Letterboxing in Barbados, December 2009

We took our family holiday to Barbados this year. We were excited to see there were 12 boxes listed as active on the island, some singles and most planted by people from Canada who moved to the island. I tried to map them out beforehand, since we would be in an area we had never been before, and having a hard enough time with the driving on the left side of the road. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any of the boxes! I am not sure what the planters were using for a box, but nothing was left. Some boxes were 5 years old, some a bit more than one year old. We were able to find the locations, and they seemed like obvious hiding spots to a letterboxer. It is too bad we could not find any boxes!

We carved and planted 9 boxes to leave on the island. Robert and I wanted to continue our theme of foraging wild edibles, and the tropical climate provided us with many new plants and foods that we obviously can't find in Connecticut.

Our series of 6 boxes, Welchman Hall Gully Series, is planted at Welchman Hall Gully, in St Thomas Parish, in the interior of the island. I corresponded with the owner, Debra Branker, before we came to Barbados. I explained letterboxing and asked for permission to plant in the Gully. She was incredibly enthusiastic, and even helped us with ideas for the edible plants and fruits we would carve. The 6 boxes were planted along the .75 mile paved path in the tropical forest. We carved the icon for the Gully, mangoes, cacao, hog plum, breadfruit, and avocado. There is one logbook for the series. There is a charge to enter the Gully, but it is worth it even if you are not boxing.


The other three boxes are planted along the east coast of Barbados. Foraging Coconuts is located in Bathsheba in the Soup Bowl. We loved this area for it's unusual rock formations, rugged beach covered in lovely beach glass, and tide pools for dipping into. The surf is much too rough here to swim, but there are several tide pools from ankle deep to chest deep, each filled with fish, crabs, and pretty sea creatures like urchins and anemones. Gillian enjoyed searching the rocky beach for seed pods, rocks and glass.

Foraging Barbados Cherry is located at the East Point Lighthouse. It seems the Bajans have not figured out that lighthouses make great tourist attractions, since the original lighthouse and master's quarters are in ruins and unsafe to enter. There is a modern contraption here to warn ships of the rocky waters. I was unable to identify and acerola trees in the wild since they were neither flowering nor fruiting in December. This seemed like a good landmark, so I found a rock wall to hide the box in instead. There is no beach here, and no access to the water due to the extreme rock formations.


The final box is located at what I think is Ginger Beach. It is labelled on some maps, but not others. There is no public access sign, just an unpaved, rough parking area and concrete steps down to this gem of a beach. On the cliffs above are several private residences, no hotels or resorts. This beach has rough surf, but wonderful sand, a deeply shaded area with trees, a swing hidden among the trees, some private stairwells, a monolithic stone at the water's edge, and a mysterious cave and tunnel to the next beach over. In the shaded area, we found a fig tree and some green monkeys stopped by to check us out as Gillian went swinging. Foraging Bearded Fig is hidden here, although we later came to find that the edibility of this fig is questionable. This beach was completely deserted, and so peaceful, easily my favorite on the island.


We are really hoping someone tries to find the boxes. We tried to hide them well, and used watertight boxes, hoping they last awhile. I did manage to make some LTCs of the stamps before we left, so at least I remember what our carves look like. We did get to eat some breadfruit, drank some Barbados cherry juice, and had enough coconuts and coconut water to last until next December.

Western PA

Robert had a few extra days off this week, so we decided to take a family road trip. I researched western Pennsylvania, since it looked big, was full of state forests for letterboxing, and didn't seem too far from eastern Connecticut. Big it was, forested but nearly boxless, and 8 hours of straight driving is too far for a 4 year-old to sit in a car seat.



Perhaps there are different laws here in Connecticut regarding state forests, but the state forests in Pennsylvania are ugly. They are sprinkled with houses, railroads, dilapidated buildings, and mini oil derricks! It was also hunting season, so pickups with gun racks were in abundance on the side of the road. We picked up 4 boxes total, over three days, two of them in large towns. Only two, sad, little, lonely boxes out in the woods. I forget sometimes how spoiled we are in Connecticut. I did see some partridge berries on the ground, along with something my family calls princess pines. We used to gather them when I was a kid to make holiday wreaths.



If you ask Gillian, she will tell you she loved Pennsylvania. I carefully chose hotels with indoor pools and she got to try out her new inflatable child's travel bed. She was thrilled with the half-inch of snow that had fallen one night, and made the most of our stop at a park to find a box. There was a playscape, a pond, a beach, and geese, and she made a quick fairy house with buttercups that were confused by the unseasonably warm weekend. Robert and I lamented on the money and time we spent, feeling cheated, until we listened to Gillian recount how much fun she had, then we felt better.

