(upbeat music) - [Shirley] An ordinary day leads to an extraordinary find for a Delaware hunter.

- [Regina] Into the woods we go, with the New Jersey chef Foraging for Wild Flavors.

- [Shirley] We check out a local program that's using the arts to help families overcome trauma.

- [Regina] And this Philly saxophonist lives life by his own rhythm.

We'll explain.

- Welcome to You Oughta Know.

I'm Regina Mitchell.

- And I'm Shirley Minn.

Thanks for watching.

Our show begins with a story about a local hunter, who happened upon Delaware's only mature American chestnut tree.

A discovery so uncommon and significant because the American chestnut is considered functionally extinct.

So I hike through the woods to see this tree that's defying the odds for my myself.

Take a look.

On a beautiful sunny September day in 2019, much like the weather on this day, Brett Lannan was scouting a spot to hunt deer in the woods of Coverdale Farm Preserve.

The Delaware Nature Society owns the 377 acres of protected land and partners with local deer hunters to thin the herd each year.

- When I came to this tree, it didn't quite fit the pattern for all the stuff I'm used to.

- Brett loves the outdoors and he's well versed in identifying trees and plants.

- [Brett] And when I saw lower branches sticking square outta the trunk, that was something that was unusual too.

Then I saw the leaves and the gears started really turning.

Then I was like whoa, could this possibly be an American chestnut?

- [Shirley] Brett understood the rarity of this discovery.

His dad told him how most American chestnuts had been wiped out more than a century ago.

- [Brett] I knew the story about the chestnut trees in the early 19 hundreds.

Through about 1940, a blight came through and decimated them.

- [Shirley] The blight is a non-native fungus brought to the US by mistake in 1904.

- A blight rapidly spread.

So once that fungus was in the environment of the United States, it spread up to 50 miles a year.

The American chestnuts natural range was the entire Appalachian chain.

So all the way from Maine down to Georgia at a 50 miles per year spread pretty quickly three to four billion trees were killed.

By 1940, it was very rare to have American chestnuts in the environment anymore.

- [Shirley] Dave Pro is the land steward for the Delaware Nature Society.

Brett called Dave to tell him what he found and then when Dave saw the tree for himself, he agreed it looked like a chestnut tree.

- We weren't positive it was a hundred percent.

We were kind of scratching our heads like if it was a hundred percent, why doesn't it seem to have the blight like so many of them get?

And it, you know, they succumb to not making it to be this size.

- [Shirley] The blight is in the soil.

So new American chestnuts can sprout, but the tree dies before a maturity.

This tree, however, is about 80 feet tall with a diameter of 16 and a half inches.

Guesstimates put the tree at about 70 years old.

- [Dave] We collected leaves to be sent away to get DNA tested, to be verified.

When that information came back and it was verified a hundred percent American chestnut, you know, we were excited.

- [Shirley] The American Chestnut Foundation verified the samples and says the Delaware tree is bigger than 95% of the roughly 500 trees the organization has documented.

- [Dave] There is these amazing old pictures from the Smoky Mountains and places like that with people standing, four people you know across with the American chestnut just dwarfing them behind them.

So they used to be really massively wide trees.

Brett and I aren't gonna be around long enough to see if this becomes that, but it is already a very tall tree.

- Why is this one still here?

Maybe it's got a genetic resistance and if that could be, would these scientists use to breed this tree to bring the trees back, that would be a legacy to me.

That would be beyond.

- Now, prior to the blight, American chestnuts made up 25% of the tree canopy.

So the impact of losing so many was devastating.

- What's being done to try and bring them back?

- Well, scientists are busy cross pollinating American chestnuts and American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts, which are naturally resistant to the blight, even genetic modification.

All in an effort to bring resistant American chestnuts back to the natural geographical range.

- Maybe one day we'll have a whole lot again.

In the meantime though, like if I wanted to see this tree, how could I see it?

- Okay, well the Coverdale Farm Preserve is not open to the public, but the Delaware Nature Society is hosting walking tours so you can see the tree for yourself, which I highly recommend.

Check out Delaware nature society.org for more information - Planning to go out for dinner is always an exciting venture for a New Jersey restaurateur, his naturally harvested menu is so in demand.

You'll have to book now for next year.

- I grew up around the woods, you know, I picked food for the restaurant there.

The first thing that got me into foraging was the maitake mushroom, which grow around here working in kitchens and working for chefs.

They weren't wild what we were using, but being referred to was wild.

So I was like, I'm gonna find a wild mushroom.

