mast noun A season’s accumulation of fruit of the forest forming the natural diet of bears, wild hogs, and other animals, sometimes classified as hard mast (nuts, acorns, seeds, etc.) or soft mast (berries, cherries, grapes, etc.). See also beech mast, chestnut mast, hard mast, soft mast.
1881 Pierson In the Brush 78-79 The hogs find their food in the woods the greater part of the year, and in the fall they fatten up on the nuts or “mast.” The oak, hickory, beech and other trees that abound in these extensive forests afford vast quantities of these nuts, which these people claim for their own hogs, whoever may own the land. 1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 79 The mast, sich as a corns and beech and hickory nuts, is mostly on the Car’lina side. 1953 Hall Coll (Bryson City NC) Sometimes we’d have mast in the head of Bone Valley and we’d hunt back that way…There’s not mast on that side of the mountain except some beech mast….Mast means all kind of things for animals to eat in the woods, such as acorns and chestnuts, and berries and grapes. …Choicest food for the bear was to get beechnuts. Beechnuts….chestnuts is the two choicest foods.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
There is a heavy fall mast here in Wilson holler. The acorns have fallen till they’ve about made a solid carpet in our front garden area. I’ve noticed a hickory there that also produced well.
Matt said this year’s mast is heavier than he’s seen in years. Strangely it started falling much earlier than usual. It started over a month ago and is about finished already.
If you’ve followed me for any length of time you can already guess what I’m hoping the early heavy mast means…I get some big snows this winter 🙂
Last night’s video: First Time Making Pear Jelly.
Tipper
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I’m experiencing heavier than usual Hazelnuts and Black Walnuts. This has always predicted colder winter in January and February here in the mountains of NE TN. I expect 28ish degree temps every night in Jan and Feb. Frozen water pipes are gonna be abundant around here. I’m trying to get my little mobile home underpinned and insulated. It needs a roof too but I can’t afford any of that. We will try and make due and pray for no power outages or at least brief ones. I love Y’all.
In my experience warm winters equate to more and deeper snowfall. Cold dry windy weather yields only a few flakes flying. Temperatures just above freezing at ground level and loads of moisture in the air is ideal.
Mountains have effects on weather that flatlanders don’t often get to see. Mountains cause moisture laden clouds to rise up suddenly into colder air and dump a load of snow in one spot while the other gets none. Mountains create rain shadows, we know, but also snow shadows.
Production of nuts as a predictor of future precipitation is a stretch. Nuts start to form in the spring. Wouldn’t it be better to study the early spring blooms of trees that produce the mast. The fact that oaks are dropping their nuts earlier might mean that they are not viable and the tree wants to concentrate its energy on its good seeds. There is a lot to consider before reaching a decision here. A lot of akerns on the ground could mean that the trees were under stress the previous spring and summer.
Did any of this mean anything to you? Yeah, me too neither!
Here on the Cumberland Plateau, the mast crop is unusually heavy. White, Red and Chestnut oaks all have covered the ground with their acorns.
Heavy mast foretells heavy snow, or so folklore has it.
We have a Texas post oak in our front yard. It has begun to drop acorns even though temperatures have been in the 90s until today when they have dropped into the 80s. I’ve lived here for more than 20 years and don’t recall acorns being dropped so early.
I miss being in the woods on deer hunts and hearing acorns falling all around me. Squirrels having breakfast would often make it rain acorns as they scampered through the topmost limbs of massive oaks and hickories. I remember a year of abundant mast production when our club was to host some handicapped hunters. I knew a place in the next county that had curbs and gutters where big whiteoak acorns literally lay in long rows. I got a flat shovel and some buckets, and scooped up all I needed to “seed” a shooting lane three days in a row. It worked. The deer found them and came back for more. Sure enough, my guest hunter dropped a fat buck to take to check-in. I don’t know whether I broke the law or not by putting out mast not grown on our lease. If I’m guilty, I did it for a good cause. My hunter knew nothing about that instant food plot that the deer found irresistible.
I haven’t thought to look at the mast here this year. Last year I had the most I had ever seen. About ¼ of my place has nothing but white and red oak trees that I have watched over for the past 33 years. They started out as saplings and now are 2-3 feet across at the stump. Last year all of them produced a heavy layer of akerns.
