The weather has been beautiful and quite frankly way to warm for me to be hunting.

The sunshine has made me get my act together and put away the outdoor furniture, mow for the last time and get the “Fish Hawk” ready for winterization and storage until next spring. This time of year also has me helping out my neighbor kids with leaves, wild flowers and insect collections for their biology classes.

It always amazes them and me when I know something that they can’t figure out or find! It just kind of pours out of my mouth and I’ll say I think I know that one.

Sometimes questions come out of kids’ mouths that are unexpected or might even require some research. Like where does root beer come from? Is there a root beer tree? The answer to that question required a little research and I found that many refreshing drinks come from trees.

From the roots and bark of trees like the Sassafras, we make homemade beverages like root beer, birch beer, spruce beer, and sarsaparilla! The truth is that most of these drinks have more manmade extracts in them than the actual tree products.

Somehow I knew that would be the case with the volume of consumer desire for these products.

When out looking for a unique tree leaf, I realized there are certain species that you will find in only specific locations. The search for a Sycamore tree was started a few years back when my niece was in high school and she was required to find a Sycamore tree.

Frankly, I was only familiar with the tree because we have a stand for deer hunting in WVA known as the Sycamore tree. I located some trees along the banks of some local creeks and it has helped biology students complete their leaf collections ever since.

I made a reference to a writer and naturalist while talking to some kids and I realized that whole generations of youth never became familiar with the wild food guru Euell Gibbons of the Grape Nut cereal fame.

His line that the cereal tasted like wild hickory nuts became a catch phrase in the 1960’s Return-To-Nature Movement. Euell was the author of the Stalking the Wild Asparagus, which became known as the Bible of the environmental movement. It was the primer for anyone interested in healthy eating of wild foods.

Thinking of wild hickory nuts, I couldn’t help but to notice that the nut crops were at an all-time high in my area. I found beautiful hickory nuts, black walnuts and butter nuts.

The butter nut is the most difficult tree to find due to scarcity of wild trees. The fruit of the butter nut is similar to the black walnut, football shaped, green and sticky.

To obtain the nut meat, the hull must be cracked open and the white nut meat recovered. In honor of Euell Theophilus Gibbons, who passed away in 1975, I decided to gather the nuts. Our goal was to harvest enough nuts to collect a cup or two of each variety of nuts and make Thanksgiving nut bread using all three.

I’ve tasted the hickory nuts and they are excellent, black walnuts are good and have a unique taste not to be forgotten, while the butter nuts are considered to be a delicacy.

My wife also makes a cookie that requires finely chopped nuts. We believe the hickory nuts will do well as the main ingredient.

I have the job of cracking the nuts and hoping to gather enough ingredients for the upcoming holidays, but I am also looking forward to tasting the delicious treats that come from nature’s bounty.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle