Christmas Nuts

For many people, roasting chestnuts and snacking on fresh nuts is a Christmas tradition. Besides humans, the only other animals that can effectively crack the shells of nuts are those with strong, chisel-like teeth, namely rodents. Rodents, like squirrels, harvest nuts in the fall and store them for the cold winter months just like we do. Nuts are a good source of protein and contain many vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. Not all nuts are alike; some nuts, like hazelnuts, are fruits with thick outer shells. Other nuts, like almonds and walnuts form a hard pit in the centre of a fruit called a drupe, like a peach or a cherry. Sadly, many people in North America have developed life-threatening allergies to nuts.

(Bertholletia excelsa)

Brazil nuts grow in clusters of 12-24 inside coconut-like capsules. Native to South America, Brazil nuts are popular snacks in Europe and North America. Brazil nuts are not commercially grown outside South America as they perform poorly in monocultures, relying on wild bees for pollination. One of the only animals that can eat Brazil nuts is the Agouti, a large rodent. Agoutis use their sharp incisors to open the hard capsule and shell. Since Agoutis hide nuts they don’t eat, they disperse them into new habitats. Brazil nuts are commonly added to South American fruitcakes.

(Carya illinoensis)

Pecan is a large, wind-pollinated deciduous tree native to North America that can reach heights of 170 ft. The nut is encased in a leathery, green husk that cracks open when ripe. A single tree can yield over 400 lbs of pecans each year. Pecans were harvested extensively by eastern Indigenous peoples. European settlers quickly embraced the pecan, eating them plain, spiced, or in baking. Pecan pie, often served at American Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, is a classic example of pioneer “fusion” cooking. Pecans are sometimes added to Canadian butter tarts instead of raisins, as well.

This blog is part of a series on The Botany of Christmas. Learn more in:

Christmas Spices

Christmas Fruits

I come from a long line of European women who did a lot of baking: fresh bread and buns, pies, squares, cookies, and strudels. Although my mother and grandmother baked throughout the year, Christmas was my favourite time because that’s when the really special treats were made, things that you didn’t eat just every day: hot roasted chestnuts, fruitcake, butter tarts, honey cake, shortbread, and chocolate Yule logs.

Learn more on:

Christmas Nuts

Christmas Spices

Christmas Fruits

When people find out that I study and collect wild plants I suspect that they have visions of me tromping through the woods to study beautiful orchids and majestic wildflowers. The fact of that matter is that attractive plants, orchids in particular, are pretty well-studied compared to many other groups.

Orchids attract a devoted cult of nature lovers who, for fun on their weekends and vacations, wander through bogs and remote forests in the hopes of discovering new species or taking a perfect photograph of a rare Lady’s-slipper. In fact Manitoba has three non-profit organizations (Nature Manitoba, Native Orchid Conservation Inc. and Conserve Native Plant Society Inc.) that are involved in some way or another in the appreciation, documentation and conservation of orchids. So I’m not too worried about the orchids-I know that they are being meticulously documented by their legions of fans.

What I am worried about are the ugly plants-the wind-pollinated ones with tiny flowers that grow in very specific microhabitats. These plants are either completely overlooked or regarded as weeds and stepped on. They are like neglected younger siblings in a large family that only get attention when they do something bad, like grow in someone’s garden or in a crack in the sidewalk. We don’t know much about the distribution and ecology of these ugly species and since they are unattractive and sometimes hay-fever inducing, no one loves them enough to study them. No one but me. I’ve developed and odd fondness for these homely plants because they are a challenge to locate and identify. I find it very satisfying to be able to identify plants that most amateur and even some professional botanists ignore.

One of my recent projects has been to identify “taxonomic gaps” in the botanical collection here at the Museum. I prepared a list of plants that I know have been found in Manitoba but that we don’t have many (or any) specimens of. Most of them were “ugly” wind-pollinated sedges, rushes, grasses or exotic, naturalized “weeds.” Others were rare native annuals that don’t germinate every year and can be hard to find. Some were at the edges of their North American ranges and not present in high numbers. Quite a few are aquatic plants (like pondweeds) that grow in lakes, sloughs and rivers. Not a single native orchid though is unrepresented in our collection. In addition to our collection of specimens we also have a slide collection which features mostly pretty plants; there are 300 photographs of orchids but only one slide of goosefoot plant.

So I don’t really need a lot beautiful wildflowers in my collection (unless they are from a part of the province that hasn’t been visited before). What I DO need are the weeds growing by the side of the road, the pondweeds that cling to your leg when you’re going for a swim in the lake and the grass-like plants that grow in damp, muddy areas. But no orchids please, they’re just not ugly enough.

Ask anyone if they can name a type of Ukrainian food and they will immediately answer perogies. Italian food is clearly spaghetti and meatballs while spicy, peanut-based curries are classic Thai fare. But ask someone to name a Canadian or American dish and most people will either draw a blank or perhaps mutter something about hamburgers and hot dogs (which are actually German) or pizza (which is Italian). It is unfortunate that so many of us forget that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner features some of the many foods that are native to the Americas.

First of all what do I mean by a traditional Thanksgiving dinner? I tend to think of roast turkey, cranberry sauce, wild rice and chestnut stuffing, cornbread, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, baked squash and, for dessert, pumpkin, blueberry, maple sugar, and/or pecan pie. What is unknown to many people is that the main ingredient in each of these foods is native to the Americas.

Turkeys were found wild all over North America. Cranberries and blueberries are low shrubs that grow in the boreal forests of Canada and the southern United States; they are now raised commercially. Wild rice is grown and harvested by First Nations in the wetlands of northeastern Canada. Pecan, maple, and American chestnut trees dominated the eastern deciduous forests in Canada and the United States. Although pecan and maple trees are still common, the American chestnut is almost extinct, the victim of a disease (i.e. Chestnut blight) accidentally brought to the Americas from Asia. Corn and squashes (including pumpkins) were originally bred by the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America, while potatoes were a staple of the Peruvian Inca.

An examination of the history of agriculture and world cuisine reminds us that culture, far from being static, is constantly in flux. So the next time you encounter a foreigner who asks about Canadian culture mention the significance of the Thanksgiving dinner and all of the cultures whose world cuisines were forever changed by the plants of this continent and the First Nations who began cultivating them. Happy Thanksgiving!