Calling Laura Ingalls Wilder fans

While my son was growing up, we read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books aloud to each other, probably several times for each book.

This winter, as the snows kept coming, I got a yearning to read The Long Winter again and the agronomist in me became re-fascinated with the idea of Pa and Laura twisting slough grass into sticks to burn after their coal ran out.

At Purdue I learned about alfalfa and timothy, but slough grass hadn’t been covered.  Just what IS slough grass?  I still don’t really know the technical answer to that, but I do think I have a picture now!  After our picnic at Briggs Woods park, we slipped off the road to Baurer Slough.  It was still pretty brown and bleak looking, but I hope to go back when it is green, and maybe sometime when it is teeming with water fowl!

I’m guessing this is similar to Laura and Pa’s coarse slough grass.

I wonder if Laura would be honored or amused to know that in 2010, we are talking again about using grasses for fuel…not twisted sticks of slough grass, but cellulosic ethanol!