Friday, December 23, 2011

Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

At four o'clock Ingeborg calls up the stairway, "Myrrrrtle?" which is the signal for Myrtle to go down and set her Christmas cookies out for Kaffe Tid. We all troop down to the kitchen. Myrtle is a fantastic cookie maker. Her sandbakkels are incredible—each one a perfect fluted cup of flaky pastry. We can't make sandbakkels at our house because we don't have baking tins. Myrtle passes her cookies around to the grown-ups who are having their coffee around the kitchen table. We take our own cookies back upstairs, because we have got to get back to that Uncle Wiggily game. We are rabid for Uncle Wiggily, and none of us has won yet.


Myrtle's Sandbakkels (Butter Tarts)

Fluted tins (3 inches in diameter at the top and 1 inch high) are necessary to make these beautiful, cup-shaped Christmas cookies, which can be served alone, inverted on a plate, or filled with ice cream, whipped cream, lemon filling, or lingonberry preserves. Do not save this recipe for a rainy day: dry weather makes the dough much easier to work with.

1 cup butter
1 cup margarine (or lard or shortening)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 large beaten egg
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl cream the butter, margarine, and sugar well with the almond extract, add the egg and the flour which has been sifted with the salt, until the flour is just absorbed. The dough will be soft. Flour the hands, divide the dough in half, and form two rolls about 9 x 2 1/2 inches. Wrap well in lightly floured waxed paper and chill at least several hours or overnight.

When dough is firm, slice the rolls in circles to 1/8 inch thick and press into the sandbakkel tins to form shells about 1/16 inch thick, making the bottoms slightly thinner than the sides (the dough will settle in baking). To facilitate forming the shells, if desired, press the dough with another sandbakkel tin the same size which has been dipped in flour.

Arrange the tarts on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart and chill again until firm (15 to 30 minutes) before baking in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and slightly brown around the edges. Remove the tins, inverted, to a cooling rack. Cool until tins can be handled, then twirl in the hands and press in gently with the fingertips until tarts loosen, then invert carefully on the rack. Let the tarts cool completely before storing in airtight tins. Makes about 40 3-inch sandbakkels.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Tree of the Week



White Spruce, Picea glauca (Moench) Voss.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves linear, four-sided, evergreen, 1/3 to 3/4 inch long, green or light blue-green, with woody, peglike bases that remain on the twig when the green portions fall, spirally arranged and extending from the twig in several directions. Twigs gray on new growth. Buds with recurved scales. Cones pendant, 1 to 2 1/2 inches long, their scales dull light brown, rigid, with entire, rounded margins. Bark thin, dark, scaly.

SIMILAR TREES: Norway and blue spruces have larger cones and orangeish twigs. See also firs and Douglas=fir in the discussion of Norway spruce.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Planted throughout the state.


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Winter Story

We had such a nice open winter until after we brought the cattle home. We thought spring was near at hand. They had only a straw stack for food and shelter where they were and we planned on their eating the buffalo grass which was all round our place where it had grown fast after the grasshoppers left. And [there was] a small corn stalk field near to help out. But one night we heard the wind begin to howl in a cold piercing note and J.T. got up to see what was going on. He reported a regular blizzard was starting and we must try to get the cattle in the house or they would drift away and perhaps freeze to death. I hurried to dress and he made me put on his overcoat as he said the wind would blow right through me and I went out into the storm to help him. We opened the south door and drove them to the south side of the house and by considerable running and shouting urging them into the house, all but one stubborn steer. We had him to the door time and again but he always bolted by so as the storm was increasing and we were nearly frozen ourselves we left him go and went back to bed to get warm. I was afraid our carpet partition would not keep them out of our end of the house but J.T. laid on that side of the bed and then they crowded up into the other end of the room and let us go to sleep.

The next day the blizzard was still on and as fuel so scarce J.T. said Willie and I must stay in bed while he rustled a fire and something to eat. So he got a good fire and hot water and coffee. I am quite sure we still had some oatmeal though no milk. Anyway he put a coat around me and I sat up in bed and as the stove was right beside I could reach over and see to things and we had quite a lot of fun out of it. J.T. would dance around to keep warm and sing funny songs and as of course Willie wanted to get up he would take him back to bed. He went out to try to get the wild steer in but it only made him run further from the shelter of the house so he gave it up. There was nothing we could do for the cattle in the house so J.T. soon came back to bed as we could not burn up all the fuel trying to warm the house and we put in the day telling stories and singing songs until it was time for the other meal ("only 2 meals when the man cooks") which was about the same as breakfast and then to bed again and listen to the blizzard.

