My Fav Southern Oak

by Christine Dekkers

Title

My Fav Southern Oak

Artist

Christine Dekkers

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

My Fav Southern Oak, this lovely old southern Oak is at the entrance to the Avery Island park, Jungle Gardens and Bird City Under the Avery/McIlhenny family's management, Avery Island has remained a natural paradise, inhabited by many animal species, as well as by exotic plants from throughout the world. Edward Avery McIlhenny, or "Mr. Ned" as he was affectionately known, founded this bird colony�later called Bird City�around 1895 afterplume hunters had slaughtered egrets by the thousands to provide feathers for ladies' hats. Edward gathered eight young egrets, raised them in captivity on the Island, and released them in the fall to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico. The following spring the birds returned to the Island with others of their species, a migration that continues today.
The island was named after the Avery family, who settled there in the 1830s, but long before that, Native Americans had found that Avery Island�s verdant flora covered a precious natural resource�a massive salt dome. There, the Indians boiled the Island�s briny spring water to extract salt, which they traded to other tribes as far away as central Texas, Arkansas, andOhio.[1]
Originally all peppers used in Tabasco sauce were grown on Avery Island. Today peppers grown on the Island are used to produce seed stock, which is then shipped to foreign growers,[6] primarily in Central and South America. More predictable weather and readily available farmland in these locales allow a constant year-round supply. This ensures the availability of peppers should severe weather or other problems occur at a particular growing location.
Following company tradition, peppers are picked by hand. To ensure ripeness, pickers compare peppers to a little red stick (le petit b�ton rouge); peppers that match the color of the stick are then introduced into the sauce production process. Peppers are ground into a mash on the day of harvest and placed along with salt in white oak barrels (aging barrelspreviously used for Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey[7]). To prepare the barrel, the inside of the barrel is de-charred (top layer of wood is removed), torched and cleaned, to minimize the presence of any residual whiskey. The barrels are then used in warehouses on Avery Island for aging the mash.
After aging for up to three years, the mash is strained to remove skins and seeds. The resulting liquid is mixed with vinegar, stirred occasionally for a month, and then bottled as finished sauce.[8]
Much of the salt used in Tabasco production comes from an Avery Island salt mine, one of the largest in the world.
Southern live oaks are majestic trees that are emblems of the South. When given enough room to grow, their sweeping limbs plunge toward the ground before shooting upward, creating an impressive array of branches. Crowns of the largest southern live oaks reach diameters of 150 feet�nearly large enough to encompass half of a football field! On average, though, the crown spread is 80 feet and the height is 50 feet. Branches usually stem from a single trunk, which can grow to 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Unlike most oak trees which are deciduous, southern live oaks are nearly evergreen. They replace their leaves over a short period of several weeks in the spring. Sweet, tapered acorns produced by the trees are eaten by birds and mammals, including sapsuckers, mallards, wild turkey, squirrels, black bears, and deer. The threatened Florida scrub jay relies on the scrub form of the southern live oak for nesting. Other birds make use of the moss that frequently hangs from the tree branches to construct nests.
Typical Lifespan: Southern live oaks are fast growing trees, but their growth rate slows with age. They may reach close to their maximum trunk diameter within 70 years. The oldest live oaks in the country are estimated to be between several hundred to over a thousand years old.
Habitat: Southern live oaks grow well in salty soils and in shade, which makes them great competitors against other less tolerant trees. Southern live oaks are confined to warm parts of the country, though, because of their inability to survive freezing temperatures. These trees grow in the wild, but they�re also popular ornamental plants with many southerners.
Range: As their scientific name Quercus virginiana suggests, southern live oaks are found in Virginia, and from Virginia south to Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma.
courtesy of Wikipedia

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January 17th, 2016

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