Exploring the Niagara Frontier: All Around the Mulberry Bush

I love eating. I love nature. I love eating nature.

That means the month of July is special time for me and other wild locavores on the Niagara Frontier, as we are blessed with so many types of edible fruits in our forests and fields. From wild strawberries to black cherries to blackcaps, one’s palate can never be bored. Years like this, which have seen consistent rainfall from bud to flower to fruit, are especially bountiful and some plants seem overflowing with juicy fruits.

Among the most overlooked and underappreciated of these is the mulberry.

Not everyone has a taste for mulberries. My wife and daughter could do without them. As a matter of fact, just last week my two-year-old took a bite out of one, handed me the rest of it and in disgust said, “Here. You eat it.” She hasn’t touched one since.

Those of us who enjoy mulberries appreciate the subtle fleshiness of the fruit and the unforgettable flavor that is at once sweet and tart. They are so juicy that they often pop in your mouth when you bite into them.

Every year I collect the berries in volume and have a quarter-quart as my morning and afternoon snacks at work over their two-week peak.

If you do that, be sure to have a toothbrush handy in your desk as the juices tend to darken your teeth, just as they do your hands when picking and eating them.

Similarly, if you go out and pick them, be sure to wear old shoes that you can leave on your porch or in your mudroom. When mulberries are at their peak the ground below a mulberry tree will be littered with overripe berries and you will step on them. You don’t want to be bring that dye into your home and stain your carpets or woodwork.

Where to find them

Mulberry trees can be found mostly in the agricultural areas of Eastern Niagara County, especially those with dairy farms in the immediate vicinity. It won’t be often that you’ll find them in woodlots.

That’s because one of the greatest consumers of mulberries is the European starling. These pesky birds inhabit feedlots by the hundreds because they love to eat the corn and other grains that the farmers put out for their cattle. The starlings will wander away from the farm when mulberries are ripe and, if you don’t make periodic visits to your local mulberry tree, they will clean it completely of the berries.

If you want to find a mulberry tree, narrow your search to within a half-mile of a dairy farm and look for them in hedgerows and along “natural” hedgerows (like creek edges). These are places where the farm starlings will roost and defecate – it is their droppings that spread mulberry seeds and ensure future generations of trees. I guess starlings are good for something.

Mulberry trees can also naturally appear in lawns. That’s because the robin, one of our most common backyard birds, is an avid devourer of mulberries, and they, like starlings will plop the seeds in their stomping grounds.

Do you want a cue that there are likely mulberries in your neighborhood? Check the hood of your car this week or next. If there are bird droppings on it that are deeply purple, chances are your feathered friend had mulberries for dinner.  

What to look for

Mulberry trees are relatively short trees. They are 20- to 50-feet tall and can start producing fruit at about 15-feet in height (which is why you’ll need an a-frame ladder if you are serious about harvesting them).

The leaves are mostly oval or heart-shaped but they can also have a mitten shape and are typically three- to five-inches long and two- to three-inches wide. Mulberry leaves are also very glossy on the top. If you encounter the trees in the fall, the leaves will be yellow.

The bark of the trees is furrowed, even scaly, and not the least bit smooth.

The tree has a spreading crown (it doesn’t grow straight up like, say, a tulip tree) and has been known to be planted as a shade tree for that reason.

In the spring, mulberry trees produce greenish, spiked flowers than can be up to two-inches long. They gradually turn into fruits which first look white, become pink-red, and then turn a deep purple – almost black – when ripe. The fruits are one- to one-and-a-half-inches long. When picking them, a small bit of green stem will remain atop the fruit. That stem is edible and will do nothing to either improve or ruin the flavor of the fruit.  

The fruits might start to become ripe around July 1, but really don’t become so until the second and third weeks of July. It’s rare that you will see any into August.

Interesting and miscellaneous facts

The red mulberry is native to North America and we are just at the very northern edge of its range. It is the one you are least likely to find in your travels in Niagara County.

You will encounter its Persian cousin, the black mulberry, which was brought to the States to create a silk industry. Those who introduced them here failed to realize that silk worms love white mulberry leaves but have no care for black mulberry leaves. After failing in that regard, settlers decided to keep the trees anyway because of the delicious berries.

Mulberries aren’t berries, they are collective fruits. But for layman’s sake, throughout this column, I identified them improperly as people have for centuries.  

It is highly encouraged that you thoroughly wash mulberries before eating them due to the likelihood of starling droppings on them. Starlings are not the cleanest birds.

Mulberries can eaten raw or put in pies, jams and jellies. They are quite tasty when served warm over dumplings/biscuits. My favorite treat is to top vanilla ice cream with them.


Bob Confer lives in rural Gasport where he doesn’t mind robins spreading their droppings in his lawn, hoping that they become mulberry trees. You can email him at bobconfer@juno.com . You can follow him on Twitter @bobconfer.



From the 10 July 2014 East Niagara Post

Exploring the Niagara Frontier

I was recently approached by my friend about writing a column for East Niagara Post. I couldn’t pass up the chance as I enjoy writing, something made evident by my 9 years of piecing together an opinion column for the Greater Niagara Newspapers.

Although public policy is a constant subject of my GNN columns, it’s not one of my passions. It’s one of my frustrations and something that I feel obligated to educate the masses about.

When it came to the invitation, I asked if I could pursue one of my passions — the outdoors — and educate the masses about that. I’ve always wanted to write a nature and science column and I’ve always felt that the Niagara County could use one. The Buffalo News’ Sunday science page — with its cornerstone contributor, Gerry Rising — is one of its most popular installments (and my favorite). There’s no reason why that sort of educational success couldn’t translate to Niagara County media as well.

That’s where this column came from. Where is the column going?

“Exploring the Niagara Frontier” will do just what the name says — explore the Niagara Frontier. Every week we will look at some natural aspect of the region — like a specific animal or plant or perhaps an interesting geological feature — or maybe we’ll check out one of our numerous public assets, like Royalton Ravine Park or the Lockport Nature Trail.

The focus will be on telling stories about our precious natural world and giving folks a background on some of the living creatures that we either, one, take for granted or, two, let slip undetected in our backyards.

Like East Niagara Post, we will train our attention on Eastern Niagara County. Too often, the wonders of this area take a back seat to the magnificent natural beauty of the Niagara River, Niagara Falls, and the Gorge. But, as you will discover (that is, if you don’t already know it), we’re pretty darn blessed with our own special brand of natural beauty on this side of the county — there are many reasons why people who live in Buffalo or the north towns commonly refer to Eastern Niagara County as “God’s Country.”

You may be asking yourself, what is guy who owns a plastics factory doing writing about nature?

It may seem counterintuitive at first since plastics have a bad reputation, some of it deserved, in environmental circles.

The thing is, we don’t produce disposable goods at the plant. We pride ourselves on manufacturing durable goods, items made to last a lifetime (kayaks, swimming pool ladders, docks, and more).

You’ll find that I’m not a guy who toes the industry line. For one, I absolutely despise the insanity of bottled water. I still can’t believe U.S. consumers blow their money on a staggering 30 billion of these bottles every year. I also find it jaw-dropping that only 30 percent of them are recycled. Such nonsensical consumerism contributes to the 32 million tons of plastic waste put into landfills annually.

So, I may be a manufacturer, but I’m a manufacturer who understands my and my industry’s roles in the Big Picture.

You’re probably wondering, too, just what is my background in nature?

I’m basically self-taught when it comes to biology and it’s a love affair that’s lasted a lifetime.

As early as the second grade you could find me keeping a field guide to the birds close to me at all times. It went to school. It went out in the field. It probably even went to bed with me.

Growing up on a 280-acre farm which my family worked till I was 10 (a farm that I still live on to this day, although its tillable land is rented out to a local farmer), I roamed field and forest and played in creeks through my childhood and teen years and had an insatiable hunger for learning about everything from the minute to the monstrous.

Then, when most other teenagers may have been shooting hoops or playing ball, my sports were, instead, the outdoor pursuits — hunting and fishing.

A naturalist who hunts? Yes, I am a nature enthusiast, but I am at the same time someone who also selectively harvests his nourishment from the land. It’s a part of Man’s role in the bigger scheme of things; you’re only kidding yourself if you don’t recognize our spot at the top of the food chain.

Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a family who encouraged my love of the outdoors — from parents who stocked my library, took me hunting and fishing, and helped fund my Boy Scout adventures to a loving grandmother who took me on hundreds of Saturday trips to the Alabama Swamps to watch birds.

Had I not gone on to the family business, I’m certain I would have taught biology or earth science at a local school.

That career choice didn’t prevent me, though, from being an educator. During my college years I was the nature director at Camp Dittmer in the Finger Lakes. I was a scout leader for years and a constant focus of mine while on the trail was talking to the boys about the world around us. And, for 16 years at Roy-Hart I spoke to Mrs. Brown’s class about local wildlife, even taking them on nature hikes at Royalton Ravine Park.

So, that’s where the nature bug came from --as well the associated urge to share my knowledge and experiences with you. It’s in my blood.

