Poem: "The Frankenstein Trees"
Oct. 20th, 2024 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is the freebie for the October 2024 ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from labelleizzy. It also fills the "Frankeinstein" square in my 10-1-24 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.
"The Frankenstein Trees"
[1960s]
The Diggers promoted
the idea of living a Free life.
They baked whole-wheat bread
in coffee cans, then gave out
Free Food in the city parks.
They salvaged used or
discarded materials,
made crafts, and put
them in Free Stores
for people to take
what they needed.
In fall, after the trees
went dormant, they
harvested scionwood
from fruit-bearing cultivars
in gardens and orchards.
In spring, they snuck around
grafting the whips to the branches
of ornamental fruit trees growing
in parks or along the city streets.
Eventually, crabapple trees
began to bear dessert apples,
while ornamental pears and
plums and cherries swelled
with a flush of edible fruit.
They were Frankenstein trees,
and they fed anyone for Free, and
it was beautiful, man, just beautiful.
* * *
Notes:
The Diggers are a countercultural group promoting free access to human needs like food, culture, and a place to be.
Guerrilla gardening involves growing plants on land that is considered someone else's property, such as abandoned lots. In this case, it isn't planting directly in the ground, but rather grafting scionwood of fruit-bearing trees onto ornamental trees.
Scionwood is a small shoot or twig, often called a whip because it has no branches, which is grafted onto another tree that is called the rootstock (even if it is actually a branch). Scionwood controls the flowers and fruit of the tree.
Rootstock is a base tree, the part that grows underground and reaches up just far enough to hold a graft of scionwood that will bear the fruit. Rootstock controls the size of the tree and often resists cold better. In other cases, a whole tree can be used as rootstock, such as grafting a dessert apple whip onto a crabapple tree.
Prunus or stone fruit includes cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots and also almonds. They are all compatible for grafting and can be crafted into a "fruit cocktail tree."
Apples (Malus species), pears (Pyrus species), and quinces (Cydonia species) are all pome fruits. They belong to Malinae or the apple subtribe of Rosaceae or the rose family. Apple can usually graft any other variety of apple, and crabapple is also highly compatible. Pear can usually graft any other variety of pear. Some varieties of pear are compatible with some varieties of quince. Some varieties of pear are compatible with some varieties of apple. Some varieties of quince may be compatible with some varieties of apple; medlar (Mespilus species), loquat (Eriobotrya species), and crabapple may also graft onto quince. So in theory, you could make a tree combining those fruit types.
There are many varieties of ornamental fruit trees. Some are sterile. Most bear small inconspicuous fruit that is rarely fit for human consumption, although wildlife may enjoy it. An exception is crabapples, many of which can make excellent jelly or cider -- but you need a kitchen and suitable equipment for that, as few are sweet enough to eat raw like dessert apples. See ornamental fruit varieties for the Pacific Northwest or the South.
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from labelleizzy. It also fills the "Frankeinstein" square in my 10-1-24 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America."The Frankenstein Trees"
[1960s]
The Diggers promoted
the idea of living a Free life.
They baked whole-wheat bread
in coffee cans, then gave out
Free Food in the city parks.
They salvaged used or
discarded materials,
made crafts, and put
them in Free Stores
for people to take
what they needed.
In fall, after the trees
went dormant, they
harvested scionwood
from fruit-bearing cultivars
in gardens and orchards.
In spring, they snuck around
grafting the whips to the branches
of ornamental fruit trees growing
in parks or along the city streets.
Eventually, crabapple trees
began to bear dessert apples,
while ornamental pears and
plums and cherries swelled
with a flush of edible fruit.
They were Frankenstein trees,
and they fed anyone for Free, and
it was beautiful, man, just beautiful.
* * *
Notes:
The Diggers are a countercultural group promoting free access to human needs like food, culture, and a place to be.
Guerrilla gardening involves growing plants on land that is considered someone else's property, such as abandoned lots. In this case, it isn't planting directly in the ground, but rather grafting scionwood of fruit-bearing trees onto ornamental trees.
Scionwood is a small shoot or twig, often called a whip because it has no branches, which is grafted onto another tree that is called the rootstock (even if it is actually a branch). Scionwood controls the flowers and fruit of the tree.
Rootstock is a base tree, the part that grows underground and reaches up just far enough to hold a graft of scionwood that will bear the fruit. Rootstock controls the size of the tree and often resists cold better. In other cases, a whole tree can be used as rootstock, such as grafting a dessert apple whip onto a crabapple tree.
Prunus or stone fruit includes cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots and also almonds. They are all compatible for grafting and can be crafted into a "fruit cocktail tree."
Apples (Malus species), pears (Pyrus species), and quinces (Cydonia species) are all pome fruits. They belong to Malinae or the apple subtribe of Rosaceae or the rose family. Apple can usually graft any other variety of apple, and crabapple is also highly compatible. Pear can usually graft any other variety of pear. Some varieties of pear are compatible with some varieties of quince. Some varieties of pear are compatible with some varieties of apple. Some varieties of quince may be compatible with some varieties of apple; medlar (Mespilus species), loquat (Eriobotrya species), and crabapple may also graft onto quince. So in theory, you could make a tree combining those fruit types.
There are many varieties of ornamental fruit trees. Some are sterile. Most bear small inconspicuous fruit that is rarely fit for human consumption, although wildlife may enjoy it. An exception is crabapples, many of which can make excellent jelly or cider -- but you need a kitchen and suitable equipment for that, as few are sweet enough to eat raw like dessert apples. See ornamental fruit varieties for the Pacific Northwest or the South.
