Sanford Days: Ed Yarborough Hike
Hike participants learning about the preserve
Cuplet Fern’s Cali Adams shared her account of this recent Cuplet Fern hike:
For the Saturday morning of Cuplet Fern Chapter’s Sanford Days for the 2023 FNPS Conference, we partnered with Seminole County Natural Lands Program and Sunshine State Seekers to offer our guests some guided hike experiences in 3 of our local Natural Lands managed trails. The options to choose from were Black Bear Wilderness Area, Spring Hammock Preserve, and Geneva Wilderness Area.
We met in the morning at the UF IFAS Extension Services building in Sanford, then rode a chartered bus to the Geneva Wilderness Area. There we met up with Natalie Swanson from the Natural Lands Program, and she led us into the trails that went through an oak and sand pine scrub to the fishing pier located on a small lake on the property. Along the way she told us of the various edible plants that can be found on the property. We found 3 different species of blueberries in fruit, and with permission were allowed to collect a few to taste test.
After a short time on the fishing pier learning about the Eco-Camp programs that the Natural Lands offers at the Ed Yarborough Nature Center located onsite, Natalie led us around the lake and to the camp site that is available for reservations and showed us around the flatwoods habitat located in that area.
She told us about how pine needles can be used to make tea as a source of vitamin C, or even just nibbling on the fresh tips of young pine needles can give you a little citrusy flavor to enjoy. We also sampled grape leaves, marsh pennywort, and smilax tips.
We finished the hike with a great presentation on edible wild plants by Natalie in the cool A/C of the Nature Center, and got to observe the many animals that live inside of the facility as educational ambassadors to campers and visitors.
We then loaded back into the bus and headed back to UF IFAS; on the way we picked up the group that went to Spring Hammock Preserve and got to all chat and share the great time we all had that morning.