The Fruit Explorer Investigates Fireweed Jelly, Part 1 of 3

Starting with the Travel Tip and the Gift Idea

Last summer Pepe and Maria went to Alaska and discovered stunning vistas of entire mountain sides covered with fireweed in bloom. Here are three pictures taken by Pepe. The flower is about an inch across.

When Pepe and Maria got back, they gave me a jar of fireweed jelly. With English muffin season now in full swing, last week I tore into this jelly. Below is a picture; you can see that they jelly has been nearly all consumed.

The Question for this E-mail

I got to wondering why this is called fireweed jelly The question for this e-mail is:

What is the fireweed component of this jelly?

To answer this question, I inspected the list of ingredients and saw that the very first ingredient is "fireweed essence." (See close-up of the label below.) This stumped me. What is fireweed essence? Before looking into this in detail, let's find out about fireweed the plant.

Fireweed the Plant

My Introduction to Fireweed 

Fireweed is a wildflower in the evening primrose family that is common in Massachusetts and, in fact, grows throughout the temperate northern hemisphere; the first picture below shows the North American range of fireweed.. Fireweed was vividly brought to my attention in the book by Bernd Heinrich, In a Patch of Fireweed, which I read in Aug 1989. In the title essay, Heinrich is standing in a patch of fireweed and catching bumblebees; he measures the temperature of their flight muscles as part of his study of the thermoregulation of insects. The combination of Heinrich being a favorite writer and fireweed having a beautiful flower has made it a favorite plant of mine. This plant is in part eye-catching because it can grow to be eight feet tall (but usually four or five feet) and in part because it spreads by rhizomes (13 Nov 2015), which means that it tends to form extensive, breathtaking stands. Pictures taken from the Internet are below; many are from Alaska. 

                                             

(Continued in Part 2)

The Fruit Explorer Investigates Fireweed Jelly, Part 2 of 3

(Continued from Part 1)

Seeds / How It Got Its Name

Fireweed is a pioneer plant and got its name because it is often one of the first plants to colonize an area where fire has destroyed the vegetation. For example, fireweed was one of the first plants to return after Mt. St. Helens blew. Here are some pictures that show why this plant is such a good colonizer.

• Two pictures showing the plant midway through releasing its seeds. In the upper part of the plant you see the unopened seeds pods; in the lower part the seeds pods have opened, and you can see the silky strands that catch the breeze and carry the attached seeds far and wide.
• Close-up of an unopened seed pod.
• Two pictures of opened seed pods. Some 300-400 minute seeds are crammed into each seed pod, with perhaps 80,000 seeds put out by a single plant, and every seed is attached to a silken parachute; in the second picture you can perhaps just make out the seeds. This shows the sort of adaptation that makes a plant a good pioneer. Imagine standing in a field where a host of fireweed seeds are hang-gliding around you. Be careful not to breathe one in.
• Two close-ups by an art photographer that shows the seeds escaping from the open seed pod. In the first picture the seed pod has just opened, and the seeds are just beginning to disperse; in the second, the seeds have almost all flown, and just a few late bloomers are left.
• Two pictures of the seeds without the silken plumes. You can see that these seeds are truly tiny. To my eye these are smaller than mustard seeds (12 Jun 2015), which are proverbial for their small size.
• You can buy a packet containing half a gram (0.018 ounces) of fireweed seeds for $3.75 at this site. Seeds retain viability for 18-24months.

                           

Leaves

The leaves of fireweed are unique in that the veins form little trapezoids and do not go all the say to the edge of the leaf. This makes it easy to identify this plant in any stage of growth. Here are some pictures of the leaves.

• The veins on the underside.
• The veins on the upper side.
• Fall colors.

   

   

(The previous paragraph leads to a question. If you have a body that is almost cube-shaped but is not an exact cube, you call it a cuboid. Therefore, you use the suffix "-oid" to indicate that a body almost has an ideal shape. Therefore, if you have a shape that is almost a trapezoid, do you call it a trapezoidoid?)

Fireweed Taxonomy

Fireweed is a good example of the instability of scientific names. It is called Epilobium angustifolium in my printed reference works, most of which are two or three decades old, but the recognized name now is Chamerion angustifolium. One is sometimes tempted to grouse that these scientific names change so frequently that they are no better than common names. It must be recognized, however, that common names have their problems; for example, a number of other plants that are good colonizers are also called "fireweed," including a very common New England plant otherwise known as pilewort. A lack of understanding is shown by those who rail against scientific names because they are unstable (sad to say, I am one of them). As we learn the true relationships of plants, it is inevitable that the scientific names will change. This instability is unpleasant but necessary and even salutary. It should, however, be kept under control and out of the hands of splitters (24 Jul 2014).)

