Episode 24 Wood & Wood Accessories – Can’t Have American Food Without Them

Listen to "024 Wood and Wood Accessories - Can't Have American Food Without Them" on Spreaker.

 

Link to the Episode:

Episode 24 Wood & Wood Accessories – Can’t Have American Food Without Them

All the trees I mentioned!

Pix for those of us lacking Botany Degrees:

White Pines - the mast trees. 

 These you can still see if you go hiking in Maine.

Oaks: Everybody's favorite barrel wood.  Good where strength with less spring is needed.
And acorns for livestock - and sometimes humans.

White Oak

Red Oak

Ash: Favored for handles and the wood that was beloved for baseball bats

Ash

Diamond pattern bark
Ash leaves
Ashen Keys - which were pickled as vegetables

American Beech: Where very durable wood was needed, and weight was not an issue.  Also source of the Beech Nut - that became the name of the gum.

Beech Tree

Beech Nuts

Beech-Nut Gum - The same company that now sells "Beech-Nut Baby Food"

Walnut: Heavy durable wood, and source of delicious nuts used in multiple ways - for food and dye.

Walnut Tree

Walnut Nuts & Leaves

Maple: Another tree appreciated for springy strength.  Oars, stirring paddles - and another wood appreciated in baseball bats.  Sugar maples get special attention.

Maple Tree

Sugar Maple Leaves

Birch Trees: Best known as a useful bark source for packages and canoes.  Eastern European colonists recognized them as a sugar sap source, as did the Native Americans.

Birch Tree

Poplar: Good for light construction needs - storage boxes and the like then.  A favored veneer in IKEA furniture now.

Poplar Tree

Yellow Poplars - known as Tulip Trees got the gardeners excited

Hickory Trees: One of the trees that was used in EVERYTHING and was a super popular  wood in the colonies.  We still revere "hickory smoke".  And hickory nuts were a popular food item for Native Americans and colonists alike.  While there was no dairy in North America, hickory milk was a common food item pre-contact.

Hickory Tree

Hickory Leaves and Nuts

Locust Trees: Mostly regarded as "weed trees" to the resource exploitation minded colonists.  But they have their place in the forest - and turned out to be good for pegs.

Locust Tree

Gum Trees: Most of us know these by their seed pods!  Another tree not used in much construction, but gum barrels were handy.  Examples in the third picture from the Mercer Museum of Early American domestic objects in Doylestown, PA 

Gum Tree

Gum Leaves and Balls

Gum Barrel

Elm Trees: Attractive shade trees.  Later they were spread west in hope of getting rain to follow.

Elm Tree

Holly Trees: Largely ornamental to the colonists in gardens and in wood working.  But a medicinal plant for Native Americans - including as a stimulant similar to coffee or tea.

Holly Tree

Eastern Cedars: Cedar wood is preferred for being fragrant (it goes in incense), for being pest and rot resistant (cedar chests regularly held clothing and sheets).  East coast cedars tend to be bushier than Western cedars - but are very useful and appreciated.

Easter Cedar

Easter Cedar close-up

Willows - the whippy branches were useful for so many things - filling in fences, building chair backs and baskets, and of course holding together barrels.  The Weeping Willow is a Chinese import.  Colonists would have been encountering things like the Pussy Willow and the Black Willow

Pussy Willow

Catkins

Black Willow

Sassafras - the tree that was the first English excitement about the Miracle Drugs of the New World.  The Spanish snagged chilies and cacao, and the Portuguese spread pineapples and tomatoes.  And like every new discovery - it actually did a few things, but as The New Hotness it was expected to do everything from banish hangovers to cure syphilis.

Sassafras Tree

Sassafras Leaves - including the well known "mitten" shapes.