Eeeewwww, that Ginkgo smell

This weekend we went out to Harkness Park in Waterford, CT to check on the Ginkgo(Ginkgo biloba) trees. There are 3, two males and one female, and our letterbox, Foraging Ginkgo. The ginkgo tree is unique, in that it is a living fossil. It was thought to be extinct, until some were discovered in China that had been tended by monks. Now it is a popular landscaping tree because of it's beauty, ability to thrive in urban environments, and deep-rooted strength. The leaves are fan shaped, and turn bright yellow in autumn. The shape of the tree is more like a conifer than a deciduous tree. Most nurseries and landscapers only want to plant the male trees, because it is the female tree that produces the fruit, and the fruit smells awful when it is ripe. Worse than awful, the best description I have read described it as "cheesy vomit", and I have to agree. Last year we encountered some Asian women gathering the smelly fruits, and we tried to ask what they were. The communication barrier prevented us from learning too much, and this was before our serious foraging hobby. This year, we hoped to beat the ladies to the trees and harvest some ginkgo nuts to eat, but the trees in Harkness Park were still not ready.


We headed out to Glastonbury, and there found another set of landscaped trees at a shopping plaza, with 3 males and one stinky female tree. Seriously, the entire area smelled bad before we even got to the tree. The ground was littered with the ripe fruits, and gathering was easy. We used gloves, since the fleshy part can cause rashes in some people, and discarded the smelly pulp as we gathered. Once the peachy-orange flesh is removed, the nuts were brought home and washed further. They can be boiled in the shell, or we roasted them at 275° for 30 minutes. Once cracked open, the green nut can be eaten or added to dishes like rice, congee, soups, or they are used as filling for Chinese moon cakes. There are reports of toxicity in children who eat more than 5 nuts per day, so Gillian has been only eating one at a time. The roasted, shelled nuts can be frozen for later use.

Tea, or Tisane

Over the last year, we have been gathering leaves, flowers, and roots and drying them for teas to drink during the winter. One of Robert's favorites is linden(Tilia americana). He is familiar with another species of linden
(Tilia cordata) that grows in Europe. The leaf-like lighter green bract is collected in late spring when the flowers are open, and dried in a dark place to brew a tisane, or herbal tea. The tisane is light yellow-green with floral qualities, lovely sweetened with honey. The flowers contain antioxidants and mucilaginous properties which can reduce inflammation, sooth coughs and sore throats, and relieve anxiety related indigestion. The linden found in America has other medicinal properties found in the wood, leaves, flowers, the nutlets produced after the flowers and the charcoal from burned wood. I believe there is a European specimen at Harkness Park in Waterford, where we were gathering some bracts.

Pine needle tea can be made at any time of year, and we don't bother to gather or dry the needles, they are better fresh. The younger, long needles from white or red pines work best. Grab a handful of the needles and coarsely chop them. Using a basic formula of one part needles to two parts water, add boiling water and steep 15-30 minutes to get a clear tisane that smells like a deep pine forest in winter, so clean and fresh. It can be sweetened. Pine needle tea provides vitamin C, is a cough soother, and can relieve heartburn. You can add the tea to a warm bath for a relaxing soak. Pine needles here in the Eastern US are all safe to make tea from, with the exception of yew.

Another tasty tisane can be made from sassafras(Sassafras albidum). The leaves make a nice tisane, but the roots need to be simmered 20 minutes to make an amber decoction. The roots can be gathered and dried for storage in the winter, when the ground is frozen and you can't dig fresh roots. Sassafras is easily identified by the 3 different leaf shapes that are present on each tree--a three lobed leaf, a two fingered "mitten" leaf, and an oval leaf. When scratched, the bark gives off a pleasant and distinct odor. Sassafras reproduces saplings from a parent tree, and usually there are large amounts of small trees surrounding the parent tree for easy gathering of roots. We just yank the whole sapling from the ground and bring home the root, then dry the shaved root bits in a dark place. The taste of the decoction is root beer-like. The tisane and decoction are used as a blood detoxifier and spring tonic. There are lots of sassafras trees located in Mohegan Park here in Norwich, and we planted a letterbox there, Foraging Sassafras.

