Under the Moon Tree...

[gerisullivan]

"Under the Moon Tree
And Threatening Skies
Under the Moon Tree
We were eating Moon Pies
Under the Moon Tree
NESFA couldn't disguise
Under the Moon Tree
The taste we despise
Under the Moon Tree. Moon Tree!"

Lyrics and Official Moon Pies Under the Moon Tree Group Photo by Mike Benveniste, who ate no Moon Pies At All.

Three weeks ago the weekend weather was pretty much the same cold, rainy mess that's currently preventing my driveway from being poured. Two cars full of adventuresome NESFAns set forth from the Other Meeting at Mark and nesfan's to find the only known Moon Tree in Massachusetts. Our express purpose: to view the marvel and eat Moon Pies in commemoration of the 34 times the seed of this famed, fenced, 30-year-old American Sycamore circled the Moon before coming back to Earth and being planted 30 years ago. Click on the tree picture to see a few of my photos from our outing.

While the song is all Mike's Fault, the outing itself was debgeisler's. In early April, she sent me email about the Moon Tree in Holliston, MA, complete with these links:

2002 story from NASA website

List of the known Moon Trees

The story about the Holliston tree

Going to see the Moon Tree was fun, and we were soon reminded that, yes, Moon Pies are worse than Twinkies!

The 5-day search for Moon Pies here in New England led to my discovery of Moon Pies online -- and at reasonable prices, too. Even with shipping, they were less than the convenience store prices I'm used to seeing. Which is how I came to inflict Moon Pies on the Corflu consuite last weekend, lowering the otherwise excellent food values to be found there.

Yes, at long last, this has been the chatty Moon Tree! Moon Tree! post you were looking for....

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I had somehow missed knowing about moon trees. This is very cool!

There don't seem to be any close to here, but the species listed don't grow anywhere close to here, so that makes sense.

I wish they hadn't been doing such pseudo-experimental thinking. What did they really hope to learn? Wasn't that just cover for doing something cool?

So, to do something cool, how about oaks and beeches? Redwood is good. Trees that last a LONG time -- maybe long enough to still be there the next time we set foot on the moon. Also trees that could cover more of the country. With propagation by cuttings, there's no real limit how *many* trees they could have produced from the seeds.