May. It’s greener. It’s brighter. It’s Vermont showing off. When the calendar rolls around to the fifth month, the Green Mountains once again become lush.
Around us, the earth awakens, soon offering Vermonters the year’s first wild harvest. Dandelions bloom: their sunny heads compose a breathtaking site as they carpet our fields in yellow. Some folks will even pick them for greens, or carefully snip their flowers to make dandelion wine. In the forest, ramps, also known as wild onions, cover the forest floor. This edible plant is delicious chopped into salads, atop a pizza, and minced into pesto for pasta. Beside the stone wall or in the riverbed, Vermonters forage for fiddleheads in the moist earth, until they unfurl into ferns. It’s a treat that’s often pickled or just steamed with Vermont butter. Yum.
May also goes wild with wildflowers. While hunting turkeys, fixing the fence, or working the land you may take a moment to observe Vermont’s abundance of wildflowers - Marsh Marigolds, Lady Slippers, Hepaticas - the list goes on. A book authored by the late United States Senator George D. Aiken, Pioneering with Wildflowers, is one great resource for identifying Vermont’s first spring flowers. First published in 1935, the guide was so popular that it has been reprinted several times, helping generations of Vermonters figure out the mysteries in the earth before them.
May also means migration. The birds are back in big numbers. From the Hermit Thrush, Vermont’s state bird, to the American Bittern, they entertain us from the crack of dawn until dusk. Open and fertile farm fields provide habitat for countless species of birds, and farmers often share stories of loyal feathered friends who return each year. Farmers also choose to open their land for recreation, including turkey hunting. May is turkey season in Vermont.
We are grateful to all the landowners who welcome hunters into their fields and forests. This season the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets are teaming up with Vermont hunters to look for the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum). The adult female lone star tick has one spot on the center of its back; the adult male is identified by six markings around its perimeter. This disease-bearing tick, which has been found on turkeys in other northern states, is believed to be in Vermont but has so far eluded capture through surveillance methods. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, as part of our partnership with the Vermont Department of Health to help prevent diseases in humans and animals, has arranged for volunteers to staff selected reporting stations around the state to inspect (with hunters’ permission) turkeys for Lone Star ticks and collect information on the turkey and where it was harvested. Farmers, people who work outside, and outdoor recreation enthusiasts should always do tick checks before coming inside.
Most of all, May marks an annual milestone: we have survived another Vermont winter. This year, we also made it through a very intense mud season as we continued to pay our dues through March and April. Dare we say this mud season was one of the worst “fifth seasons” ever?
We hope Mother Nature is kind to our Vermont farmers and gardeners as they prepare for another growing and harvest season. May… it moves too fast, but we sure do enjoy all that green in the Green Mountains.
Anson Tebbetts
Secretary