posted 2 years ago
I have to be careful that I don’t just teach my personal preference, but yesterday I got to teach a small part of a lesson that could have come straight out of Permies.
I was teaching about the Homestead Act—the federal act that basically gave away 160 acre sections of Midwestern land for all of $5. Of course, once there, all they had was grass.
I focused a part of the lesson on how the early settlers used Osage Orange as a sort of fence-crop. Some students were impressed by how long-lived, durable, strong and what excellent firewood it made. I related my experience about having one of these and how it could be cut down, only to grow right back up from the root. In fact, I even had one student ask why we don’t use Osage now for fencing. That question made me smile.
Eric
Some places need to be wild
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