Home › Forums › Foraging Forum › Foraging 21: Local trees › Reply To: Foraging 21: Local trees
There are quite a few elms and hornbeams around! I’ve never heard of hornbeams before doing this, but they’re apparently the trees in Westerpark that hover a little bit over the river. It’s a simple answer, but sitting under a tree like that during the summer is makes me feel safe and cradled. It doesn’t shed its leaves during the winter, so it can do this year-round.
It grows seed catkins in early summer, and the wood is also apparently really good for firewood. Otherwise it’s mostly grown ornamentally, though an interesting note I found is that it’s been traditionally cut down for non-commercial conversation purposes, likely to stimulate growth. Although there isn’t much medicinal or culinary use to it, at least to humans, I like that it holds this position as more of a shelter.