Miscellany

In 1957 fireweed was chosen to be the floral emblem of the Yukon. It was called "bombweed" in Britain during the Second World War because it sprang up in bomb craters. Fireweed can grow where there has been an oil spill, and it is sometimes used to regenerate an area contaminated by oil.

Fireweed is easy to grow and makes a beautiful addition to your home garden. If unchecked, however, it will take over, but is this such a bad thing? You can look at your back yard and be transported back to the vistas of Alaska. If your choice is between fireweed and Japanese knotweed, that's a no-brainer. Another plus, if you are an insect watcher, is that fireweed attracts lots of pollinators, with more than a hundred different ones being observed.

(Continued in Part 3)

The Fruit Explorer Investigates Fireweed Jelly, Part 3 of 3

(Continued from Part 1)

Back to the Question

Now return to the question: What is fireweed essence? Naturally, I started by googling it. Little did I know that I was about to embark on a journey through the hold-your-nose underside of American culture. Google first led me to http://www.treefrogfarm.com/store/flower-essences-tree-essences/fireweed-flower-essence.html. Here is an excerpt copied from this site.

Product Information

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) - A powerful transformer and healer! Initiates shifting personally and collectively from a male dominant, power over paradigm to a more feminine loving, joyful, nurturing, in-harmony-with-nature paradigm.

As the essence says of itself:

I AM loving joy of The Sacred Feminine in harmony with Nature.

 There is a lot more on this site, which you can consult if interested. I will, however, quote one more passage that is especially relevant for those who are Catholics.

Flower Essence Symptom:

Use Fireweed Essence when you are caught in the male power-over cultural paradigm. When you believe that you have to compete for power and the stronger, swifter, most aggressive and domineering will win. Empowering when you hold anger or fear around male authority figures. Great for recovering Catholics and others who have had their personal and spiritual power taken away by male religious figures. 

Enlightening as this site is, it didn't tell me what fireweed essence is, I went to http://wrc.net/encyclopaedia_entry/fireweed-fe/. Here I learned more about fireweed:

Positive qualities: Removes anger and transmutes karma; Excellent for war veterans; enhances connection with higher realms; encourages spiritual breakthroughs
Patterns of imbalance: for psychic problems; unbalanced anger; unresolved karma

I won't quote any more since the remainder of the page becomes less intelligible.

Not giving up, I tried another site http://store.fesflowers.com/catalog/product/view/id/2514:

Epilobium angustifolium Positive qualities: Recovery of vital forces; Phoenix-like powers of soul to re-construct and re-create new life; assimilation of alchemical fire toward new forces of life and rejuvenation
Patterns of imbalance: Healing for events involving adversity and disruption, "trial by fire," wounding or disruption due to fire, heat or light and related technology or military weapons

I still didn't know what fireweed essence is. I tried a fourth site http://www.powerfloweressences.com/fireweed-flower-essence and found:

All Power of Flowers Healing Essences are made from pristine pure organic wild flowers in their natural habitat. Our flower remedies are made using the sun/water method devised by the late Edward Bach in the late 1930's.

Cazart! A clue! I googled Edward Bach and found in Wikipedia that he is one of the most notable charlatans of our time:

In 1930, at the age of 43, he decided to search for a new healing technique. He spent the spring and summer discovering and preparing new flower remedies – which include no part of the plant but simply what Bach claimed to be the pattern of energy of the flower. In the winter he treated patients free of charge.

Rather than being based on medical research, using the scientific method, Bach's flower remedies were intuitively derived and based on his perceived psychic connections to the plants. If he felt a negative emotion, he would hold his hand over different plants, and if one alleviated the emotion, he would ascribe the power to heal that emotional problem to that plant. He believed that early morning sunlight passing through dew-drops on flower petals transferred the healing power of the flower onto the water, so he would collect the dew drops from the plants and preserve the dew with an equal amount of brandy to produce a mother tincture which would be further diluted before use. Later, he found that the amount of dew he could collect was not sufficient, so he would suspend flowers in spring water and allow the sun's rays to pass through them. [Footnotes omitted]

You can find more about this snake-oil salesman at another Wikipedia page, including references to studies that have reached the unsurprising result that the Bach flower remedies have no effect. 

These web sites sell products that are obviously based on fraudulent claims. How do they stay in business? It is because American citizens are duped into buying these products. Our schools are letting us down and are not instilling the power of critical thinking. That businesses like this exist is the best argument yet for reforming our schools.