Be sure to check in every Thursday when we can explore the Niagara Frontier together. In the meantime, get outdoors and enjoy our natural world.

Bob Confer lives in rural Gasport where you can still find him roaming fields and forests and playing in creeks. You can email him at bobconfer@juno.com and follow him on twitter @bobconfer.


From the 03 July 2014 East Niagara Post

EMPLOYERS DON’T NEED 24/7 ACCESS TO WORKERS

Wireless technology has been a boon to the business world in the twenty-first century as it gives businesses unprecedented access to their clients while considerably speeding-up various functions of their operations.

That same technology has also been a bane to many workers. The ubiquitous smart phone has become a  ball-and-chain, weighing them down and making them accessible to their bosses, customers and the grind of work at all hours of the day and night.

In my personal and professional dealings I have witnessed far too many people frustrated, even burned out, over the unfretted access that their employers have to them. I’ve had many a meeting interrupted by someone’s phone going off. I’ve watched as my friends have had to take calls or answer emails long after they’ve left the office. 24/7 access can sap the enjoyment out of work and life in general.

Surveys have shown that after the close of a typical workday 40% of white-collar workers remain connected right till the next day. Other studies have also shown that people just can’t get away, even when they are away. More than 80% stay connected to the office while on vacation, checking in at least once a day. 40% check in multiple times a day.

It’s an epidemic and it’s not just Corporate America who is to blame. I’ve seen small businesses and non-profits exert the same amount of unnecessary pressure on their workers.

No one can rest (or are misled to believe so). If they do, they are blasted by their supervisors or ripped by their customers. Many workers are willing participants in this mess, feeling guilty if they haven’t checked their emails or messages in the evening or on the weekend.  

Why is this expected of everyone? Just because the technology exists, it doesn’t mean we should abuse it.

I have a policy at the plant, shared with my customers and suppliers, that says my coworkers are off-limits after hours, on the weekends and while on vacations. Much to the frustration of some of my clients, we don’t even give out my coworker’s cell phone numbers. 

We don’t want them to take their work home with them because quality of life is contingent on a good job and it’s also contingent on a life outside of that job. Plus, a rested employee, one who can maintain a decent personal life, is a better employee overall.

The rule at the office is, too, that our people must follow the same rules when dealing with our customers and suppliers. It’s the Golden Rule.

It may seem old-fashioned or outdated to some business managers since we live in a 24-hour world. But, everyone needs to realize that constant connectedness with cell phones, smart phones, Blackberries and the like is maybe a dozen years old. The business world did just fine before that and it will be just fine when today’s technology goes the way of the telegraph.

If we can do it with a 24/6 facility and products that are sold to and competing against companies from all over the world, you as employer can do it, too. If you keenly focus on what matters most during business hours --- high levels of effective customer service and the very best product quality – there is no need to harass employees after they’ve punched out for the day. There’s no need to subject your workers to the constant barrage of information and requests. Let them be people – and not just assets to your company – and you’ll find they’ll be more productive and they might even stay with you for a while.

Likewise, workers need to cut the ties when not at the office. How many of you glance at your aggravating smart phones and pine for simpler times? Those simpler times are just one power button away. Use it. Turn off the phone at night when trying to relax or spend time with your children. Be you on the weekends. Disconnect when on vacation.

The company will still be there the next day and so will the work -- get it done then.




From the 07 July 2014 Lockport Union Sun and Journal

Living the Canadian Dream

Wikipedia defines the American Dream as “a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work.”

Its potential is fully realized through entrepreneurship, the art of starting up and/or growing a business entity while managing and assuming the risk and reward associated with it. 

Since the start of the Great Recession, the American Dream has been on the rocks. Although entrepreneurship continues to drive our economy and the development of start-ups and small businesses is moving at a tepid pace, it’s nothing like the explosive growth that our economy saw in 2006 and before. Risks aren’t being taken as they once were for various reasons.

Some folks, though, are taking big risks and making good on them on our soil or with our assets. But, they are not of our nationality. Our neighbors to the north are fulfilling their version of the American Dream, maybe a Canadian Dream or a North American Dream, and reaping the rewards.

Over the past few years, after many more trying to crack the Canadian market with only moderate success, we’ve seen many clients and interested parties from across the border come to the factory to develop new products and business lines. Now, our largest client is from Canada and we have a few more that now rank among our biggest customers. They are making the investments in the entire product life cycle that Americans once did with vigor and some are taking on even greater entrepreneurial endeavors than most Americans would dare.

Our observations about the Canadians are not anecdotal in nature. We are not alone in such experiences.

