Miracle Under the Oaks

Oak woodland where management practices similar to what is discussed in the book "Miracle Under the Oaks" have been implemented.

Recently, I read William Stevens’ book “Miracle Under the Oaks.”  This is an absolutely fantastic book of the scientific drama a group of non-scientists experienced as they learn how to, and restore prairies and oak savannas along the Chicago river.  Beginning in the late 70’s, Steve Packard lead a group of volunteers to restore the tallgrass prairies in north east Illinois.  These volunteers were composed of ordinary citizens who really had no idea how to restore a prairie.  Carpenters, doctors, pharmacists, people from all walks of life with no formal scientific background, self educated themselves and learned through trial and error how to restore the prairie.  As things began to pickup with the restoration projects, the general public and scientists began to take notice, becoming increasingly involved.  In the process of prairie restoration the volunteers rediscovered and helped define the Midwestern oak savanna, an ecosystem that once encompassed 30 million acres during pre-settlement time but today only 0.02% remains.  As a result, a movement has begun where thousands of acres of tallgrass prairie oak savannas are being researched and restored throughout the Midwest today.  This ecological restoration movement has not been isolated to oak savannas however, many other similar movements are taking place throughout the world in many different ecosystems as diverse as deserts to grasslands to forests.  Similar to the story in this book, these restorations are largely spearheaded by ordinary people without scientific backgrounds.  These ordinary people work together with the scientific community and often become experts in some portion of these projects.  Here is a great quote from the book showing how ordinary people can become valuable experts in a scientific subject through experience and self education:

“...I think there’s a lot of knowledge out there we haven’t taken advantage of.  One of the things that bothers me is the degree of arrogance you see among the so-called scholars and researchers who have gotten the notion that they have all the answers and who often look down with disdain at people who are just walking encyclopedias of bits of knowledge.”  Allen Harvey in Miracle Under the Oak

So the average non-scientist can become through self education and experience a sort of lay-scientist.  Where these types of people work together with the scientific community huge strides can be made in restoration of damaged ecosystems and habitats.  I truly believe common people can become experts on a subject if they have the desire to.  Formal education does not need to limit this, though it can help.  Formally educated scientists will always play a major role in science but the informal, lay-scientist expert can and should be playing a much larger role in science.  Yes, the application of lay-scientists will be different but their overall roll can and should be an important one in many areas of science.  The lay-scientist often has better access to land for ecological work and is not limited by availability of grant money.  They do it because they love it.  I love to encourage people to pursue things they love through self or formal education and become an expert of some type, the results are often amazing.  

Here is a link to one of the preserves Steve Packard’s group worked on:

Somme  Preserve

More information on Midwestern oak savannas:

http://oaksavannas.org/

Red oak leaves and acorn.

Easy Enzyme Experiment: Rennet and Cheese Making

Curds separating from whey after being mixed with rennet.

Learning about cheese can be an amazingly diverse education in history, culture, as well as science.  Cheese making beautifully integrates both art and science, one without the other will result in a mediocre cheese at best.  Of course milk of all types is the primary ingredient in making cheese.  Along with milk though many combinations of bacteria, enzymes, aging processes, moisture, humidity, and other factors are controlled in the cheese making process.  Most cheeses found in the supermarket utilize a specific enzyme (or rather a complex of enzymes) called rennet.  Typically, rennet is one of the first things added to milk in the cheese making process.  Once added, it immediately starts separating curds and whey.  Rennet acts on the milk protein casein by making it non-soluble.  Milk is normally white because casein protein is dissolved and floating around in it.  However, when casein is made insoluble through the action of acids or enzymes like rennet, it precipitates out forming white clumps called curds.  For a few of the most basic cheeses only rennet is utilized.  Most cheeses found in the supermarket however utilize a combination of bacteria and rennet.  For this cheese making experiment we will only use rennet in order to display its function.

As with the history of yogurt, the history of rennet goes back many thousands of years.  And similar to how most great discoveries are made, rennet was likely discovered by accident.  Presumably, we can imagine, thousands of years ago some dairy worker ran out of milk containers.  The dairy worker also had probably just butchered a young animal and found a left over stomach.  Thinking the stomach would make a good milk container, filled it up and let it sit.  When the worker came back at a later time he would have been surprised to find the milk was now separated into curds and whey but not rotten smelling.  Then by draining off the whey the curds would have made the first cheese.  This would have been the first known accidental use of rennet.  

Being rennet begins the process of digesting milk it makes perfect sense that it would be found in the stomach of a young animal from the dairy herd.  This is in-fact where most rennet historically has come from.  Today however, rennet is often created by bacteria in a laboratory or derived from plant based products.  Various plants, for example stinging nettle, have enzymes in them that have effects on milk similar to rennet.  From what I have heard, animal based rennet works best.  But each cheese maker has their preferred and even secret type of rennet, and boy can they be opinionated!  I personally have used Junket rennet tablets with what I consider good results.  Junket and other rennets can be found and purchased on Amazon and occasionally in the supermarket.

