April 4, 2019, T+92, Part 8 -- Atchafalaya, Pipelines, Woodpeckers, Tupelo Honey, And All That Jazz

Lots of chatter the past week about Washington State likely to make it difficult/impossible for Bakken CBR to get to Pacific Northwest. We're talking maybe 150,000 bopd. Doesn't bother me a bit. Inconsequential.

Now this, from a reader: Bayou Bridge Pipeline is now complete, after years of controversy. Data points:

• the article was posted March 27, 2019
• oil to start flowing "next week" -- that would be this week
• ETP owns a majority of the pipeline; ETP will operate it
• Phillips 66 Partners owns the rest, a 40% slice
• environmentalists concerned about the Atchafalaya Basin

Oh, yes, now I remember this story. Courts found ETP guilty of illegal taking of land; required to pay $150 to each landowner who sued -- all three of them.

Wouldn't this be a hoot (no pun intended)? Wouldn't this be a hoot that a year or so from now, someone working along the pipeline route -- now that the area is more accessible -- spots a pair of mating ivory-billed woodpeckers? LOL. See this link for story, from January 25, 2017.

Now back at-cha, the Atchafalaya Basin:

The basin is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge. The river stretches from near Simmesport in the north through parts of eight parishes to the Morgan City southern area.

The Atchafalaya is different among Louisiana basins because it has a growing delta system with wetlands that are almost stable. The basin contains about 70% forest habitat and about 30% marsh and open water. It contains the largest contiguous block of forested wetlands remaining (about 35%) in the lower Mississippi River valley and the largest block of floodplain forest in the United States.

Best known for its iconic cypress-tupelo swamps, at 260,000 acres (110,000 ha), this block of forest represents the largest remaining contiguous tract of coastal cypress in the US. 

My hunch: there is oil under that Basin. Time to start drilling. LOL. 

Wow, I need to get back on the road.

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Speaking of Louisiana

Creole.

I hadn't thought about Louisiana Creole in a long time until May and I celebrated our recent wedding anniversary at Copeland's Famous New Orleans Restaurant here in Southlake, TX.

[As a reminder: for May's birthdays, we celebrate for seven days; for our wedding anniversary, five days -- this year we added a sixth day to our wedding anniversary celebration; one of the six days was at Copeland's. A sixth day was added because one of the original five days conflicted with another family commitment.]

Now, I'm reading The Language Instinct: How The Mind Creates Language, by Steven Pinker, c. 1994.

I finally understand the concept / definitions of pidgin and creole. Fascinating.

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Tupelo

The honey that never crystallizes?

From Kitchn:

For example, did you know that Tupelo honey is the only honey that will not crystallize? And the because of the specific ratio of different sugars, it’s the only honey diabetics can eat? [Actually diabetics can eat anything, but that's not what the author meant.]

Right this minute, some very busy honeybees are feasting on Tupelo trees in Florida and Georgia, taking in as much as they can in the short blooming season from late April to May.

The production of Tupelo honey is not easy. Beehives have to be moved to the groves of Tupelo trees, which grow along four rivers in northwest Florida and southern Georgia.

The trees only blossom for three to four weeks, so beekeepers truck their hives right into the thick of it to get the best honey. The article we read, in Garden & Gun magazine, was about George Watkins, a beekeeper in the Florida panhandle, who loads his hives onto a barge and moves them up the river so that his bees can work deep in the tupelo groves. Watkins was even a consultant on the film Ulee’s Gold, with Peter Fonda, which is all about harvesting Tupelo honey.

So, apparently, the tupelo trees are also found in Louisiana, in the Atchafalaya swamps -- and I can now type that without looking up the spelling.

Tupelo trees/honey:

Tupelos of the species Nyssa ogeche are valued as honey plants in the southeastern United States, particularly in the Gulf Coast region.

They produce a very light, mild-tasting honey.

In Florida, beekeepers keep beehives along the river swamps on platforms or floats during tupelo bloom to produce certified tupelo honey, which commands a high price on the market because of its flavor.

Monofloral honey made from the nectar of Nyssa ogeche has such a high ratio of fructose to glucose that it does not crystallize.

The Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle is the center for tupelo honey. The honey is produced wherever tupelo trees (three species) bloom in southeastern USA, but the purest and most expensive version (which is certified by pollen analysis) is produced in this valley. In a good harvest year, the tupelo honey crop produced by a group of specialized Florida beekeepers has a value approaching $1,000,000.

 Time to move on.