There are reasons that the Niagara County Center for Economic Development is focusing their marketing and business attraction efforts to the north. That’s where the money is. That’s where the movers and shakers are. NCCED understands that Canadian money will lead to American money.

There’s a reason that a New York Times study in April of this year found that America’s Middle Class was no longer the richest in the world. Our long held grip on that rank has slipped and we have been surpassed by none other than Canada. A recently as 2010 our nations were tied in middle class wealth.

It’s obvious that in this new economy, this new world, the Canadians know how to – and can – live out their dreams.

But why are they doing so well while we are faltering? For brevity’s sake, here are 2 major reasons:

Access to capital: This could be the most significant driver behind the shift. You can’t make money without money. Those who want to start or grow a business need cash but most don’t have it. So, to make good on their dreams they need to borrow it. It used to be that Americans had easy access to small business loans. Those days are long gone. Since the turn of the century, small business loan volume has fallen 14% while microenterprise loans (under $100,000) have plummeted 33%. It’s not for the lack of demand: More than 40% of small business owners have said that they needed a loan within the past 2 years but could not obtain one.  It’s a different story in Canada where business lending rose 9% last year alone. Canadian banks issued almost $200 million in small business loans in just the first 5 months of 2013 (those are “American” numbers!).

Stability of public policy: There is some semblance of regulatory and policy stability up north. Canadian entrepreneurs are operating in a system of governmental knowns. American business owners, on the other hand, are confounded by an ongoing onslaught of unknowns. From the economic collapse under the Bush Administration’s watch to the various nuances of Obama’s health care reform, EPA rules changes and more, potential or new entrepreneurs can’t adequately plan for the future because the rules of the game seem to change on a weekly basis. It’s bad enough one has to plan for changing competition and marketplaces, but American businessmen must also account for their very nation changing. In Canada, investors know what they are getting and how what to expect over the short and long term.

Canadian entrepreneurs are succeeding because they are able to operate their enterprises in an economic system we once enjoyed, one where the private sector (banks) and public sector (federal government) were interested in creating and nurturing success.

If American decision-makers and policy-makers are even remotely interested in revitalizing the American Dream, there’s a lot they can learn from our friends to the north.    

AMERICA’S TRUCKING CRISIS

Because a Hollywood star was critically injured in an accident caused by a tractor trailer, the public conversation has turned to road safety and how big trucks fit into that equation. Never mind that beyond Tracy Morgan’s high-profile crash there are 500,000 accidents with tractor trailers every year in which an average of 11 people die each day.

Although those are incredibly high numbers, they don’t tell the whole story. A majority of the accidents are not the fault of the truck driver -- 60% are caused by the drivers of the other vehicles and their bad judgment. My commute takes me through major trucking routes, so I see that in spades. From drivers tailgating trailers to many more who pull out in front of trucks under the foolish thinking that such a big vehicle really can’t be going 55, I often wonder why there aren’t more accidents.

But this doesn’t mean the industry isn’t without fault. 40% of the accidents – or 200,000 a year – are the direct result of truck driver error or faulty equipment. Of those, 13% (26,000) are attributed to fatigue, the cause du jour of the press as it was the reason behind the accident that nearly killed Morgan. The leading contributor to truck accidents is prescription drugs (twice as many as the fatigue-related crashes).

Now, combine both of those factors with a seemingly unrelated statistic – the average age of a commercial driver is 55 – and you can piece together a puzzle that highlights a safety and economic crisis in the trucking industry.

Fatigue is a result of overworked drivers. Federal law allows for 70 hours of driving a week, which many drivers want to – or are forced to – take (the average workweek is 58 hours).

Prescription drug use is more common among older people which is why that causal factor of collisions is so high – it’s a direct outcome of the older workforce in the industry.

Drivers working longer hours and longer into their lives mean just one thing: There is a shortage of drivers.

The proof is in the pudding as there are currently just under a half-million job openings for truck drivers across the country. A half-million jobs are wanting and there are no takers! That number will only magnify over the next 10 years as the Baby Boomers behind the wheel drive off into the sunset of retirement.

This obviously isn’t the 1970s anymore, when the CB radio craze and hit movies like Convoy popularized the career and many men jumped at the chance to be mavericks and have it be just “them and the road”.

Whereas the young once desired that lifestyle and wanted to see the world, those days are gone. Generation Y and the Millennials think they are seeing the world from their smartphones and computers, so the attractiveness of actually experiencing the world and travelling are long gone. 

