Clover - Outdoor Hour Challenge - Crop Plants #1

This week we focused on the Outdoor Hour Challenge Crop Plants #1 - Clover that is at the Handbook of Nature Study website.

Throughout this post, three different typefaces are used:
- Bold - are words from the Handbook of Nature Study website.
- Italics - are words from the book titled Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock.
- Regular - are my own words.

Inside Preparation Work

1. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 591-598. These pages cover three sections in the Handbook of Nature Study but are closely related. I encourage you to read all the pages even if you do not think you have the particular clover in your area. Use your highlighter to mark sections you found interesting and that at some point you want to share with your children in the follow-up activity.


You can do an internet search for each of these kinds of clover so you and your children will know what you are looking for during your Outdoor Hour time this week. I use Google Images.


=>White Clover
=>Red Clover (Vermont’s State Flower)
=>Buffalo Clover
=>Crimson Clover
=>Rabbit Clover


This is some information from the Handbook of Nature Study that I found interesting and shared with the girls:


- Clover has for centuries been a most valuable forage crop; and...it has been the special partner of the bees, giving them honey for their service in carrying as pollen.

- Those blossoms which are lowest, or on the outside of the head, blossom first.

White Clover

Photo source

- All of them have upon their roots the little swellings, or nodules, which are the houses in which the beneficient bacteria grow. 

- If we pull up or dig out the roots of alfalfa or...clovers...we find upon the rootlets little swellings whic hare called nodules, or root tubercles.


- Each nodule is a nestful of living beings so small that it would take twenty-five thousand of them end to end to reach an inch.

- Even a little swelling can hold many of these minute organisms, which are called bacteria.


- The bacteria...are...underground partners of these plants.  The clover roots give the bacteria homes and places to grow, and in return these are able to extract a very valuable chemical fertilizer from the air, and to change its form so that the clovers can absorb it. The name of these substance is nitrogen.


- Clover roots, which penetrate very deeply, protect land from being washed away by...heavy rains.


- Clover foliage makes a thick carpet over the surface of the soil [and] prevents evaporation and thus keeps the soil moist.


- [Sweet clover has] a perfume so sweet, so suggestive of honey...in the blossoms. It may be the species with white blossoms or the one with yellow flowers.

Field of sweet clover in

Custer State Park, South Dakota.

Photo source

- [It is] beneficial alike to man, bee, and soil.


- [Sweet clover can grow] on soil so poor that it can only attain a height of from two to four feet; but if it...gets foothold on a generous soil, it rises majestically ten feet tall.


- The blossom stalk...is at first an inch or so long, packed closely with little green buds having pointed tips.  But as soon as the blossoming begins, the stalk elongates, bringing the flowers farther apart.


- [White clover has] flowers [that] are all in one bunch, the tip of the stalk making the center of the clover head.

Clover growing in the backyard.

- The leaves are very pretty.

White clover leaves.

- The white clover, in common with other clovers, has the...habit of going to sleep at night.  Clover leaves fold at the middle, the three drawing near each other, looks like going to sleep.

Olivia looking a clover leaf she found.

They each picked a young leaf and older leaf

and compared the markings.

(The older ones have a more pronounced design in white on each leaflet.)

- The clover head is made up of many little flowers; each one has a tubular calyx with five delicate points and a little stalk.

Clover head made up of tiny little flowers.

This one is in the backyard.

- The outside blossoms open first; and as soon as they are open, the honey bees, which eagerly visit white clover wherever it is growing, begin at once their work of gathering nectar and carrying pollen.

New clover with the outside blossoms opening first.

- White-clover honey is in the opinion of many the most delicious honey made from any flowers except, perhaps, orange blossoms.  So valuable is the white clover as a honey plant that apiarist often grow acres of it for their bees.


Outdoor Time

2. Your outdoor time this week can be spent in your yard or at a near-by park. Look for areas of lawn or pastures that may include clover. You may find clover at the edges of trails as well so keep your eyes out as you have your outdoor time this week.


We use to have a beekeeper who had several hives here.  This past winter was particularly difficult for the bees, and he lost all the bees. So, this is the first year in many years that we haven't had bees here.

One of the beehives that was here for many years.

After this past winter, which was very difficult,

there are no longer beehives here.

One of the years, he suggested planting white clover near the bees. The clover has since spread throughout different areas of the farm - the nature trail (which is used as a pasture during the late-fall and winter), backyard, and main pasture.

Clover growing in the backyard.

3. Another subject for your outdoor hour time could be the honeybee. The relationship between clover and honeybees is a beneficial one and if you can observe bees in the clover you have witnessed a great partnership.