The next morning it was still cold but the sun shone bright so we turned the cattle [out] as the wind had died out and the snow which had seemed to come for a night and a day so fast and furious had nearly all, as J.T. said, blown into gopher holes or down into Kansas, so the cattle could get their feed all right and even the steer who stayed outdoors, as he had sheltered himself in the lee of the doorway, seemed not the worse for the storm.

A Prairie Populist: The Memoirs of Luna Kellie, edited by Jane Taylor Nelsen

Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

By the time we arrive for Christmas dinner, the table is set for twelve people; it is loaded, and it is beautiful. Ingeborg has lovely Scandinavian china and antique water glasses of red and gold. In addition to lutefisk, lefse, and mashed potatoes, she serves roast pork and rich brown gravy. Lining the table are watermelon pickles, raisin breads, preserves, and jellies. For dessert there is pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Pioneer Pumpkin Pie

My mother and Ingeborg often made pumpkin pie for the winter holidays. This recipe has a mild yet rich taste.

For the 9-inch unbaked pie shell: use recipe for Carrine's Flaky Pie Crust (see page 23)
For the filling:
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon dark molasses
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups light cream
whipping cream (for topping)

After making pie shell, refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place pumpkin, brown sugar, and molasses in a large mixing bowl and combine well. (If using fresh pumpkin, boil well until tender, drain and mash very well—if pumpkin still looks rough, put it in the blender a minute.) In a small bowl combine eggs, melted butter, spices, and salt and beat well with an eggbeater. Pour over pumpkin mixture and add cream and stir until smooth. Pour into refrigerated shell.

Pumpkin pie is best if baked at a long slow heat—pumpkin filling that has been allowed to boil in the oven is not palatable. Start out at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes and then lower heat to 300 degrees and bake for up to another hour or until a knife inserted in the filling comes out clean. Cool pie on rack until warm and serve with a liberal topping of freshly whipped cream sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla. Serves 8.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks

Monday, December 19, 2011

Tree of the Week


Norway Spruce, Picea abies (L.) Karst.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves linear, four-sided, evergreen, 3/8 to 1 inch long, dark green, with woody, peg-like bases tat remain on the twig when the green portions fall, spirally arranged and extending from the twig in several directions. Twigs drooping, orange on new growth. Buds with recurved scales. Cones pendant, 4 to 6 inches long, their scales dull brown, rigid, with finely toothed margins. Bark thin, dark, scaly.

SIMILAR TREES: White and blue spruces have smaller cones, and the twigs are stiffly held, not drooping. Blue spruce has longer, more sharply pointed leaves that are usually (in cultivated trees) noticeably blue-green in color. White spruce has grayish twigs.  Firs and Douglas-fir resemble spruces and are often confused with them but differ in having flattened leaves that lack woody, peg-like bases. Fir cones are held upright on the branches and disintegrate at maturity; cones of Douglas-fir have protruding bracts.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Planted throughout the state; occasionally naturalized on cool, moist slopes in northeastern Iowa.


Friday, December 16, 2011

Winter Story

December 8, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To Mrs. M. M. Corey

Dear Ma,

You folks think you know something about cold weather but you don't. I had got used to having my hair, eyebrows and eyewinkers covered with frost and ice till I looked like Santa Clause when I got to school but Sun. night beat that all hollow. I went to bed with the covers over my head and just a little air hole over my right eye and when I woke up in the night I found when I put up my hand to turn down the covers that my hair and the blanket were covered with hoar frost.

Monday morning it was blazing cold—I put that heavy gray wool skirt on for an under neath skirt—and wrapped as warm as I could. I got to school at five minutes till eight but the stove is in such a bad condition it took me fifteen minutes to clean out the ashes and start the fire. About that time my feet began to feel queer and by the time I was through sweeping I was ready to dance the "Highland Fling." I saw Mr. Stone coming with Myrtle and when he got there I had a note written to Mrs. Stone asking if she had anything in the house of which I could make bloomers as I got so cold about the branches and if she would send to town for some woolen stockings for me first time she got a chance. Plague take Mr. Stone he read the note and it tickled him so he had to tell Speers about it. Mrs. Speer said the wording of the note most killed him off. Mrs. Stone sent me a pair of woolen stockings and Miss Hunts' bloomers that night when Mr. Stone came after Myrtle.




