Say Hello to My Little Friend the Cactus

Today, I will write about a spiky little friend of mine.

My dad and I have a thing with cacti. (Cactuses? Cactupi?). I buy him them whenever we’ve had a fight, or just when I want to tell him ‘I love you’ without actually verbalizing it. I have a few cacti he’s given me as well. My favourite one is named for my old boss back when I worked at a diner. He was a thorny, cantankerous old Greek man. Haha. She joked. But no, really. I collect them. Even now, as I type this from the safety of my sun-bench, I am watching one I’ve named Mariel. I have a habit of naming inanimate objects.



The cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. They are, with one sole exception, native to the America’s. They are an unusual plant in that they thrive in dry, arid regions. (That means desert, though they can also be found in the rainforest, savanna’s, and mountains. weird.) There are over 2,000 species of cacti, with various shapes and forms.

Say hello to the nice Saguaro cactus, everyone.

A perennial plant, they can grow as trees, vines and bushes and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some of them will be no bigger than your thumb, while others, such as the mighty saguaro, can grow up to be 15 metres. They generally have no leaves, or greatly reduced leaves (many of which are microscopic…neato!), and many have a covering of thorns, which again differs with the variety. The thorns are not only used as a form of self-protection against being devoured or damaged by local or passing fauna, it is a highly effective method of preserving water and thwarting that evil process known as precipitation, in a process known as transpiration through shading the plant.

The life of a cactus is interesting; it has a long dormancy and a short growing season. They have a largely spread out system of shallow roots that respond within two hours after a heavy rain that can trigger an enormous growth spurt in a short time. A full-grown saguaro cactus can absorb up to 3,000 litres of water in ten days. (No wonder the desert is dry…the cacti are stealing all the water. Evil bandit cactuses!) Many cacti will flower after a rain, or after a certain age with the flowers ranging from very small up unto 30 cm in diameter in bright and eye-catching colours. Some cactus flowers stand for several days, others die in just one day. Some cactus flowers open only at the sunset, others only in the daylight. Cacti are pollinated by insects and hummingbirds. Some red cactus flowers spread a stenchy rotten meat scent, attracting insects. They can live anywhere from 25 years, to 300
.

flowering cactus.
But what if there is no rain? Cacti suck up their moisture through their extensive root systems, and in the desert there is plentiful dews that fall at night. But one of the most amazing thing about the cactus is that it can suck up moisture through its skin, through small areoles (NIPPLES!?) that open and close. Desert night fogs allow for a little more moisture to be sucked into the cactus. But because this is a low-water diet, many cactuses have a round, thick shape so that they can better store water.

Mostly they are used as ornamental plants, with others being used as food, foraging, fruit, and other uses. I know of an artist who used to make paper of cactuses. They can also be used as a fence if materials and cost is an issue. Some of the bear fruit, such as the prickly pear and the dragonfruit. (Alright, I did NOT know that came from a cactus. I have to eat some now.) Peyote, long used as a vision-inducing psychoactive agent by the Native American Peoples, is a cactus. Many common cacti that you can buy at any garden centre also contain mescaline. The trunk of some cacti is used to make a type of Argentinian drum called bombo leguero. The wood of some cactus species is used for making walls, roofs and as reinforcement wood. The fruits of Cereus repandus from Peru are called cactus apple or tuna and are prickless. Syrup can be made from cactus fruits.

I don’t know about you, but I find cacti to be amazing. These are plants that have evolved over millions of years in order to survive in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. A lot of times, we don’t think of plants of as evolving, or self-defensive, but then we have the cactus, that reminds us that plants are changing at the same rate as everything else. They are incredibly adaptive, and still manage to be beautiful. It’s just awesome.
What do you think?


'Sup?

The Delicious World of Maple Syrup.

I lied.
Two posts in one day. Again. -sighs-
But, I had waffles, and waffles are inspiring. So, dear friends, we enter the wonderful world of maple syrup.