How to make rennet cheese:

Materials: Spoon, stainless steel pot, thermometer, and strainer

Ingredients: Milk, water, salt and rennet

1. Heat the milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit.  This pasteurizes the milk so no bacteria cause it to spoil.  Slowly heat milk and stir gently every once in a while to ensure milk does not burn.

2.  Depending on the directions on the type of rennet you purchase, mix up the rennet.  For Junket dissolve your tablet in ¼ cup of cool water.  I prefer to mix ½ tablet with ¼ cup water.

3. Let milk cool to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Add the rennet solution and mix by st iring for about 1 minute.  

4. Let milk/rennet mixture sit as close to 100 degrees as possible overnight.  Let the mixture sit absolutely still, do not disturb!

5. The next day the curds should be separating from the whey.  Simply dump these through a strainer to separate.  The curds left in the strainer is the cheese.  Transfer the curds to another container and salt to taste.

Curds after straining and salting.

The body temperature of a cow is about 100 degrees, so it makes sense that rennet would work best at this temperature.  At cooler temperatures rennet either will not work or will work very slowly.  Warmer temperatures will break down, or denature, the enzyme so it won’t work at all.  

After the curds and whey are separated the resulting cheese will be very soft and will taste like milk.  Unfortunately, at least for this cheese, most taste is derived through bacterial metabolism.  What this basic rennet cheese is known for though is adding things into it.  It is often used as a cheese for making spicy dips also when mixed with chili peppers.  Other fruits, veggies, and herbs can also be mixed with it and it can be used as a cream cheese. You can experiment and come up with your own recipe.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire: What Ever Happened to this Christmas Tradition?

The American Chestnut.  Whatever happened to the American tradition of, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."????

Everyone knows how the song goes, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."  But how many people really have roasted chestnuts over an open fire for Christmas?  I can't think of a single person.  Of course nuts are part of Christmas tradition today as we can find walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachios, and of course the corresponding famed nutcrackers in stores.  Chestnuts also can be occasionally be found but these are always the Chinese variety as opposed to the traditional American variety.  It has been said that roasting chestnuts on an open fire was such a common tradition in the eastern United States that its distinctive smell could be found throughout towns in the east this time of year.  Part of this was because the American Chestnut tree was extremely abundant prior to the early 1900's.  But no more.  So what happened to this once nearly universal American tradition?  The answer can be found in the plight of the American Chestnut beginning in 1904.

The Asian chestnut trees have grown for millenniums with chestnut bark fungus, resulting in strong resistance.  American trees, however, were never exposed to this fungus and therefore could not easily survive infection.  Beginning in 1904 the first american tree infected with the bark fungus was found in the Bronx Zoo.  The disease had been accidentally transported to the United Stated from Asia on an imported Chinese Chestnut tree.  After the initial infection in the Bronx, the disease spread rapidly through air-born fungal spores.  American Chestnut trees were killed by the billions.  The disease quickly became known as chestnut blight, and by the early 1940's had made the american chestnut tree exceedingly rare.  During this 40 or so year span the chestnut tree also was aggressively logged in forest areas and cut down in residential areas.  This aggressive removal of trees was done simply because it was thought they were all going to die anyway.  As a result, the blight made this once abundant tree has today been wiped out from the landscape and with it, the tradition of roasting chestnuts at Christmas time.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

But there is hope for the return of the chestnut tree and therefor the roasting chestnuts at Christmas.  While it may appear that the American Chestnut is extinct, a handful of small areas with surviving trees have been discovered.  It has been estimated that less than 100 have survived that are greater than 24 inches in diameter. Many more, but still not a lot, survive as roots in the ground that send up sprouts that never reach more than a few inches in diameter before the blight kills them.  If it were not for the aggressive logging of chestnut trees in response to the blight many, but not a lot, more likely would have survived.  Unfortunately, some of these surviving trees could likely still be killed by the blight.  Fortunately, however, many of these survivors likely are resistant to the blight and can be propagated to reintroduce and repopulate chestnut trees in eastern North America.  Geneticists and plant breeders are also working to identify and place genes that are resistant to the blight into American Chestnuts.  They are using both the resistant Chinese chestnut and the surviving American Chestnuts to find genes and breed new resistant breeds of American Chestnuts.  Many non-scientists who are interested gardeners, naturalists, and landscapers are taking a large part in this though aiding scientists in breeding, growing, observing, and finding resistant chestnut trees.

Check out the American Chestnut Foundation for more information on efforts to restore this species:

http://www.acf.org/

Fifty or so years ago we may have thought that the American Chestnut was extinct, or at least doomed to extinction.  Today however, there is great hope for the tree.  While still possible, it is unlikely that the tree will not go extinct.  We can currently say it really can't get much worse for this species and recovery is a very viable option.  Only time will tell, and as with most trees it will take a long time to grow these trees to see if they are able to grow and resist the blight.  Our efforts as humans often result in environmental destruction as we see with the american chestnut.  But the american chestnut also shows that hopefully, our careful efforts can also restore and benefit the natural world.  And there is great hope that song words, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" can once again be experienced by Americans.  Merry Christmas!