Hybrid hazelnuts thrive in the greenhouse at Arbor Day Farm, Nebraska City. This photo shows about 40,000 hazelnuts.

Greehouse Manager Adam Howard checks the root system and structure on a hybrid hazelnut plant. A plant that easily releases from the growing tray indicates that the roots are strong and the plant is almost ready.

A good look at a hybrid hazelnut sprouting in the greenhouse.

These hybrid hazelnuts soak up the warm afternoon sun in the greenhouse at Arbor Day Farm.

Sun streaming into the greenhouse at Arbor Day Farm illuminates the distinct look of the hazelnut leaf.

Find more information about the Arbor Day Foundation’s hybrid hazelnut program online: http://www.arborday.org/programs/hazelnuts/

Friday, Jan. 13
Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia, and the AmericasMart Gift Show. I love the energy and excitement of new products, new artisans and vendors, and all the buying and selling of such unique finds. There’s just no telling what you might find! There was also a Footloose flash mob this year (click to watch) , and while I can assure you that neither Christy nor I were in on the “mob,” we enjoyed it just the same.

HumaniTrees, by Joan Klostermann-Ketels, was one of Susan's picks for adult readers.

Even in the midst of this huge retail show, I’m reminded of what a small world it is! I was placing an order for some of the Tree Adventure’s best-selling plush animals and meanwhile, Diana Fusco of Atlanta is telling me how much she loves Arbor Day Farm since attending a wedding at Lied Lodge a short time ago. It’s fun to make those kind of one-on-one, personal connections, despite being far from Nebraska City.

Saturday, Jan. 14

How exciting today has been! I’ve been finding so many great new items around each corner that I see a sale in our future to make room for it all! Today I met Allen and Diane Davis from North Carolina who had beautiful wooden wine stoppers at Market. The photos I snapped don’t do them justice, but these stoppers will complement nicely Arbor Day Farm’s wine selections. Fun side note: Diane has a wonderful Shag Bark Hickory tree in her yard that she got some 10 years ago from the Arbor Day Foundation as a bare root tree. Another wonderful story!

Books for children and adults are the #1 best-selling item in our gift shop at the Tree Adventure. Today Denise Crawford of Atlanta showed me some of her newest titles, hot off the press! A few of my selections: “Friends of a Feather,” by Arlen Cohn, will keep the younger set entertained with fun, googly-eyed birds on every page; and “HumaniTrees,” by Joan Klostermann-Ketels, shares inspirational quotes and beautiful images of trees, branches, and trunks, revealing nature’s fury and grace deep in the woods. Look for them arriving in our shops in February and March.

Leaf-shaped sticky notes.

Another of my favorite finds today: really cool sticky notes in fabulous leaf shapes and  all sizes. The shading and textures are very true-to-life; looks like the real thing, right off the tree. Rochelle helped me choose just the right mix of colors, shapes, and sizes. Makes a great (and useful) gift idea. I know our shoppers enjoy items like these.

Sunday, Jan. 15
Yes, after two days in Georgia, I’m starting to talk with a southern drawl now. I’m sure my husband will get a kick out of that.

A gnoming we will go! I found some terrific new gnomes for our gift shop and for the ever-popular Gnome Hunt activity at the Tree Adventure. We would never have guessed that it would be so popular when we

Allen & Diane Davis show their collection of intricate wooden wine stoppers.

first offered it in 2010, but now it’s one of our most-booked activities. Travelocity was right… there’s just something endearing about those little gnomes.

Monday, Jan. 16
Heading back to The Good Life of Nebraska today. We’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with such kind and hospitable people here in Atlanta. I truly think this has been the best Market experience ever. We can’t wait to show you all the new items, coming soon to the Tree Adventure and Lied Lodge gift shops.

Until then,
Susan (and Christy)

Nebraska’s Outstanding Nature Tourism Entity in 2011, and we hope you’ll visit soon.

Editor’s Note: The Arbor Day Foundation’s very own Cathy Horner, Human Resources Manager, was selected to appear on the gameshow Wheel of Fortune recently. Naturally, we’re all very excited for her. We had a number of questions about the game show experience, which she was kind enough to answer for us in this blog post. Tune in to watch Cathy on Wheel of Fortune on December 14, 2011.

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Q: How were you selected to be a contestant on the Wheel of Fortune? 
A: My daughter and I attended a Wheel Mobile event, on a whim, last April when Sony Studios was crossing the country in their WheelMobile (a big yellow RV) screening contestants for the Wheel of Fortune.  I was lucky enough to be chosen at random to answer puzzles with a group of people on the stage they set up to look just like the real game show.  After that, I was selected to attend a second audition with a more rigorous screening process.  A couple of weeks later, I was sent a letter stating that I was selected to be a contestant!