Thursday, December 15, 2011

Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

Now we are gathered around the table, ten strong, the snow still falling behind the windows. My mother and father, Ole and Anna, my brother, my four sisters, and me. The piano bench has been brought in for two of us smaller girls to sit on, because there are not ten chairs in the house. My mother brings the lutefisk glistening with butter on a platter, my older sisters serve the meatballs in gravy, the mashed potatoes, and a casserole of macaroni and tomatoes. The lefse is already on the table, buttered and rolled up in serving portions on a huge platter.

By the time we are ready for dessert, the windows are so dark we can no longer see the falling snow, and the gas lamp above us seems to burn brighter. When my older sisters start to clear the table, my father says, "I suppose you kids did'nt leave any room for ice cream. I guess Ole and I are going to have to eat it all." Ole thinks this is hilarious and starts one of his giddy laughs he can't stop. Anna purses her lips and looks sideways at him. He straightens up.

Norman leaves the table, goes out to the porch, and brings in the ice cream freezer and sets it beside my mother's place. He has scraped the ice off the top and taken the cover off. My sisters bring the saucers, and my mother dishes up the ice cream with a long-handled spoon. It is too delicious for words. We eat silently. The sauces are passed back for seconds. My brother has thirds. After all, he says, he did all the work.

Hand-Cranked Ice Cream

6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 quart milk
1 quart whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla


Place lightly beaten eggs, sugar, and milk in a kettle and let simmer over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula to keep it just below the boiling point. When it has congealed to the consistency of thin custard, remove the mixture from heat and let cool. Add the whipping cream and vanilla and stir well.

Pour into steel can of 4-quart freezer. Surround with mixture of ice and rock salt. Turn crank slowly until it will no longer turn. Remove ice from top of steel can. Life off cover and carefully take out dasher, cleaning it off with a spoon as you lift. Replace cover and plug hole in top with small cloth. Repack ice around can until ready to serve. Set freezer in shallow pan and let water drain. Makes 4 quarts.



Norwegian Meatballs

No Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner would be complete without meatballs served with mashed potatoes and lefse as accompaniments.

1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 tablespoon light cream or half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


For the gravy:
3 tablespoons drippings and/or butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sugar


In a mixing bowl place all the ingredients for meatballs and mix thoroughly together. Flour the hands to keep them from sticking and form tablespoons of the mixture into balls (large walnut sized). Let balls dry on cutting board until all have been made.

Put 1 tablespoon of butter in heavy frying pan, melt to sizzling, and put in meatballs. Cook slowly over moderately low heat, shaking the pan to brown evenly on all sides, until meatballs are cooked through on the inside (20 to 30 minutes). They should be very brown and crusty. Remove meatballs to a warm dish with a slotted spoon.

Pour off drippings from pan, leaving the brown crusty particles. Measure 3 tablespoons drippings, or add enough butter to measure a total of 3 tablespoons of fat, and return to pan. Add the 1/4 cup flour and with a fork brown it in drippings over medium heat, scraping up the brown bits clinging to the sides and bottom of the pan, for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water in a stream and, stirring constantly, bring the sauce to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes until gravy is very smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, pepper to taste, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Add the meatballs and simmer for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until the meatballs are heated through. Transfer meatballs and gravy to a heated tureen and serve, along with a bowl of mashed potatoes topped with melted butter and paprika. Serves 4.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks

Monday, December 12, 2011

Tree of the Week





Mugo Pine, Pinus mugo Turra.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves in fascicles of 2, moderately stout, 1 1/2 to 3 inches long. Cones 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches long, without prickles.

SIMILAR TREES: This shrubby pine is easily distinguished from other species by its small size, multi stemmed habit, and small, roundish cones.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Planted throughout the state.


Friday, December 9, 2011

Winter Story

November 21st

I haven't had to carry water—just melt snow you know—have had my tub full of snow water by the stove all the time and more than once I've gone to bed at nine thirty with a good fire and when I got up at five thirty have had to strike quite hard with my fist to break the ice on the tub while smaller things freeze up solid. My house is one of the warmest and best built houses in the country so you see we are having a spell of weather. I don't mind it like some folks do and every one is good to me—I have lots of invitations to stay over night or over Saturday & Sunday.

