Butternuts and Grapes, NB's Claim to the Nors Vinland.

[SwampDonkey]

The discovery of three butternuts and a piece of butternut wood at L'Anse Aux Meadows have led archaeologists to look at New Brunswick as a possible site for Vinland. The piece of butternut wood was a burl; burl in Old Norse is mösurr.

Butternuts grow in hardwood forests and require a long and warm growing season. They have never grown in Newfoundland. The nearest place they occur wild is northeastern New Brunswick. They also grow in the St. Lawrence Valley as far east as St. Paul's Bay east of Quebec City. They are not native to either Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia although some have been planted there in modern times.

The archaeologists saw another significant aspect of the butternuts: they grow in the same areas as wild grapes. The two fruits ripen at the same time, in late September or early October. Whoever picked the nuts, probably came across wild grapes as well.

http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/vinland/whereisvinland/newbrunswick/indexen.html

[CHARLIE]

Butternut is kin to the walnut but is a softer wood. It's beautiful wood though and one of my favorites. Butternuts grow in the midwest I know.  But they are getting harder to find because of some kind of disease that is killing them.  Maybe the Vikings swung through Minnesota and Wisconsin on their way back to Newfondland.  That's more than likely what happened.  :

[SwampDonkey]

Where I've been cutting brush this week has butternut trees all over the place, small saplings. It was clearcut, but there sure are lots of new trees to save for next time.