We did a study about bees several years ago, learning about the different types of bees, and the different stages of honey (from the bees gathering the nectar to harvesting). This was a fun hands-on lesson that had the girls pretending they were bees as they visited different activity stations (e.g., clean the hives, drink nectar).


This time we went out and sat by the clover for a while to see if any bees visited the flowers.  We didn't see any in the backyard.  However, later while I was mowing on the nature trail where there's a combination of white and red clover, there were some bees visiting the red clover.
4. Pollen can be a topic for your outdoor hour time if you don’t find clover or honeybees. You can review Outdoor Hour Challenge #18 if you need help knowing where to look for pollen.


We found plenty of clover so we didn't focus on pollen during this nature study.


Follow-Up Activity


5. After your outdoor time, make sure to discuss with your children what interested them from their nature study this week. They may be more interested in learning about something they observed and our job as parents is to help them answer their questions. Use the Handbook of Nature Study by looking up the topic in the index or the table of contents.


In the Handbook of Nature Study, on page 593, there is a section on nodules. The nodules will be found as little “swellings” on the roots of clover. These nodules have an important job which is explained in the Handbook of Nature Study on the same page. Make sure to read this section to yourself so when you have your follow-up activity you will be prepared to talk about nodules.


Sophia wanted to know if you can eat clover. Told her that it is edible so she tried some. "Please do not take a picture of me eating clover," she said. She tried it and said it had a "pleasant" taste..."kind of sweet."

Sophia holding some clover and

wondering if it was edible.

Found some recipes for ways that clover can be used for eating. Since there's an abundance of clover on the nature trail, we will pick some of that later this week and make some recipes using clover. In the mean time, there are recipes listed below that use clover.
5. On page 594 in the lesson, #3 suggests that you take up the clover plant and look at its roots. This would make a great addition to your nature journal. Sketch the whole clover plant and then perhaps one of the flowers.


The girls picked several clover plants and leaves to draw in their nature journal and observe closer with a magnifying glass indoors.

Olivia holding a clover leaf and blossom

that she brought indoors to draw.

We did not dig any of the clover plants up since it was so hot outside (almost 90 degrees). On a cooler day, this would be an interesting thing to do.
6. On page 598 in the lesson, #5 suggests that you tie a string around a clover head that has not yet blossomed. This way you can observe the same flower over a period of several days. You could record each day’s observations in your nature journal either in words or as a sketch.


There were many clover plants in different stages of growth in the backyard. The girls looked for ones at the early stages of growth, middle, and end.

Sophia looking for clover in different stages of growth.

Optional activity: Find some clover honey at your grocery store and enjoy it on bread or in some herbal tea.


We enjoyed some honey that was produced from the bees/hives on our farm.


Other activities


I read on Healthy Home Gardening that "Native Americans used whole clover plants in salads, and made a white clover leaf tea for coughs and colds. Leaves of white clover are edible, raw or cooked. The young leaves are best harvested before the plant flowers, and can be used in salads, soups etc.


"They can be used as a vegetable, cooked like spinach. Flowers and seed pods have been dried, ground into a powder and used as a flour or sprinkled on cooked foods such as boiled rice. The young flowers can also be eaten raw in salads. The root can be eaten if cooked first.


"A sweet herb tea is made from the fresh or dried flowers. It is considered delicate. The dried leaves impart a vanilla flavor if mixed into cakes etc."


The recipe below is from the Manataka American Indian Council


Clover Soup


Ingredients:


2 cups clover flowers and leaves
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter (we used dairy-free butter)
2 pints water
3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:


Clean and dip clover flowers and leaves in cold salted water. Remove and cut into pieces. In a large saucepan, sauté flowers, leaves and onions in butter.


When all is softened add water, then potatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Cook gently for 20 minutes. Drain the cooking liquid and save it.


Puree potato mixture and dilute with the cooking liquid, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil, the reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Can sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese if desired.


White Clover Salad


Make a fresh salad using lettuce and onions from the garden.  Sprinkle white clover blossoms on top.


White Clover Tea


White clover has many health benefits. According to the Peterson Field Guide of Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants and Herbs, American Indians used leaf tea for colds, coughs, fevers, and leukorrhea. In European folk medicine, flower tea is used for rheumatism and gout. Like red clover, white clover contains the estrogenic isoflavone genistein which has cancer-preventative properties and antioxidants.


To make white clover tea:


1. Pick fresh flowers and leaves.
2. Rinse.
3. Place in a tea kettle or small pot with water.
4. Heat to almost boiling.
5. Strain into tea cup.
6. Add sugar or honey (if desired).


We enjoyed learning about clover and its benefit to bees and environment.  It was an added bonus to learn about its use throughout history by American Indians as well as other in folk remedies.  I'm sure that when we use the blossoms in a variety of food this weekend, it will be something that we will remember for a long time!