I started bread Friday evening. I suppose you wonder how I kept my yeast from freezing. I did like every one else out here—put it in a tight can, wrapped it up good and took it to bed with me and if holding that darned thing all night isn't enough to give any old maid bad dreams I don't know—I don't think I ever had better luck with bread though.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

Lefse


2 1/2 pounds (6 to 8) boiling potatoes
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons light cream
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup flour

Peel and boil 6 to 8 potatoes until very tender; drain, mash, and measure 4 cups. (Reserve the water for making potato bread, if desired.) Add butter, cream, milk, salt, and pepper, and mash again until very creamy. Chill lightly covered with waxed paper or cloth 2 to 4 hours or until well chilled. Add the cup of flour to the dough and work in well with hands. (Do not add flour before you refrigerate. Lefse must be made immediately after flour is added.)

It will be much easier to roll lefse if you use a pastry cloth and a stocking on your rolling pin which have been well seasoned with flour from previous use. Measure 1/4 cup of dough, form it in a ball, and put it on the pastry cloth on which is 1 tablespoon of flour from previous use. Measure 1/4 cup of dough, form it in a ball, and put it on the pastry cloth, and try again.

Have a well-seasoned cast-iron griddle. Do not grease. If you have an electric burner with eight settings, a No. 3 is just right for lefse—but better to have the heat too low than too high. Using a wide metal spatula or lefse stick, if you have one, lift the circle of lefse up from the pastry cloth on one side, using your other hand to help lift it on the other side, and carry it to the griddle. Prick the dough in four or five places with the corner of the spatula. let it bake for about a minute or until it bubbles in the middle, turn it carefully, and cook it for 45 seconds on the other side. If the heat is correct, it should still be very pale, with just a few flecks of brown. Turn again, then keep decreasing the turning time until you are turning about every 5 seconds, for a total of about 3 minutes. When done it should be dry on both sides but still tender and pliable; it should be pale brown flecked. Remove lefse to a dry dish towel and let cool. Wipe griddle with dry cloth between each lefse.

When cool, the circles can be piled up on each other. Store in a covered tin, overnight if desired, until ready to serve. To serve, halve them, spread with soft butter, and roll into coned-shaped rolls. Arrange the lefse on a decorative platter and serve as bread. Lefse freezes beautifully. It can be made several weeks ahead for special occasions. Just place in plastic bags and freeze. Then thaw several hours before serving at room temperature. Serves 6 to 8.



The Nine Days of Christmas

When today's children think of Christmas, they think of gifts. When I was a child I thought of food and celebrations. Gifts were the least part of my childhood Christmases. But the celebrations! That was a different matter.

The active festivities get into full swing in the midafternoon of Christmas Eve when my father brings in the tree and sets it up in the front room. Norwegian tradition holds that the tree must not be decorated until Christmas Eve. My mother is still in the kitchen baking the last piece of Christmas lefse on the top of her cast-iron cookstove—a task she has been at since morning. In a few minutes the pungent scent of damp pine mingles with the aroma of fresh lefse, and we know that Christmas week has started in earnest.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks

Monday, December 5, 2011

Tree of the Week



Scots PinePinus sylvestris L.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves in bundles of 2, slender, 1 to 4 inches long, usually twisted and often marked with fine white lines (seen with magnifying glass). Cones 1 to 2 inches long, falling intact (i.e., basal scales not missing); end of scales raised and pyramidal (less commonly flattened), with or without tiny prickles. Bark scaly and light orange on larger branches and upper trunk, divided into large gray plates covered with orange scales on lower trunk.

SIMILAR TREES: Mugo pine is shrubby; other common two-needle pines have longer leaves. Mature Scots pines can be easily distinguished from other species y the orange bark of their upper trunk and limbs.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Planted throughout the state.


Friday, December 2, 2011

Tree of the Week



Ponderosa PinePinus ponderosa Laws

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves in bundles of both 2 and 3, stout, 4 to 11 inches long, flexible. Cones 2 1/2 to 4 (or more) inches long; basal scales remaining on the twig when the cones fall, leaving a depression in the base of each cone; scales armed with sharp prickles near the end. Bark divided into large, flat plates, yellowish brown to reddish in color.