Cathy Horner does her best Vanna White impersonation backstage at Wheel of Fortune.

Q: How did you practice?  Were you nervous? 
A: I practiced by playing a Wheel of Fortune game on MSN and with the Wii game that my kids bought for me.  I knew I would be filming during their Sandals Resort Golf Week, so I reviewed a lot of golf terminology too.  I have always been a fan of word games like crossword puzzles and Scrabble so that also helped.  The contestant department spent several hours going over the rules and helping the contestants practice on the day that we taped the show, so I actually wasn’t nervous at all.

Q: Where did you tape the show? 
A: The show was taped at Sony Studios in Culver City, California.  They taped six shows in one afternoon.  Twenty contestants from around the country were on hand including another gentleman from Omaha who had attended the same Wheel Mobile event that I had attended.

Q: We need to know: what were Pat and Vanna really like? 
A: Pat was rather elusive and only appeared during the taping.  He was all business and was treated like The Star.  Vanna was much more personable and met the contestants in the morning and then met with select groups, like Make-A-Wish participants, during the afternoon.  She is so petite in person!

Q: What did you think of the overall experience? 
A: It was a great experience.  I had never participated in filming a TV program, so it was interesting to experience the “Lights, Camera and Action!” that really takes place.  I had my own make-up artist who had worked on high profile casts like Pirates of the Caribbean.  She followed me around with a powder puff and powdered my face every 15 minutes!  Sony has a beautiful set for Wheel and they also have studio tours.  Be sure to visit when you are in the greater Los Angeles area!

Q: When does your show air?
A: My show is scheduled to air on Wednesday, December 14th.  If you live in the Omaha area, watch for it on KETV Channel 7 at 6:30pm.

Q: So… did you win enough money to quit your job with the Arbor Day Foundation?
A: They asked us not to discuss any “winnings” before the show airs, but let’s just say this: my job at the Arbor Day Foundation is priceless.

For those of you who might have missed it, the video below hits all the highlights of his presentation. It’s lengthy at nearly 14 minutes, but if you’ve got the time, we think you’ll like it.

Let us know what you think!

“What is Arbor Day all about?” I ask this question of the visitors during my tours at the Tree Adventure and Arbor Day Farm. As you may expect, I get a variety of answers:  anywhere from planting trees to Johnny Appleseed to saving the planet. I tell them that they all are close, and explain the need to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. 

Throughout my summer as a Nature Interpreter Intern I have learned a lot, starting with the Arbor Day Foundation’s mission and now ending with heirloom varieties of apples. My time this summer, however, has taught me that Arbor Day is about more than just trees.

By working with groups of children from inner-city neighborhoods, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with those who rarely venture beyond their front door. I grew up with a tremendous exposure to nature and the outdoors, but many students, especially from urban areas, did not. They spend their days inside with the many screens (TVs, computers, videogames, etc.) keeping them occupied. This is often because it is safer inside than out, and because they don’t know what to do outside. When they get off the bus at Arbor Day Farm and learn they are going to be outside all day, they quite literally are on “sensory overload.” This can even entail screams, tears, and clinging to the interpreter. To these children, being outside for more time than it takes to walk from the house to the car is terrifying, and this is not an irrational fear on their part. They have never had the opportunity to spend significant amounts of time outside, and we fear what we don’t know. 

Thanks to the Arbor Day Foundation and the Arbor Day Farm Tree Adventure, I had the privilege of leading children through significant time in nature. We had lots of “first” experiences: seeing deer for the first time, being “actually in the woods” (as they would say), and learning that yes, woodchips really do come from trees. Most of the children left wishing they had more time in this natural setting.  The children I worked with this summer left with some knowledge of the world around them, and an introduction to the lessons nature has to teach. (My favorite lesson? Nature does not discriminate:  a mosquito will suck anyone’s blood.) Without J. Sterling Morton and his yearning to plant trees, these children would have spent another day inside.

So what is Arbor Day all about? To me, Arbor Day is about a lot more than trees. It is about appreciating the nature that surrounds us. Through the time I spent with children this summer at Arbor Day Farm, this lesson became apparent, it also became apparent that they would never look at nature the same way again. These little steps, child’s play, are helping to move cultures back to nature, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Hanna Pinneo is a Nature Interpreter intern at Arbor Day Farm Tree Adventure, majoring in Parks and Recreation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She enjoys hiking, playing outside with her nephew and dog, and spending time with her friends. As a National Team member of the Natural Leaders Network, Hanna is dedicated to reconnecting all children with nature.

The happy family after their outdoor wedding ceremony at Arbor Day Farm.

