Barb found a great walking tour for us that was also free! The Oso Bay Wetlands is also a learning centre. It is a 162 acre nature preserve and has 2 miles of nature viewing trails. We were toured around by 2 Master Naturalists and another who had taken the course, but didn’t consider herself a master. They were all volunteers and wonderful guides.
During the walk we didn’t see many birds or other animals but we learned a lot about the area, as well as the trees and plants. In fact some were quite fascinating. The first cactus we came across had what looked like mold on it. In fact this was a certain type of bug that lived in this substance. When you carefully “plucked” a bug from this substance and squished it, your fingers would be covered in a red dye. This dye, back in the day, was shipped to Spain to colour the material for Spanish military uniforms. The colour is so vibrant, other than the fact that this would be super labour intensive, its a shame we don’t use it today.
Some interesting stops included a tree, a couple of cactus, a weed, and some moss, which all seems funny considering we were in a nature preserve….and we should be seeing all of these things.
The Huisache tree was frankly unassuming. However, the tree flowers in the spring and the flower gets harvested and sent to Europe for use in the making of the perfume Chanel. Who knew?! The next stop was a tree called the Lime Prickly Ash, which was edible! In fact we have put it into tonight’s salad! There was also a little cactus which unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of (but did get a pic of the harvest) but tasted somewhat salty and it also ended up in our salad! The plant that looked like dandelions to us, was in fact a plant used in medicine, Camphor. The moss on the tree? It apparently is a sign of good air quality. The other cactus was used for sewing in the “old days”. You have to wonder how that came about. Someone just looked at the plant and said yes, that looks like something we could use as a sewing apparatus. After today, a renewed interest in learning how to “forage” is up there on a to do list.
Some general pics of the Preserve
What’s next on the docket? Brunch! We are starving. Off to Andy’s Country Kitchen which opened in 1978. It was packed and a line up of folks outside waiting to be seated. Decor was cool with a couple of trains running around the upper walls of the resteraunt. We both had the same item, the breakfast enchilada. The two cheese enchiladas were covered with two eggs sunny side up, homemade Texas style chilli con carne, hash browns and we chose sliced tomatoes to make it healthy. It also came with complimentary blueberry muffins which were amazing, we ate one each and took one each home for breakfast tomorrow. We didn’t eat again until 7:30, which was only salad with our foraged greens.
Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but we believe it involves our bikes and the beach.