Foraging - The Pinecone Expedition

Last week, right before Thanksgiving, it was beautiful outside, especially for a late November day in Iowa.  It had been quite a long stretch without a motorcycle ride so we decided to get out.  Journey was home from school for the holiday so she rode with us.  It amazes me how much an 11 year old girl can love to get on the back of her dad's bike and take a ride.

Mike likes to ride long highways for long distances without a destination in mind.  I like trips that have an outcome to them.  We compromised this day and agreed to ride a long ride looking for pine cones.  I am always tempted by big beautiful pine trees in my neighbor's yards but find the thought of stopping to pilfer their pine cones a bit distasteful.  I draw the line with apple-foraging at the neighbors and with permission only.

So on this particular day we drove through some local area parks.  I loved that ride.. it had a purpose and was not fast enough to lower the wind chill factor.  Even on a 65 degree day, if you ride 65 miles per hour, the wind chill lowers somewhere to feel like the 40's or 50's... a little cold for me.  So driving through parks was the perfect trip for us!

We drove a few looking for the biggest pine trees we could find that dropped good size pine cones.  We have been using some of the homemade pine cone firestarters in our fireplace already this season and they work wonderfully!  If one is nestled in the middle of the logs to be started and lit, a raging fire is effortlessly obtained.  They are so pretty on the side of the hearth in a metal basket too!  So Journey and I are going to dip a few hundred more to last the winter and to give for Christmas gifts.

While out on our trip we spotted this on a hill:

Beautiful!  Two enormous pine trees!  I had thought to bring 3 big grocery sacks for gathering, so off the bikes we went and up the hill.  We easily filled three bags with medium to large pinecones from those trees just laying on the ground ready to be covered by Iowa winter's snowfall.  It felt good to rescue them for a purpose other than becoming dirt in later years.

Riding motorcycles poses a challenge for a gatherer.  Sort of like riding a horse with no buggy I suppose.  There is only so much room to bring back your spoils.  Although you would be surprised what Mike can fit in his luggage areas.  We put the three heaping full bags of pine cones in the packs of our bikes and took off again for home. 

But we will be back to this park.. not just next year for more pine cones.. but soon.  We found a huge bunch of walnuts just lying on the ground under a nearby tree.  Ready for me to harvest, clean, and pick the nutmeats from.  SCORE!!  I hope I get this lucky hunting Morels next spring!