It also doesn’t help that parents, school counselors, teachers and the media relentlessly push the college-or-bust routine and push kids away from blue-collar jobs, even though the rewards are there.

With a $2,500 to $5,000 investment in a commercial driver license, drivers can command starting wages of $38,000 for local work and $45,000 for over-the-road hauling. Experienced long-distance drivers net $75,000 and many top out at $100,000. Those hefty values are direct result of the supply and demand of the labor pool and the incredible responsibility and trust put on a driver.

If the twenty- and thrity-somethings don’t begin to fill the ranks, the trucking industry will still continue to have its issues with safety, no matter what iterations of federal law are proposed. If that’s not damning enough, consider the economic consequences.

Despite many folks choosing to malign big trucks, truckers are some of the most important private sector employees out there. If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be food in the grocery stores, products at your local Wal-Mart, medical supplies at the hospitals, and supplies at factories. Drivers keep the world moving.

As their ranks continue to slip or grow at a rate far below demand, there certainly won’t be enough product on the move. Delivery times will slip. Costs will rise. The impact on the end consumer from a service and cost standpoint will be astounding. Come 2020, unless something changes drastically, the economy will be in full crisis mode in regard to the shipping of food and goods.

But, how do we fix that? If the freedom of the road and high wages aren’t attractive to younger people in an already-tough economy, what will be?       

DON’T EXPAND BEAR HUNTING IN NEW YORK

A couple of weeks ago some folks were lucky enough to see a black bear in the town of Pendleton.  The news and social media were all abuzz over the sighting, just as they were in the summer of 2009 when a lone black bear stayed in the county for quite some time. Niagara County residents were then, as they are now, hoping to catch a glimpse of an awesome beast that is an infrequent visitor to our region.

Even in what is considered their regular home territory elsewhere in New York, black bears remain a rare sight. I consider myself a fairly decent naturalist and I spend a lot of time in the woods observing and/or hunting wildlife, yet I have had just a dozen encounters with bears in the wilds of Allegany County over the past 20 years.

That isn’t a number that jumps out at you and screams “overabundance.” Officials with the Department of Environmental Conservation think otherwise.  

Last month the DEC issued their black bear management plan for the period of 2014 to 2024 (you can download the 41-page document at tinyurl.com/NYbearplan). In it, they cite a healthy and expanding population of black bears in the Empire State (an estimated 8,000 bears) as a reason for concern, as it could lead to an increase in human-bear conflicts.  

In hopes of maintaining the status quo in terms of population and interactions, the DEC in that same report outlined their plans to bolster the harvest of these magnificent animals.

As it stands now, hunting of black bears is limited to the Southern Tier, the Catskills, the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes (the last territory an outcome of a 2011 expansion). If the DEC has its way, hunting will be expanded to all of upstate New York, including Niagara County  --- and you know how rare bears are here!

The point of the DEC’s plan is to actually prevent the itinerant black bears from establishing permanent populations on the Lake Plains and in the Rochester area. They want the bruins totally eliminated even though there are vast wild areas where they could maintain healthy and safe populations (the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge immediately comes to mind). That extermination plan is something akin to the 1800s bounties placed on bisons and wolves (a “kill ‘em all” mindset), something we’ve grown to regret decades later. 

The expansion of the hunt wouldn’t end there. The length of the hunt would be expanded as well. A supplemental firearm season would be advanced in the Catskills and Western Hudson Valley, bringing an extra hunt to the first Saturday after Labor Day.

Although not a part of the current plan, the DEC also intimated that they are entertaining the thought of the harvest of cubs and allowing hunting over bait piles and with hunting dogs – things that could be considered poor sportsmanship. It’s wrong to harvest a young animal (you wouldn’t do that to a fawn), it’s not fair to alter an animal’s behavior and feeding over time only to guarantee its harvest (it’s like hunting a farm animal) and although it makes sense to hunt upland game birds and rabbits with dogs (as they hold close to cover), you shouldn’t need them to hunt megafauna like bears.

If you count yourself as a conservationist, animal lover, or just someone with a passing interest in our local wildlife, take the time to write the DEC and let them know their management plan is flawed and they should not allow the reckless slaughter of black bears here in Niagara County and other locales where they haven’t established populations. Keep the hunting regulations as they are now, which do well in maintaining a hunting and conservation balance, and continue to allow the bears to flourish and become a regular part of our outdoor experiences, all across New York. 

The public comment period closes on July 7^th.  Citizens who wish to make formal public comments may do so by sending an email to wildliferegs@gw.dec.state.ny.us or by writing to: Mr. Bryan L. Swift, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Bureau of Wildlife, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4754.