We had a strange summer here this year. We had three of what I would call little winters in late July and August. Three separate times the temperatures here didn’t get out of the 60s for 3-4 days in a row. Between these short spells the highs were in the mid 80s to the upper 90s. It really screwed up my garden. The effect on the mast is yet to be determined.
I have one little beech out at the edge of the property. It produces nuts but I rarely find anything but the open burrs. I guess the squirrels keep their eyes on them too.
All God’s creatures that feed on this year’s bounty will be happy for sure – full tummies and ‘larders.’ May it also be a sign for you Tipper, for lots of snow. 🙂 What fun you all will have teaching those sweet boys all about the joys of winter: of building snowmen, sledding, making snow angels, snow ‘forts,’ and maybe a dish of snow ice cream! Have a great weekend. Prayers for Granny.
Our mast is quite heavy too. Those acorns are hitting our metal roof and it sounds like artillery … acorn artillary.
Our yard is covered in a heavy mast this year too. We have so many acorns, you have to walk carefully or go skating. Our wood are also full of hickory nuts. We have a hickory tree behind our house that I have never seen more than a couple of nuts on. It is loaded and lots on the ground too. Our grandchildren had to wear baseball caps when they played on the swingset or anywhere under the trees for a few weeks or risk getting bopped on the head…and they hurt. I was bent over and one dropped on my back and one also fell on my thigh while sitting on the porch of our shed. Dang! did that hurt! They have about all fallen now. I also noticed the wild grapevines high in our oak trees were covered in tons of wild grapes this year. It was like a sea of purple high above. I am at a yearly getaway weekend in the mountains with my siblings and spouses. The mast is heavy here too. Even the whirlybirds falling from the maple trees are extra heavy this year. It’s beautiful and we are having a great time. Hope everyone else has a super weekend too!
It would be nice to get a pretty snow this year, but hopefully no heavy ice to go with it. I remember all to well having to drive in it going to work. I would not wish that combination of snow and ice on anybody.
Still a pretty snow would be nice.
I thought you were going to say Matt was excited because the heavy mast would mean more deer feeding! Lol
Picked up a buckeye yesterday that is an inch across and almost as thick here in middle TN close to KY border. I’ve never seen one that huge!
A friend asked me if he and his wife could bring some five-gallon buckets and pick up black walnuts on my lane to use for baking during the holidays. Of course, I said yes. I have never seen the nuts so thick that it makes it hard to drive and impossible to mow. The persimmon trees have never been so loaded. I split the seeds of eight that had fallen, and my niece split five or six to find that the image was perfect spoons in all of them. Get the sleds ready! The weathermen are comparing this winter to 2013, but I don’t ever remember seeing sich a mast around here.
Shirl, if you don’t have enough black walnuts to satisfy your neighbors, send them my way and tell them to come in a full size pickup truck. I think my trees have had a banner year this year. I can’t give them away, no one around here wants them. At least the squirrels are enjoying them.
Tipper dear, I hope you get your “yearly wish”……the biggest snowstorm ever……so you can slide all the way down that long, steep driveway!! A big ole toboggan would work for you, Matt and the two little ones. May you get your wish!❄️❄️❄️ I’m rootin’ for you!
My thought is that everything produced heavily and started falling early was so the animals could get a jump start on fattening up for winter and the gatherers start gathering because it is going to be a long cold winter (some places are predicted to have more than normal snow falls–but what really do the ‘predictors’ know). What fun it will be for you to have snow enough to sled with the boys –many memories to be made with them this winter. Praying for sweet Granny
More mast means good deer hunting too, right?
Rita, if you’re hunting nearby yes 🙂
There are lots of acorns this year after being practically none last.
Last year was one of the skimpiest years I have ever seen for acorns. Squirrel and bow-deer season are open now. Growing up, I always heard that “a lot of acorns is a sign of a cold winter on the way” and “the Lord will feed his animals”, etc., as another foreboding of cold weather fast approaching. We’ve been sleeping with the “winders” up at night for the last two months. The weather has been gorgeous with only a few good rains and cloudy days. I put some “extree qiver” on the bed last night and with an O/S temperature of 56, it was fairly cool in the house (77 is the forecast high). Normally it’ll frost here by the second week in October, but I don’t think it will this year as moderate temps are forecast the next ten days. There is a little “color’ in the leaves and we are hoping for a beautiful fall. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful weekend.