SIMILAR TREES: Red and Austrian pines have smaller cones and all leaves in bundles of 2.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Occasionally planted throughout the state.


Winter Story

November 16, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To Mrs. Margaret Corey
7:30 P.M. and snow two feet deep

Before bed time Friday night it was snowing and kept at it almost all the time till last night or this morning rather. Three days of it and there is more snow on the ground now than there has been on at one time for two or three years they say. I moved into my new house Saturday in spite of the weather.

Good night—more later—Bess



Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Rain Garden Update

On October 19, staff from UI Facilities Management delivered a mountain of compost to the Kuhl House. The next day, our lawn was part of a Rainscaping Iowa training program sponsored by Iowa State University Extension. A spreader was used to distribute compost over the lawn, then a deep tyne aerator circled back and forth across the lawn to penetrate the ground. This will both enrich and aerate the soil and help prevent rapid runoff from rainfall, extending the benefits we are already enjoying from our rain garden.



Blooms in the rain garden and the prairie garden are almost over for the season; only a few hardy brown-eyed Susan blossoms remain. We like to think that underground, the plants’ long roots will continue to absorb snowmelt until spring comes again.



Interview with Jon Farrar

What were the challenges of creating the first edition of your Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great Plains? The second edition?

Time. The field photography really should have been a 10-year project. And there were other complications. The first edition was published in 1990, and most of the field work, the photography, was done in the three years prior to that, a period of drought on the central Great Plains. One of the challenges was finding fresh flowers to photograph. Delicate flowers that opened in morning were ragged and torn by the end of the day. And there were probably some plants that did not bloom at all those years, just hunkered down and waited for years with more moisture. The other challenge was being everywhere at the same time. Nebraska is a big state with diverse plant communities, from the deciduous forest along the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountain type ponderosa forests in the northwest. And between those two forest types are several major grassland types, each with unique plant communities.
Another challenge of producing the field guide was the words. I am not a college-certified botanist, although early in my career I worked with a German horticulturist and one of our primary missions was selecting, propagating, and planting wildflowers on state parks and wildlife management areas. In one regard, not being a training botanist was probably a blessing. I approached the text as would a layperson using it. Technical terminology was avoided as much as possible, and the species accounts were presented in a formula format so that not only was the same type of information presented for each species, it was presented in the same format. For sources I used every reference available, combined with information from the best botanists in the state and my own observations and field notes. In almost every case when a plant was photographed, I also pressed a specimen.
The principal challenge of the second edition was updating the nomenclature—the changes in scientific names and even the moving of species from one genus or family to another. And the text was updated, clarifying or adding information to the first edition text. Most of the other improvements made between the first edition and second edition were the work of the University of Iowa Press—skilled editing, improved maps and graphics, and a more eye-pleasing design. Frankly, the first edition was done by people accustomed to producing a monthly magazine. The second edition was done by people who produce books. The difference is evident, often in seemingly small, but important, details such as selection of the typeface.

How long have you been photographing plants? What are the particular challenges of being a botanical photographer?

I started photographing wildflowers in the late 1960s while still in college. I had a friend in the Navy, and he could buy Pentax cameras and lenses cheaply at the PX in Japan. When I started working for NEBRASKAland magazine in 1970, I purchased my first macro-lens, and wildflowers became a frequent subject for my photographs. Only when shooting photographs for the first edition of the field guide did wildflower photography dominate what I did in the field.
The wildflower photography I did for the field guide was different from what I would have done if my principal objective was producing a beautiful photograph. I did not do the super-tight, often shallow depth of field photographs that can produce spectacular images of little use for identifying plants in the field. Nor did I do the type of photographs of wildflowers often seen in earlier field guides, particularly those done by someone who was more a botanist than a photographer and made photographs more for documentation than visual pleasure. The photographs for the field guide were somewhere in between—close enough to feature a flower’s beauty, but at the same time showing identifying structures and when possible parts of the plant other than just the flower, particularly the foliage, useful in identifying a plant. Still, a pleasing composition in complementary light was always an objective.
The challenges of wildflower photography are not as great as photographing wildlife. After all, a plant cannot jump up and run away. The most attractive photographs of plants are made in the soft light of early morning and late day. Some wildflowers, though, only open in midday. For those a photographer hopes for bright-overcast light that is soft and muted. The same light is best for white flowers. All of these elements of producing a good wildflower photograph can be, mostly, controlled by the photographer by being in the right place at the right time. Even in the right place at the wrong time, the used of fill flash, a reflector, or a diffuser screen can sometimes make the difference between a good photograph and a poor one.
Wind seems to be ever-present on the Great Plains and is probably the wildflower photographer’s worst enemy. Some days the wind is light for the first hour or so in the morning, the perfect situation. Plants being jostled by the wind force a photographer to do one of two things: increase the ISO, which also increases the graininess of the photograph, or increase the shutter speed to stop the plant movement, resulting in more shallow depth of field. In some cases I put up a wind barrier of three-feet-high burlap attached to steel rods that were pushed into the ground.