It’s true! And on July 29, 2011, at 6:00pm, we had our first-ever wedding in the larger Nature Explore Classroom here at Arbor Day Farm. The happy couple is Trevor and Toni Dierkhising of Omaha, Nebraska, shown here with their sons Tyler and Jacob.

It was a lovely (warm!) summer evening, and we loved the bride’s choice of sunflowers, daisies, and wildflowers for her bouquet. They planned a beautiful ceremony set against a beautiful background of nature.

From all of us here at Arbor Day Farm, our sincere congratulations to the Dierkhising Family and may your marriage be protected by a sheltering tree.

Give this one a try and let me know how you like it.

Hazelnut Flourless Chocolate Bouchons
2 lbs. melted chocolate
2 cups crushed toasted hazelnuts
1 cup whole toasted hazelnuts
1 tsp. salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 vanilla beans
1 ½ cups sugar
1 oz. powdered gelatin
6 egg whites
Cocoa powder

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat for approximately 15 minutes. Combine salt, cream, milk, vanilla beans, sugar and gelatin in a sauce pan and bring to a scald. Be careful not to boil. Set aside to cool. Slowly stir the cream mixture into the melted chocolate and reserve at room temperature; add the crushed hazelnuts. Chill a bowl and the egg whites, and then whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. Fold into the ganache. Spray a silicone mold with pan spray and dust with cocoa powder. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes or until picks come out clean. Chill the mold. Remove for serving, and garnish with toasted hazelnuts.

Enjoy!
Chef Matt

Matthew Taylor is the Executive Chef at Lied Lodge & Conference Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where local, sustainable entrees are served daily. You can catch him doing a live cooking demo at this year’s Wine Under the Pines Festival on Saturday, August 6, 2011, at Kimmel Orchard & Vineyard, Nebraska City.  Have a specific recipe you’d like to see featured on this blog? Let us know.

Maryland Blue Crab Cakes
2 lb. blue crab meat, well drained
¼ cup raw garlic
1 cup panko crumbs
2 whole eggs
½ cup red bell pepper bruinoise
½ cup carrot bruinoise
½ cup red onion bruinoise
2 jalapeños, seeded and bruinoise
¼ tbl Old Bay seasoning
2 lemons zest and juiced
1 orange zest
½ cup flat leaf parsley, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Kernels from 2 ears of fresh sweet corn

Procedure:
Heat olive oil on medium flame in sauté pan. Add garlic and sauté until aromatic. Add the peppers, carrot, onion, and jalapeño to the pan and cook gently until just sweated together. Add Old Bay seasoning and parsley, cook until just aromatic, about 2 minutes. Combine all ingredients to mixing bowl and stir together well. Adjust seasoning and panko until the mixture forms small cakes that stay together well and are not too moist or too dry. Form cakes into small cylinder shapes Reserve cakes to order.

Until next time,
Chef Matt

Matthew Taylor is the Executive Chef at Lied Lodge & Conference Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where local, sustainable entrees are served daily. Have a specific recipe you’d like to see featured on this blog? Let us know.

Jan Bonham and Kristy Edwards work in the raised beds at Arbor Day Farm.

Are you looking to start your plantings earlier and possibly stretch your harvest date further?  Look no more than raised beds.  Raised beds are nothing more than elevating soil or mix, which allows the soil to warm faster in the spring and to cool slower in the autumn months.  In some regions, depending on climate, using raised beds lengthens the growing time by an extra month on either end of the regular growing cycle. That can be a real advantage in getting strong, healthy plants and trees.

Arbor Day Farm is currently experimenting with our own raised beds.  Our soil here is, for the most part, clay.  This hinders good root development for young seedlings and it also eliminates the possibility of lifting (that’s “greenhouse speak” for harvesting) the seedlings at maturity. The clay would tear the lateral roots, all but killing the seedlings once they went to outplanting.  With the challenge of clay soil in our area, we decided to go with raised beds as a trial when it comes to growing bareroot seedlings here at Arbor Day Farm. 

We started by choosing level ground near our current growing house operations.  We then staked out two sections, each  4’ by 30’.  We chose 4’ because it was wide enough to still access the middle of the bed from either side. We then removed all the sod out of the area and trenched a 6” wide by 6” deep area down the middle of the bed.  Next we constructed the bed walls.  We chose treated lumber (2” x 12”). We lined the bed and the wood walls with a 6-millimeter thick black plastic sheeting, which will block any leaching chemicals found in the treated lumber. 

Once the walls were up and the plastic down, we then laid 4” PVC drain pipe down the trench, and placed about 2” of river rock on top of the pipe as our bottom aggregate.  With the river rock in place, next comes the irrigation system. We put together a simple system utilizing a typical lawn irrigation computer, ¾” PVC pipe, and a major brand riser/irrigation head. Next layer: soil.

