You know the saying, "If life gives you lemons, make lemondade"? Well, I say, "If life gives you an ice storm, put some of those icicles in your lemonade!"
I'm not a fan of getting icicles from a roof that's covered with snow. That's because a roof can have a lot of debris on it. The icicles from a roof came from melted snow that has trickled and flowed all down along the surface of the roof, right on the dirty roof.
My favorite place to get icicles around home is off of small tree branches. But there are a couple things to watch out for.
I don’t want to damage any buds on the tree branches. That ice is in every nook and cranny around the tree buds. If I just casually knock the ice off, that can open wounds around the buds where disease can get it.
That ice can be important for protecting the delicate buds from getting dried out, too. When a cold front goes through after an ice storm and the air turns super cold and dry, those buds can get dessicated and killed. So I like to get my icicles on the part of branches where there aren’t any buds.
The easiest trees for me to get my icicles from are my fruit trees. I don’t use winter fungicides, so I don’t have to be concerned about any contamination from that.
You may notice lichens on older tree branches. But with these icicles, they formed after the branch was already covered with ice. How can I tell? Look at those air bubbles in the icicles.
When the water froze, the freezing happened so fast the air got trapped in the ice. That happens when the freezing rain drips down and then the drip at the very end freezes. Those icicles grew one freezing drip at a time.
With conifer trees, I think it’s too difficult to get the ice off without damaging the individual needles or entire branches. A, I think, it’s too hard to get clean ice without a lot of debris in it.
I am OK with getting the ice off plants in my garden like the big leaves of Portuguese Kale, or even weeds like Wild Field Mustard (Brassica rapa). But I don’t take the ice off plants that I don’t know what they are, or from plants that I wouldn’t eat, in case I get any vegetation in with my ice.
Here’s a tip for getting good ice off green leaves. I wait until the ice is just starting to melt. Then it will slip off nice and clean, without damaging the leaves, like on this rose.
It’s fun to save some icicles, or even this delicate ice, for later. The key is to put the icicles or delicate ice pieces on a tray in the freezer until they get good and hard and solidly frozen. Then, put them in a plastic bag AND in a box or hard-sided container to protect them from getting busted up when you move things around in the freezer. Don’t just bury those icicles and forget about them. Use them and enjoy them!
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Music: Angel Share by Kevin MacLeod and the YouTube Audio Library.
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