Why have plants kept your photographic attention for so long? What other subjects do you focus on?


I’m sure my mother would appreciate me saying my interest in plants came from having a house full of flowers, including African violets under grow-lights in the living room and flowers in the yard, and I suppose that did contribute. As a boy I had my own “plant garden,” a card table covered with “my plants.” Only cacti and succulents were allowed. But what has probably sustained my interest in plants is that they are so photogenic and I make my living being a photographer. How could I not photograph them? When I am shooting a photo essay on a particular wildlife area or region, wildflowers are regular fodder for the spread. My principal photographic interest, though, has always been birds, water birds in particular, especially shorebirds.

What advice would you give to beginning nature photographers?


There used to be a saying among professional photographers that “film is cheap,” meaning it was false economy to lose an opportunity for a good photograph because you were too chintzy to spend some film bracketing for exposure and experimenting with different angles, distances, and lenses. Today, in the digital age, photographers are saying “pixels are free.” Buy enough memory cards so you have the luxury of burning exposures. If you throw away 80 percent of what you shoot, you are probably above average at culling. A second piece of advice is know where and when to go. Keep notes. If you are a week early or late for a particular wildflower, write it down and odds are better you will get your photograph the next year. Go often. Be in the field as much as you can. Drag yourself out of bed at 4:30 a.m. in the summer so you are perched near a wildflower when the light is best, and if you are lucky there is no wind, and if even luckier a heavy dew. And one final thing, photographs of snakes, lizards, insects and other small creatures are most authentic and personal when photographed at eye level. The same applies to wildflowers. Don’t stand over them and shoot, get down among them, and if that requires being on your belly for a low-growing flower, do it. Lightweight, waterproof pants are a joy.

Nebraska is a crossroads where eleven major floral associations—from the shortgrass prairie and sandhills prairie in the western half to the mixed-grass and tallgrass prairies in the east—meet and merge. What’s your favorite habitat?

No need to pause and think on this one—Nebraska’s Sandhills region in the central and north-central part of the state. Most of the natural landscapes and plant communities in Nebraska and the Great Plains have been destroyed since settlement. The Sandhills, encompassing about 19,000 square miles, is the largest tract of native grassland in the country because it is used principally for ranching. Properly done, grazing cattle simulates the action of native grazers such as bison and has allowed most of the native species to endure. There are numerous expansive public areas where wildflowers are abundant. If a person savors solitude and is not intimidated by endless horizons and the absence of convenience stores, it is a magical place. Be prepared to battle the wind, though. There is an old saying on the Great Plains, that the wind blows every day and the only thing to slow it down is a barbed wire fence in North Dakota that is down most of the time.

What are your favorite natural areas in Nebraska and the Midwest? What areas do you return to constantly, and what’s your favorite newly visited area?

