Sofia is a city of people. People live in apartments that are drab gray blocks of cement. Trains rumble by on iron tracks, and people look out of the windows and talk in Bulgarian. Dull black wires bring electricity to people.
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| From The Big Fieid Trip – London and Sofia, September 2009 |
Sofia is also a city of trees. Brown tree trunks line the streets like hundreds of statues. Leaves with all the colors of the rainbow float down to cover the sidewalks like a warm blanket. Chestnuts in a spiky cover hang on chestnut trees ready to fall.
As I wandered in Sofia, I noticed that the trees were full of seeds; big and little, circle and oval, they all scattered far from the parent tree. I saw crazy teenagers throwing chestnuts at bikes and trains. A maple seed with curved wings fluttered to the ground like a spinning parachute, and I picked it up. I split the seed open and put it on my nose so I looked like a rhino! Cruz did the same with papa’s help.
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| From Bulgaria |
As I stood beneath a mighty walnut tree, I spied a dry walnut (stored by a lucky squirrel) hidden in a knot-hole. I reached up, standing on papa’s shoulders. I heard the “chip! chip!” of a squirrel chattering at us!
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| From Bulgaria |
After that we said, “Sorry for taking your lunch, but thank you!” Oak trees were raining acorns, and squirrels were leaping and dancing as they gathered them up. I saw seeds in pods, cotton, purple fruit, spiky shells, berries, parachutes, and flat banana pods. Everywhere I looked there were seeds. 
From Bulgaria
Trees are living things. They get minerals and water from the ground through their roots. They use energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar. This happens in the leaves, and it is called photosynthesis. Trees grow and then reproduce. When their flowers are pollinated they grow seeds. Seeds are baby trees with food and nutrients so they can start to grow. They need enough food to live until they grow leaves and roots.
Seeds are made in all different shapes to help them disperse. Disperse means move away from the parent tree. If seeds did not disperse, when they grew they would be all crammed together, and they would have to fight for minerals, light, and water. Trees can’t move. Trees depend on other things to move the seeds like animals, people, gravity, and the wind. Some even get moved by the sun! When their pods dry up their seeds burst out of them like a spring had pushed them out. Seeds can even be dispersed by a wild teenager chucking chestnuts at trains!
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| From Bulgaria |
For my project I took a lot of time to observe seeds. I threw seeds up in the air to see how they moved. I collected as many different types of seeds as I could and took them home to observe them. I drew their outside appearance then cut them open and drew their inside appearance. I drew details like color and texture. I described each seed in words. I read about seeds on the internet and saw a lot with my own eyes. On the internet I learned that poppies have very small seeds. The top of the poppy is like a rattle with really small holes. When the wind blows the poppy around, the rattle shakes, and poppy seeds go flying out. The whole seed experience was a lot of fun, especially standing on papa’s shoulders to get the dried walnut out of the tree.
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| From Bulgaria |
As part of my project, papa and I made Baklava out of walnuts. Baklava is a great tasting desert that is made in Bulgaria. We made it because it has a lot of seeds. Walnuts are are the seeds of walnut trees. The sheets of phylo dough are made from the seeds of wheat, which is a grass. Here’s the recipe that we used. It is best to eat it with ice cream!
BAKLAVA
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. pastry sheets (phylo dough)
1 cup of butter
1 lb chopped or ground walnuts
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
- Grease a baking pan with melted butter
- Layer 8 pastry sheets with melted butter brushed between every two sheets
- Mix the chopped or ground walnuts and cinnamon and spread 1/3 of the nuts over the pastry sheets
- Cover with 2 pastry sheets and brush with butter
- Add another 1/3 of the nut mixture, spread evenly
- Cover with 2 pastry sheets and brush with butter
- Add remaining nut mixture, spread evenly
- Cover with remaning pastry sheets with melted butter brushed between every two sheets
- Cut the bakalava into diamond shaped pieces
- Bake until golden
- Make syrup form sugar and water. boil & add honey. simmer for 20 minutes. let cool.
- Spread syrup over cooled baklava & soak for 24 hours!
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| From Bulgaria |
Tags: Bulgaria · Recipes · Seeds · Trees3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
Great report Bella! I like how you described the leaves falling on the sidewalk and how you described snatching the walnut from the knothole of the walnut tree. Thanks for teaching me about seed dispersal – I did not know about the rattle method of seed dispersal. Keep up the good work!
Bella, what a excellant report. Sounds like you are in the “fall” season as we are. The acorns are dropping here also and I’ve picked up walnuts from two different places. I’m waiting for them to finish drying so I can crack them. I’ll have to try your recipe. It sounds “good”.
The seed on your nose has me confused. It looks like our maple tree seeds. We like to call them helicopters and throw them up in the air and watch them whirl down to the ground. In Kansas those come from the trees in the early “spring”.
So, is it Spring or Fall?
An interesting method of seed dispersal described in your report is the “wild teenager chucking chestnuts at trains” method. By being a good projectile, the seed is selected for future generations, perhaps. The picture of all the various seeds you selected is quite remarkable – so many seeds in the city! I send this to you via dull black wires and probably via a few bright yellow and orange ones too! Thanks for sharing information from Bulgaria!