Maple syrup. One of the most delicious things on the planet. Sugary and sweet. One of my favourite childhood memories is going to the sugar bush and wandering around the old log cabins learning about pioneer times and sipping maple water. Oh my. Canada, to me, is partially made up by our maple syrup, with Quebec being the largest producer of Maple Syrup in the world.

Maple syrup is quite possibly one of my favourite foods. Up till very recently, I would go to farmer markets and buy the tiniest amount of syrup available in jug form. I would then repeatedly dip my finger into it and then lick it. The process of emptying the jug would take about two weeks. I have a notorious sweet tooth, well known to friends and family alike. It is feared. The hushed whisperings at family gatherings can attest to that.

There is no known date where people in Canada first started making maple syrup. Native Americans were doing it when we arrived on the shores of Canada. Their way of making maple syrup differs from the modern way, though it still is very similar.

Maple syrup comes from the sap of some maple trees, primarily the sugar maple and the black maple, with the red maple and silver maple being used as well. The tree is tapped at a convenient height with the holes being drilled between 2.5-5 cm deep. Some trees may be tapped up to four times. Immediately after the drilling, a plastic or metal spile is driven into the wood. The spile leads to a metal bucket (sometimes a hose is also used that leads to a sap tank) that is attached to the tree. The bucket has a metal lid in order to prevent bugs and other animals getting at the delicious sap (or maple water). The sap is like sugar water; I remember our tour guide letting all the children taste it straight from the tree. This type of sap collection is the traditional way, with the plastic hose being the modern approach.

When the buckets have a fair amount of sap in them, they’re collected and dumped into a mobile tank, often on a wagon or tractor. The sap needs to be collected daily in warm weather. Once the sap is collected, it’s taken to a sugar hut or sugar shack. The sugar shack is essentially a small building used for the boiling of the sap and the production of maple syrup. The sap is then filtered and is passed through an evaporator unit (in the modern approach), where it is passed continuously through and becomes more concentrated, acquiring that deep rich colour. It passes to a flat pan and once finished, is filtered once more. More traditional maple-syrup makers will boil their maple syrup in large vats, and when it is finished, it is filtered. The syrup is finished when it reaches a temperature of about 4 degrees Celsius above the boiling point of water, which differs with varying altitudes. If the maple syrup continues to be boiled, it can be made into soft or hard maple sugar candy. You need approximately 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of genuine maple syrup.

Here are some fun facts on Maple trees and maple syrup;

A maple tree lasts at least 30 years and is 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped.
As a tree increases in diameter more taps can be added, up to a maximum of four.
Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree.
Only 10% of the sap is collected each year.
Each tap yields an average of 10 gallons of sap per season,
yielding about one quart of syrup
Warm sunny days (above 40º F) and frosty nights are ideal for sap flow.
The maple season may last 4 to 6 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for 10 to 20 days.
Sap flowing in high volumes is called a "run".
The harvest season ends with the arrival of warm spring nights and early bud development in the trees.
30-50 gallons of sap are evaporated to make one gallon of syrup.
Maple Syrup is boiled even further to produce Maple Cream, Sugar and Candy.
It takes one gallon of syrup to produce eight pounds of candy or sugar.
A gallon of pure Maple Syrup weighs 11 pounds.
The sugar content of sap averages 2.5%
The sugar content of syrup averages 66.5%

Maple syrup is awesome for a variety of reasons. Just think; not only is it delicious and wonderful, it’s one of those things that come from something right outside our doors. It’s a natural resource. I know I may not be getting that across as well as I’d like, or be able to share my enthusiasm for it, but the process and the history behind maple syrup staggers me. Nature has given us something delicious and amazing.

Hopefully, I’ll be dragging my boyfriend to the Sugar Bush next week, so I can share with him my love for maple syrup and the process behind him, and I can turn back into an 8 year old filled with simple wonder and joy, dipping my fingers into a bucket of maple sap and getting them all sticky all over again.

Yup, Maple syrup sure is awesome.