May the Lord bless and keep you always.
Jeffery
The acorns have been on the ground for more than a month along with some dry leaves falling. We still have a lot of green, but the trees are slowly turning into colors here in south central Va. It was in the forties this morning outside and the house was 67. Chilly so we turned on the heat for a while. I wonder if we are going to have a cold, snowy winter?
I’ve noticed the same thing here at my house in Waynesville. The acorns started dropping in August and though most are already on the ground they still fall here and there when the wind blows and sound like the squirrels are throwing big rocks at us when they hit the metal roof. Wondering if we have a rough winter in store…I hope we get at least a couple of good snows this year! In other news it’s county clash time here in Haywood co….GO BEARS!!
Yep, same here around Don Carter State Park. I sat under a white oak at DCSP this week and the acorn fall was almost continuous. Also have chestnut oak acorns here at the house and a front yard covered in pignut hickory nuts (those are every year though). Matt may be having the difficulty seeing deer because they can just homestead in a small area with plenty to eat.
I’ve never heard that word before, but IMO a lot of it can be attributed to the heavy rains of Spring and the hot temperatures due to climate change. My garden was totally different this year in terms of growth pattern and production.
What is IMO? I’m old and can’t keep up with the rapid changes in modern English.
Same here in Leland N.C .A very cold winter is coming.
This is so interesting and totally new to me!
Tipper one of the reasons I love living here in Murphy is the lack of any real snow fall each year. I grew up in NH where snow fall was measured in feet rather than inches. We lived in an old farm house that had a barn attached to it and it was the responsibility of each home owner to shovel the snow off the roof of any structures. One winter it snowed every day. I woke up one morning in February to find that my garage which was attached to the barn had caved in due to
the snow being so high. I could not keep up with the daily removal of snow. When the insurance man showed up to check the damage he never turned off his car engine. It took him about z10 minutes to put the claim in. He stated that due to the daily snow fall the insurance would pay off because it was decided that no one could keep up with it. One funny story was the day i was outside bringing wood in for our stoves I turned and saw my twins and their older brother playing on the barn roof. The snow was so high they could walk from the back yard right up on the roof. It was that winter the state had to plow out my drive way because the snow was piled over eight feet tall on either side of the drive way and anyone leaving our house groom a chance entering traffic. For nine years I worked for the state of NH at a state run ski area and had to report to work no matter the conditions. During the blizzard of ’78 I had just started working at a state job 30 miles away. I had to travel during the blizzard to get to work because my state job was open and could not call in. I made it. I understand people who long for snow. I’m 80 now and seen enough but I pray that everyone gets the snow they want. Tipper I hope you get more than enough snow so you can go sledding. I use to hunt in the snow and loved doing this. I pray that Matt gets the snow he needs to hunt quietly. And the two boys. I pray they get all the snow that will make this winter I winter to remember. Our ground is covered with black walnuts and acorns so it looks like a good winter for those who love snow. I’ll be by the gas stove staying wood. We continue to pray for Granny, the girls, the boys, and you and Matt and Paul. Have a blessed day.
I really enjoyed your comments. I think that we who have always lived in the south tend to romanticize snow because we haven’t had to deal with the harsh reality of living with it. I’m happy that you no longer have to deal with it & I will find contentment with the beauty of just a few inches from time to time. God bless you!
Ron, for 38 years I had to go to work in snow and ice, a round trip of 33 miles. Because of working swing/rotating shifts, it would sometimes be during the day or at night. I have had my feel of snow, I no longer have to go, but my son and grandson do, I worry about them being on the road. I once enjoyed snow when I along with my family could stay home, sit by the fire and play in it. It is not much fun at 2-3 o’clock in the morning/ middle of the night and you are about the only one on the road. This was back before everyone had a cell phone.
I have noticed the same thing around here, the oak trees are heavy with acorns and my black walnut trees have the most walnuts I have ever saw on them. I also noticed this week how many trees are losing the leaves, before they changed color. We have been dry since June except for a couple of weeks in August. The month of September has been very dry, not enough rain to settle the dust. I wonder if this is the reason for the trees losing their leaves so early. Does folklore claim this a sign of a hard cold winter?
It is the same in northeast GA mtns. God is feeding the animals.