, quite frankly.

We weren't Republicans or Democrats on that day seven years ago...strangely, that catastrophe brought such a refreshing sense of nationalism...American flags were everywhere...we were so quick to recognize our service men and women, firefighters and rescue workers with a wave and a smile. I wish for those days again and I am hopeful.


I am optimistic.... in the end, I hope we all are reminded we are on the same team. "


"Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike." Teddy Roosevelt

"Beauty of style & harmony & grace....depend on Simplicity."-- Plato

william's creek

While visiting my parents for a couple of days in my sweet home of Alabama, I made a bittersweet trip to a very special place....William's Creek. I spent many summer days there with my cousin, exploring the surrounding woods and playing in what was and is affectionately referred to as "the creek". Generations from Hamilton and the surrounding area came to swim in the creek and swimming hole adjacent to my great-grandmother's home. We were the last.

The years have changed the creek. The creek and swimming hole seem much smaller. The big sand bar we we played on as if it were a beach, doesn't exist. It even seems the millions of flat rocks at the bottom of the shallow creek edges are gone. As a child, it seemed that those "skippers" multiplied right before my eyes.

Some things haven't changed. The trees still hang over the creek as they did one hundred years before. The cave under the bluff is just as we left it the last time we played "Indians". The water is still clear enough to see a cottonmouth swim up stream and to easily examine thousands of tadpoles in the spring.

It will come as no surprise to those who know me that heritage and family history is a very large part of who I am. I am so glad I was able to take my little boy down to the water where so many memories were created for, not only me and my cousin, Jamie, but for my mother, her sister, Jackie, countless cousins, and at least two generations of my family prior to my grandmother. Perhaps, Sawyer will have a few memories from our visit with the help of some images I captured.

My soul will always be inspired by that cool water, the billowy trees, the slimy rocks and the beautiful shadows of William's Creek.

peace....love....joy

As we get ready to return to New York, I am determined to try to figure out how to bottle up all the beautiful sunshine and memories we have experienced with family on the Gulf of Mexico.