For Rubaduc

Out in Colchester today, enjoying the weather and doing a bit of foraging, we came across a double kissing tree. Our attention had been brought to this type of tree by a box planted by Rubaduc in Gay City State Park in Hebron, CT. Google the term, and you will not find what she had in mind. A kissing tree is two separate trees that have grown together then apart again, forming a bit of an X.

These trees had so much affection for each other, they grew together at two separate points in their lives.

Ramps Recipe - Cattail pollen and ramps biscuits

Earlier this spring, Robert and I went in search of some cattails. We were looking for a place to plant a letterbox, Foraging Cattails. We found a great area off of Route 2A, in Poquetanuck Cove. The cattails growing here are narrow-leaf cattails(Typha angustapholia) as opposed to the more commonly found common cattail(Typha latifolia). The difference is in the width of the leaf, and in the placement of the male and female parts of the plant. In the narrow-leaf cattails, there is a space between the female flower and male flower on the spike, where the common cattail has no space. The male flower produces the pollen for a few days in spring to fertilize the female flower, located directly below on the flower spike. This pollen can be collected and added to baked goods in place of flour for a source of minerals, enzymes, protein, and energy, plus a super yellow color. Even earlier in the spring, the hearts of the young shoots can be pulled up and peeled, eaten raw or added to soups. The taste is mild like cucumbers, with a fantastic crunch. The cattails spread through the root system, so no harm is done by harvesting the shoots or pollen. We eventually gathered and sifted about 8 cups of pollen from this stand of cattails, and keep it in the freezer.

Here's a good recipe for biscuits with cattail pollen, and I also added some chopped ramps leaves from early spring that we had gathered and frozen.

Cattail pollen and ramps biscuits                                 makes about 16

2 1/4 c. flour

4 Tbsp cattail pollen

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbsp cold butter

1 c. chopped ramps leaves

1 c. buttermilk

1. Mix the dry ingredients together.

2. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients, leaving some peas-sized bits. Toss with the chopped ramps.

3. Add the buttermilk, mix the dough as lightly as possible. Roll out onto a floured surface and cut into 2" rounds. Place on a sheetpan covered with parchment.

4. Bake at 425° for 12-15 minutes, until browned.

Foraging Report 10/25/2009, Autumn olive

The warm weather this week was welcome after last week's cold snap and frost. After a frost, many greens will mellow out their bitter qualities, like dandelion and garlic mustard.


The weather also encouraged some mushrooms to pop up. We had been keeping an eye on a cluster of honey mushrooms(Armillariella mellea) for a week, but the warm weather and rain encouraged a growth spurt and they were bad by the time we got back to them. Robert had gone for a walk in Pachaug Forest earlier in the week and found some gem-studded puffballs(Lycoperdon perlatum) and a beautiful Hen of the Woods(Grifola frondosa). The puffballs and the Hen of the Woods are the only mushrooms I feel safe eating right now with our current level of knowledge--which is almost nothing. We took a spore print of the Hen of the Woods, then made some risotto and a soup the next day.


We also picked some autumn olives(Elaeagnus umbellata) to freeze and make a batch of peasant wine. The autumn olives freeze well, when washed first and spread on a sheet pan in the freezer. After they are frozen, I bag them up and they stay unclumped. Two years ago we bought a small chest freezer to hold mostly foraged foods, berries, and pesto from the garden. It is currently filled to the top, and now we have 9 quart bags of frozen autumn olives, plus 3 pints of frozen purée that was left over from jam making. We ended up with 10 one-cup jars, and 12 half-cup jars of autumn olive jam. I think we will start the wine within a few days.



Autumn olive is a deciduous shrub that is an invasive species from eastern Asia. It grows along roadsides, open fields, and parking lots. It can fix nitrogen in the soil, so it can grow in areas with poor soil, and is spread easily by birds. The foliage is green with a silvery underside, and the ripe berry is red with silvery-gold specks. There is one soft seed in each berry. The flowers are clustered along the branches in the spring, as are the berries in autumn. The astringent berries start to ripen in September, but sweeten later in the autumn. Autumn olives can contain up to 17 times the amount of lycopene as tomatoes. They are easily Gillian's favorite wild edible. We have made jam, fruit leather, wine, and popsicles from the fruit purée.


We also installed a new shelf in the pantry, one dedicated to jellies and jams made this year. The shelf is 5" high, just enough to hold one one-cup jar, or two stacked half-cup jars. Unfortunately, we underestimated how much jelly we had, and it all did not fit. We crammed more than 65 jars onto the shelf, and still filled 4 mini-crates with the smaller jars. I think some family members will be getting jelly for Christmas this year!