Getting back to my quest, whatever these sites mean by "fireweed essence" apparently has nothing to do with fireweed jelly. Not being able to figure out what went into my jelly, I was almost in despair.

I thought it might help to look up some of the uses of fireweed. Monofloral honey from fireweed is said to have a distinctive, spiced flavor; you can buy it as this site (see picture). Some native Americans added fireweed to their dogs' food. A fireweed preparation can be used to glaze salmon. Some like to drink fireweed juice (see picture). Other uses are supplied by this site: 

Fireweed is edible and valued by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), elk (Cervus elaphus), grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), livestock, and humans.  The young shoots can be steamed and eaten like asparagus, or pickled if harvested when they are still pink on the lower stem and the leaves are mostly closed.  The raw inner pith of stems is sweet when harvested before flowering, but yields little for the effort.  Fireweed leaves can be brewed into a tea rich in Vitamin A and C.  The tea is mildly laxative and may help settle the stomach and other irritated mucous membranes (such as sore mouth and throat, ulcers, and hemorrhoids).  The tea can also be used externally for burns and other skin irritations.  

The Blackfoot people rubbed fireweed flowers into rawhide as waterproofing and dusted a powder made from the core of the plant on their hands and face to protect them from getting chapped by the cold.  Many tribes used the outer stem fibers of fireweed to make fine cordage for fishing nets.  Coastal tribes used the silky seed fluff for padding and for weaving blankets or clothing by adding it to dog hair, goat wool, or duck feathers.  The seed fluff also makes good tinder for starting fires.

   

No help there. I was about to give up on finding out what is meant by "fireweed essence" when I stumbled on a site that revealed how to make fireweed jelly. The first step is to combine eight cups of fireweed blossoms and eight cups of water in a saucepan (first picture). Simmer for about five minutes to make fireweed "tea" (second picture). The rest of the steps are the standard steps in making jelly; see the site if interested. (Other than sugar, the only other important ingredient is pectin. Citrus peel, which is 30 percent pectin, is the main source of pectin; we saw on 15 Mar 2015 that citron, with its thick peel, is a favored source.) You end up with a massive haul of fireweed jelly (third picture). One conclusion is that the list of ingredients, which is supposed to order the ingredients by weight, is incorrect. The order should probably be sugar, pectin, fireweed. (I spot-checked some other jelly labels, and I find that inaccurate labeling is the industry standard.)

      

I conclude that "fireweed essence" is a vague term that the user can define as desired; in the realm of jelly, it means cooked flowers.

Gift Idea

If you are looking for a gift that is more intimate than a jar of jelly, consider a fireweed necklace.

               

Travel Tip

If you are fired up for fireweed travel, take a trip to the Fireweed Lodge on Prince of Wales Island, which is close to Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska. As you see below, boating and fishing are its specialties. To fire your imagination, watch this video. You can get away from it all for four days and three nights for $3700 per person, assuming two in a boat. Trip Advisor gives this lodge five stars.

The Fruit Explorer Investigates Fruit-themed Clothing, Part 1 of 2

On 5 Jan 2016 a catalog from Crazy Shirts showed up in my mailbox. (I have no idea what chain of events led to Crazy Shirts thinking that I was in the target demographic for their product.) The cover had a picture of a shirt that showed a discreet pineapple. I eagerly flipped through the catalog with my search image set on fruit but didn't find anything else of interest except for a shirt that featured a giant saguaro (see 13 Nov 2015).

   

While this catalog did not yield much of a fruit harvest, it did suggest the idea of an e-mail on fruit clothing.

Since I have no qualifications as a clothing analyst, the body of this e-mail is primarily pictures with a minimum of commentary.

Clothing that Makes You Look Like Fruit

Watermelon

Strawberry

      

Banana

      

Pineapple

            

Mixed Fruit

         

Clothing that Features Pictures of Fruit

Dresses

                     

Casual Wear

The next-to-last picture features poison apple thigh-high stockings. The last picture depicts Josephine Baker's famous banana outfit. This videoshows her performing her banana dance. (If you want to engage in serious study of this fruit costume, you might consult, "Dialectics of the Banana Skirt: The Ambiguities of Josephine Baker's Self-Representation," on this University of Michigan site. If you prefer the more casual approach, you can begin your study of the first black female international superstar at Wikipedia. Josephine Baker was Mei-Mei's childhood hero since she adopted twelve children, who she called the "Rainbow Tribe.")

                     

Sweaters

                  

(Continued in Part 2)