Our soil mix included yard compost, peat, sand, and vermiculite.  Once mixed, our recipe gave us the consistency we were looking for.  The yard compost was an easy choice because its readily available in our area and it is cheap. (Hey, we all have a budget, right?)  The peat is another natural organic that gives good porosity.  The sand gives the mix its compaction.  Without sand, the mix would be fluffy.  And, last but not least, the vermiculite (the round white balls you always see in purchased container plants) gives the mix great porosity and good drainage characteristics. We went heavier on the yard compost, which caused our pH to start high.  However, the pH will be adjusted during the growth of the seedlings with an acid injection at each watering. 

Once our soil recipe was fine-tuned, we filled the beds all the way to the top because we knew the soil mix would settle.  And we were right.  We finished the beds in late May and the soil has settled about two inches since then.

In our raised beds at Arbor Day Farm, we are currently trialing two shrubs and one tree species.  After sowing, we covered the entire raised bed with a shadecloth and elevated it on 5′ risers, allowing the irrigation to function correctly.  Once the shadecloth has served its purpose, we will convert it to a wildlife screen to ward off those pesky mammals, both large and small. This screen will stay on until lifting (harvesting) in the fall.  We look to lift our mature seedlings with nothing more than a pitchfork. The tines on the fork should lift the seedlings uniformly and we can then pull them out in groups and shake off the soil mix from the roots. 

This particular raised bed system is a good one to try.  We’re learning the art of bareroot growing, and this system allows us to show what we’re learning to the many visitors that come through the Tree Adventure and the Lied Greenhouse here at Arbor Day Farm.  This outreach is a direct connection to our mission: Inspiring People to Plant, Nurture, and Celebrate Trees.  We hope you’ll come visit this summer and see for yourself.

Until next time,
Adam

 Adam Howard is the Manager of Nursery Operations at Arbor Day Farm and a Certified Forester with the Society of American Foresters. He has been in the forest industry for 11 years and contributes regularly to this blog. For more information on how you can receive trees from the Arbor Day Foundation, visit arborday.org.

Chef Javier Wong and Chef Matthew Taylor spent hours cooking together in the Lied Lodge kitchen.

To make a long story short, an international film crew stayed at Lied Lodge last month while working on a tourism documentary about Peru, South America. They stayed for many days, put in incredibly long hours shooting in Peru, Nebraska, and brought with them some of the finest chefs in the southern hemisphere to star in the film:

Chef Christian Bravo, the award-winning chef and restaurateur of Lima, Peru, hailed as one of the best gourmet chefs in South America;
Chef Javier Wong, internationally known as “The God of Ceviche,” who owns and operates one of the most exclusive restaurants in all of Peru, and
Chef Ivan Kosac, a molecular gastronomy guru who has worked and trained in France and Spain.

Being a chef myself, I was familiar with the collective reputation of these three chefs and their elevated standing in the world community of gastronomy. I was thrilled to have such talented and well respected chefs in house for a few days, and our time in the Lied Lodge kitchen together are some of the most cherished memories of my career.

Chef Wong's signature dish: ceviche.

ocean and forest conservation practices to customers and technique.

The creative director was so taken with the instant rapport between us that he wrote a special segment into his documentary that includes Chef Wong and I cooking together in the Lied Lodge kitchen. The production crew flew in fresh flounder and limes from Peru. Chef Wong brought a liqueur called umeshu to create his signature dish, ceviche. We began cooking and again the language and art of the dish took over; we were slicing and filleting as if we had worked together for years. The dish was a masterpiece and the culinary team here at Lied Lodge had the privilege of watching a master in Chef Wong and tasting his excellent work.

At the end of the experience, each chef presented a gift to the other chefs. I heard Chef Wong commenting on the quality of my Japanese Shun knives, so I boxed one up and presented it to him. He was so taken with the gesture he gave me a hug the size of Texas. He quickly returned the favor by ceremoniously offering up his chef’s knife to me. The other chefs joined in and presented me with a chef’s coat embroidered with the flag of Peru. In return, they were given some of our house-made bison salami, which they prized as “one of the best things we’ve eaten in the United States.” I was honored and overjoyed with the entire experience.

We made fast work of friendships and blasted through barriers of language and thousands of miles. One of the most touching moments of the experience was when Chef Javier Wong touched my chest and said, “The work the Arbor Day Foundation is doing is saving the planet and is never to be taken lightly.” He has since contacted me to find out more about working with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees in Peru.

This particular experience in the Lied Lodge kitchen is one I will cherish for the rest of my career. What a weekend!

Chef Matthew Taylor is the Executive Chef at Lied Lodge & Conference Center at Arbor Day Farm, Nebraska City, Nebraska.