Tout ce que la pluie se promet et en plus

Tout ce que la pluie se promet et en plus

Squish, squish, squish. My toes danced in the newly forming puddles of my shoes. My thick hiking boots had finally relinquished any semblance of staying dry.  The water leaden moss and rain soaked leaves sent droplets slowly and surely into my boots, socks and between my toes.  What drew us out into the cool, wet, fall forest? We were hunting for… Les champignons. Glorious, soil busting mushrooms that scent the air with fruity, earthy odors. This is chanterelle season.

Mushrooms are abundant in the Pacific Northwest. They are the fruiting bodies of a much larger underground network of mycelium. The chanterelle is one of the most popular mushrooms. Their international commercial value exceeds $1 billion dollars annually. Beyond their monetary worth, fungi are also very important to the forests in which they grow.

Fungal mycelium forms a symbiotic relationship with trees. The fungus assists trees in their intake of nutrients and water and helps with organic decay. In return the trees provides sugar for the fungus to sustain itself. Next time you take a walk in the woods to marvel at the giant coniferous trees, take a moment to find a mushroom and say, merci!

Enjoy these fun interpretations of les champignons normands!

née du feu et de la glace

Canoe Island, née du feu et de la glace. The San Juan's location along a major fault line, subduction zone and site of ancient continental ice sheets, makes for some exciting and complex geological history. French speaking naturalists of the late 18^th and early 19^th century played a large role in the development of glacial theory that scientists use today.

Glacial and interglacial cycles are an example of just such a French influenced theory. This theory attributes the advancement and retreat of continental ice sheets to long lasting cycles of higher or lower average global temperatures. The groundwork for this theory came from Saussure and Charpentier, french speaking naturalists, who studied glaciers of the Alps.

Horace Bénédict de Saussure was a Swiss-French physicist and alpine traveler. He was the third to climb Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France, 1787, and proposed that glaciers moved erratic rocks throughout the countryside. He provided extensive observations on the topography of snowy portions of the Alps as well as alpine botany.

Jean de Charpentier was a Swiss-German geologist who studied Swiss glaciers. He documented erratics between 1818 and his death in 1855. Many of the erratics were found in places that current glaciers didn’t extend to. He believed that the glaciers used to be much bigger but wasn’t sure how. The eventual theory of glacial and interglacial cycles, first proposed by Karl Schimper and published by Louis Agassiz, accounts for this conundrum.

This theory is also how geologists studying the San Juans account for the many glacial landscape features found in the islands. How neat that the understanding of San Juan Island geology and glacial history has such an accent français!

Ice Sheets that covered much of North America, including the San Juan Islands, during glacial periods over the last 2.6 million years

FRIENDS of the San Juans à Canoë

This weekend Canoe Island French Camp was honored to host members and friends of the FRIENDS of the San Juans, an organization founded in 1979 that advocates for healthy and sustainable communities in the San Juan Islands. For Stephanie Buffum, the FRIENDS Executive Director, there are three key pieces to creating a thriving community: citizen science, community engagement and continuity of people being there.

Tina Whitman with a captive audience at Malmaison beach

Tina Whitman, the FRIENDS science director, shared her citizen science research techniques for monitoring and restoring forage fish habitats. Gary Bergren from Lopez recounted a story of witnessing surf smelt spawning in an area that had been restored a year earlier. Troy Olsen of Lummi Indian Nation gave a powerful talk on the reef net fishing revival movement and presented his handmade model of a sxwole (reef net). Debbie Fincher from San Juan Excursions introduced the group to the resident orcas and ways to advocate for them.

Joseph, Troy,  Mike, Shirley, Stephanie and Connie with Troy's model sxwole

Between discussions folks enjoyed the wonderful homemade cuisine, canoed, kayaked, played soccer and tennis, roamed the island in search of plants and birds and gathered around a campfire for songs and s’mores. The thriving community experienced this weekend is just the beginning of the many enduring friendships to be made here this summer during camp. We at Canoe Island would like to thank all who participated this weekend and we hope to see you, à bientôt.

Capturing wild yeasts to make French bread

Thanks to Louis Pasteur, the French microbiologist best known for developing pasteurization, in 1857, the western world learned that alcohol fermentation is due to living yeasts. It’s not surprising that a Frenchman would be the one to declare that yeast is a living organism, especially considering the important role of yeast in many of France’s preferred foods: wine, bread, cheese.

Wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria are present in the air and form a symbiotic culture when housed in a mixture of flour and water. Together they create unique and local flavors of sourdough bread. So, starting today, I will be setting up a yeast trap to capture some Canoe Island yeast and next time you come visit us, we can have our very own Canoe Island sourdough baguettes! Le baguette de tradition is such an important food in France that by law, only the following ingredients are allowed to be used in its making: wheat flour, water, yeast, salt. I suppose we’ll have to call our loaves les baguettes de Canoë!

A bubbly San Francisco starter in front of my very first yeast trap!

ARRIVAL OF NEW VOYAGEUR CANOE TO CANOE ISLAND

Imagine gliding over glassy waters that surround Canoe Island at sunset or traveling to a campsite nestled in the San Juan archipelago.  With the arrival of our new 29-foot Langely Voyageur Canoe, this experience will be one of the countless magical memories that campers make at Canoe Island French Camp this summer. Our canoe was built in the style that the French fur traders used across Canada and even into Washington.  It can comfortably fit up to 12-14 paddlers with plenty of freeboard left for camping supplies.

            Shipped to Bellingham from Clipper Canoes near Vancouver B.C., our big canoe was brought across the Salish Sea by Executive Director Joseph Jones with the Ferry Queen. On the prow was hung a cedar wreath made from cedar that Camp Director Connie Jones gathered on Canoe Island.  The cedar wreath was in the tradition of those we have seen on the native canoes that often come through the San Juan Islands on the annual Tribal Canoe Journey, 

Paddling a big canoe takes group cohesion and determination. The Voyageur Canoe took its maiden voyage paddled by volunteers at our Spring Work Party on May 3, who lived up to both of theses requirements, and our paddle around Canoe Island was a success! As we tossed the cedar wreath into the current of Upright Channel, we wondered where this spirit of exploration and friendship will lead us in the Voyageur Canoe this summer.

Tossing the cedar wreath into the Salish Sea