In Nebraska, the Valentine and Crescent Lake national wildlife refuges are top choices for native grasslands filled with wildflowers and wildlife. Outside of the Sandhills, my next choice for a grassland worth visiting would be the Oglala National Grasslands in the northwest corner of Nebraska. Good examples of mixed-grass and shortgrass prairie can be found only as remnants. Some of the best places to look are on state wildlife management areas. Although Nebraska is not traditionally thought of as a woodland state, Indian Cave State Park in the extreme southeastern corner of the state is a wonderful parcel of eastern deciduous forest. In the far northwest, public land with Rocky Mountain type ponderosa forests is abundant on state and U.S. Forest Service land. In Nebraska’s Panhandle, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and Scotts Bluff National Monument are good locations for wildflowers.
            Each state in the Great Plains has a handful of “best places” to find a good sampling of native flora. Being a native Nebraskan, I confess to living a rock-deprived life, and so when outside of Nebraska I am often drawn to rocky places. They do not have to be spectacular rocky places; in fact, I tend to avoid anything spectacular, where you can accidently hit your shutter button while falling down and make a good photo. A lichen-covered glacial boulder here and there in a grassland will do or soft rock in barren country most people quickly drive through to get from here to there. And I prefer places where I can turn 360 degrees and not see a single thing done by man. I prefer grasslands over woodlands.
A few places I really like are the Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge in the prairie-pothole country of northwestern North Dakota; the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota, particularly the North Unit; Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota; Konza Prairie and the Tall Grass National Preserve in northeastern Kansas; the Cimarron National Grasslands in southwestern Kansas and nearby Comanche National Grasslands in southeastern Colorado; the Black Kettle National Grassland in western Oklahoma; and the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in south-central Oklahoma.

You’ve been a writer, editor, and photographer for NEBRASKAland magazine and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for more than forty years. What changes have you seen in the ways that Nebraskans view the natural world around them? What’s better, what’s worse when it comes to conservation in Nebraska?

Kids are spending less time outdoors, and when they are outdoors it is usually at a managed and manicured area such as a state park, and activities are usually organized by adults. Nature is packaged. That is too bad because kids should be left to their own devices now and then, make their own fun, discover new things in their own way, get dirty and accustomed to things like ticks on your pant legs or nettle itches on your elbows. That trend bodes ill for the future, as we are raising generations of adults with no real experience with nature. Those adults will vote and govern and decide the future of wildlife, native flora, and natural communities.
            The bright side of what has happened over the last 40 years is that more people are aware of what we have lost and more interested in preserving what little remains of once vast ecosystems like the tallgrass prairie. More so than in the past, that concern has translated into legal protection for natural areas and support of organizations like The Nature Conservancy. The short-term view is seldom wise, more apt to be expedient or profitable. Protecting what is left of what once was so abundant for future generations is priceless.




This week in Iowa Nature: Nov 23

After the frosty days of fall, note the warm reddish hues in stands of big and little bluestem on Iowa's prairie remnants.

The Iowa Nature Calendar

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Wild Turkey



Wild Turkey

Meleagris gallopavo


In winter, I have seen up to sixty birds foraging together on the edge of the woods. When snow is on the ground, I like to climb in the nearby limestone bluffs and find a sheltered place to sit and wait for something to come my way. It may be a curious chickadee or a parade of deer walking below me. Piles of scat indicate the presence of coyotes. One day, a sound of barking broke the silence. I looked for dogs and hoped to see coyotes. Soon a flock of turkeys meandered into sight. This was the first I knew of the barking sounds that turkeys make.


50 Common Bird of the Upper Midwest, text by Nancy Overcott, art by Dana Gardner

Monday, November 21, 2011

Butterfly of the Week

Hoary Edge

Achalarus lyciades (Geyer 1832)
Status: Very rare breeding resident.
Flight: Single brooded in Iowa, with records ranging from middle May to early June. It has been reported to fly until August in other states along the northern margin of its range.
Distinguishing features: The upper wing surface of the Hoary Edge is very reminiscent of the wing of the Silver-spotted Skipper, being brown with a gold band along the upper fore wing. The lower hind wing of the Hoary Edge lacks the central silver patch, however, instead having a hoary white-suffusion along the outer wing margin. Wing-span: 3.8-4.5 cm.
Distribution and habitat: Map 41. The Hoary Edge has only been collected for times in Iowa during the past forty years: three times from Waubonsie State Park in extreme southwestern Iowa and once from Des Moines in Polk County. The most recent reported collection date is 1969. No habitat information is available from these collections. Based on its behavior in nearby states, however, it was probably found in open woods and woodland edges. Judging by its distribution in surrounding states, it may eventually be found to occur rarely across the southern tier of Iowa counties.
Natural history: No information is available on the activities of this species in Iowa. Based on reports from nearby states, it is likely that its larvae eat various tick-trefoils.
Questions: What are the Hoary Edge's favored habitats and host plants? Is it able to survive the coldest Iowa winters, or does it have to recolonize from the south following such years? If global warming occurs, will this species become more common across southern Iowa?