Show your patriotic spirit this July 4

    Every trip I make into Canada, I’m always amazed at the number of red maple leaf flags I see flying. They seem to be everywhere and everyone has one outside their home. This weekend marks the celebration of this country’s grandest holiday. Make sure you have Old Glory painting the breeze. And if you don’t have one, go buy one. Even if it is made in China, you can’t mistake the colors for being anything but American.

    How does it feel to have already shot half of 2009? Thankfully the weather has been tolerable for us here on Delmarva, but we all know August is our worst month and it’s yet to come. If it follows the pattern that the deep South is in now, we’re in for a smoker later on.

    I’ve already noticed deer in velvet. I get reports often about people seeing huge antlered deer. Even spike look huge now with those big fuzzy bulbs setting atop their heads.

    Much like the miracle of the horseshoe crab with its blue blood, the antlers of deer are nothing short of amazing. Still, the most modern science has yet to unlock their secret. Antlers are the fastest growing bone known to man. Whatever happens to make them grow as they do, if man could but harness it, broken bones would mend in days rather than weeks.

    Whitetail antlers begin their growth from a pedicel starting in March. The antlers grow until August and with good nutrition, a mature buck can grow almost 200 inches of antler in those six months. That relates to more than one-half inch of antler growth every day. I know the math sounds a bit off, but remember the 200 inches includes length, girth and multiple points on two separate beams. The half inch growth per day is in all those areas cumulatively and not singly.

    Clyde Bragg of Milford did come by last week to tell me some fishing lies. I’m sure had I been more attentive, finding the truth would have been easier. The bottom line was that Clyde and John Lupinetti of Harrington went up to a honey hole in Pennsylvania to fly fish for native run trout. Clyde wasn’t sure, but he thought John had caught more fish than he’d caught trees but admitted the count might have been off a bit.

    Any of you who know Clyde know that’s its truly difficult to take much he says seriously as he’s a laugh a minute.

    I remember when the St. Jones River had an occasional commercial crab pot in it, but as the years go by, I see more and more of them. I’m assuming the salinity of the water is increasing and the crabs are moving deeper into the estuary. Certainly the lifecycle should be easier in the marsh mud with all its nutrients. It’s hard not to feel some remorse for the recreational crabber, however. The rivers were easily accessible to him and a bit of “home turf.” Now with the commercial boats plying those waters, the share of its bounty eventually will be strained.

    In last week’s column I spoke of possums. One of their favorite foods is the persimmon. Persimmon is craved by deer, gray foxes, raccoons and possums, and the limited number of fruit bearing trees here becomes a gathering point for all these critters.

    In case you haven’t learned the hard way, the flesh of the fruit is unpalatable until after the first frost. Alum content of the unripened persimmon can ruin your ability to whistle for awhile. Somehow the freeze cycle rids the fruit of all its astringent qualities.

    South Carolina Wildlife magazine had a great recipe for persimmon pudding in its last issue. If you can beat the animals to the tree after the frost, try this as a unique dish.

    You’ll need 1 cup of persimmon pulp (remove the seeds and skin of the fruit), 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 cup of whole milk, 1 cup of sifted all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

    Cream the sugar, butter, egg and persimmon. Once creamed, mix in the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased four-cup baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.