Urban gathering & foraging at lunch time :-)

[2011-06-16]
At lunch time, I went out to verify if some "wild" cherry trees had produced gum. Their gum seems easier to harvest in spring.
And I found that various kind of little plums (cherry plums, mirabelle plums ?) were already ripe. Irresistible for a urban (non-hunter) gatherer !
By the way, the gum is not for eating, it's an improbable material for a primitive lens (primitive fire by gum & sun ...).

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• urban
• gathering
• hunter
• gatherer
• plum
• mirabelle
• gum
• cherry
• tree
• primitive
• lens
• fire
• sun
• foraging

[steintanz]

Did you have any success with the gum lense?

[freejutube]

@steintanz

No success yet ; the gum can't be easily polished ; I tried dissolving it in water (a part of it won't dissolve) then purify it and let it dessicate : retraction, craks, tendency to become mouldy, strong adherence to the container... ; there should be a way to obtain pure transparent material from such a "magical" looking ressource : not found yet.

[luth47]

Bonsoir,

je me demandai ce que vous alliez bien pouvoir faire avec la gomme, après quelques recherche je pensai que vous alliez peindre...ce serait surprenant si cela fonctionnait!

[freejutube]

@luth47

en effet !

- premiers essais de polissages décevants (pas autant que pour une gomme à crayon !),

- dissolution (dans l'eau) : difficile, ensuite moisissure s'installent rapidement,

(on peut cependant en faire un revêtement pour le bois, mais devient pégueux sous l'eau)

... mais persévérons...

un matériau aussi attractif a forcément du être utilisé à des choses simples dès le début des temps.

[steintanz]

@freejutube ... sounds like alchemy to me. :o) But yes, ever since I climbed the first cherry tree in my childhood and saw that material in the sunshine I've found it fascinating, too.

[luth47]

@freejutube

Vous avez sans doute raison, reste à redécouvrir l'usage...:)

De mon côté il me semble avoir tenté de l'enflammer sans grand succès.