Wachusett Greenways

Connecting the Wachusett Community with Trails and Greenways

May 2002 Activities

Holden, MA

UEL Construction has begun the rail trail bed improvement work on the  MCRT west of the I-190 bridge to the future site of the new Charlotte Kaplan Bridge.

                                                  Digging the ditch to divert the large amount of water from the road bed.

Rutland, MA

Left- Rocky G, Stan M. and Gary G removing trees from the rail trail in Rutland May 25, 2002.  Right - Gail Hartman and Colleen Abrams diverting a stream of water away from the trail. They weren't afraid to get their shoes wet.  Trail bed improvement by a local contractor will begin soon.

    On May 19, 2002, Wachusett Greenways and The White Oaks conducted a wild foods walk on the White Oak Trail in Holden. The tour was led by naturalist Russ Cohen.  Below is a narration by Sonya Ciavola - of edible wild foods found locally:

    The male flower sits atop the female flower on the bloom spike. During the second to fourth week in June you can eat the male flower steamed. When the heads are yellow and mature you can collect the pollen and sift it and add it to flour to make pancakes and other stuff.

-The Trailing Arbutus (?) is our state flower. The blossoms are edible; they are white flower with some pink.

-Wintergreen/ Teaberry/ Checkerberry has leaves that you can make sun tea out of. The berries are also edible.

-Indian Cucumber has two tiers. The veins in the leaves are parallel. You dig up the root and can eat it raw.

-Acorns from soft oak trees are milder in flavor. To make flour you shell the acorns and boil them for a few minutes. The water will turn a copper color. Do this many times (at least a few). To dry, spread them out on a sheet in a low temperature oven then grind them up into flour. Freeze what you don’t use. Gather the acorns in September.

-Sweet Fern isn’t really a fern and you can make tea out of the leaves.

-Blueberry flowers are also edible.

-Milkweed has four times it can be eaten. In May you can cook the whole plant. When its 14-15 inches tall you can eat the tender leaves. When its three feet tall the flower buds are in tight green clusters and can be eaten, and when the pods are about one inch long and firm they can be eaten. All of these are cooked in the same way; drop them into rapidly boiling water for seven minutes. You can find them where you find old milkweed socks.

-Partridge Berries are little red berries that grow on green ground cover. The berries have two divots because it takes two blossoms to make one berry. They can pretty much be found and eaten all year round. They have a very mild sweet flavor.

-Vibernum trees grow with branches growing opposite one another. They produce fruits that go from green to red to black. They are ripe at black. There are different species of vibernum and none are poisonous.

-Dwarf Ginseng does not have the medicinal qualities of the Ginseng we know but the tuber is edible. They grow near streams.

-June berry trees are the first to bloom. They have ripe fruit in late June or July. They are small trees with smooth gray bark.

-Day Lilies are all edible. You can eat the tubers, they are like a potato, you can eat the tender center part, you can eat the flower buds sautéed, and you can eat the flowers raw and the wilted flowers in soups or stews.

Berries and seeds are ok to eat lots of, but if you are going to kill the plant by eating it, make sure that they are plentiful in the area.