I get truly excited about matsutake mushroom hunting.

I mean everyone you find you, you just, (Long smelling sniff) and you know, scream when you find 'them like outta joy and excitement.

Today specifically, we'll be foraging for huckleberries.

Nobody's figured out how to cultivate them yet, so it's a very special native plan for me to use.

I'm trying to get enough in these two weeks to be able to serve in February or serve all year.

I'll puree it sometimes fresh and marinate a piece of meat with it and then I'll make a jam with the berries also and try and serve them together.

So you can use it for savory or sweet applications.

Self-reliance is important to me.

I work alone here.

I forage alone, I prep alone, I do everything alone.

It's a personal challenge for me.

We do a tasting menu only here, usually six courses and progresses with the seasons as nature progresses.

Shag bark, hickory terrines, different greens in the spring ramps, monster greens.

I've served over 200 different species of items here in ingredients.

I think one of the most interesting things I do is with pine.

I'll use last year's pine needles and make an ash out of them.

And then crust venison, I'll use the fresh needles and char it make an oil to pour over the dish and then I'll serve it with a matsutake mushroom that grows under pine.

So for me it's a way to tie the whole ecology together.

I love the flavor and the smell of the ocean.

So many different things make up that.

So I forge down there at the coast to make my own sea salt, Pick my own seaweeds.

There's some vegetables down there in beach palms too to get.

I forage with my son, There's a mustard field that just got paved over and he cried when he saw it, which made me cry as a parent.

And just, it makes what I do now even more special cause it's now and you don't know if it's gonna be again.

But for now, it's now in the season in the moment and it's, it really is the terroir of life.

I'm very passionate about it.

I believe in it.

There's nothing else I want to be doing.

It's an art for me, so I try not to really figure out the art.

You kind of just have to let the art figure out the art and I'm just here as a medium in the art, which is nature.

- If you are interested in learning more about foraging or confirming a reservation at Park Place in Merchantville, New Jersey, check out their website.

- Now is the perfect time to take in the colors of fall and the historic covered bridges in Bucks County is a great place to start.

- Bucks County is a countryside destination and the covered bridges really fit the fabric of our county.

Very popular destination for New Yorkers, new Jerseyans Philadelphians to come and experience all we have in our like outdoor paradise.

We've got lots of small towns and main streets throughout the county and there's a cover bridge not far from one of those towns.

At one point there was more than 1500 bridges within the state of Pennsylvania.

So now there's less than 300 that still exists and we have 12 here in Bucks County.

Some people say that we do have a haunted bridge here in Bucks County.

So they say Van Sandt cover Bridge is also known as Crybaby Bridge.

If you drive through there at night, apparently you can hear the cries of a baby.

All the bridges here in Bucks County are made of local woods.

So just Hemlock, Oak, and pine.

Why is the bridge covered?

It really just comes down to being able to preserve the wooden bridge itself.

So you know, as it's covered, the wood will last longer and wouldn't have to be replaced as often.

There's a couple agencies that really look to preserve the covered bridges.

There's Heritage Conservancy and there's a Covered Bridge Society of Bucks County that really puts their heart and soul in maintaining them.

So they're preserved for years to come.

So the cover Bridges span anywhere from 56 feet long up to 130 feet.

One here in Tyler State Park is almost 170 feet long, but this one is not drivable, all the other ones are.

The South Pergusy Covered Bridge is one of the most historic in Pennsylvania and it's right here in Bucks County.

So the bridges are very popular with photography, especially the Scofield Bridge here in Tyler Park.

Fall is a great time to visit Bucks County with the leaves changing colors.

It's just a beautiful time of year and it really makes the covered bridges even pop more as the colors change.

We have, you know, so much outdoor space, but then we've got these downtowns that have restaurants and nightlife.

So you kind of have a great balance where you can get out and enjoy the quaint countryside but also enjoy have a great meal, and a good time at night.

We have more than two dozen breweries scattered throughout Bucks County.

As well as about 10 wineries and a few distilleries as well.

So Bucks County is a great place to do hiking, biking, we have lots of outdoor activities and lots of great parks and people just love, you know, getting in the car, driving through the countryside, driving through the Covered Bridge.

It can take a few hours if you want to hit all the bridges, but you know, we encourage people come hit some, stay overnight the next day, hit some more and have a good time in Bucks County.

- Transforming lives through arts, that's the mission of Build A Bridge, a nonprofit that's helping families overcome trauma.

- Music, brings community together, music, bring up peace.

My name is Ami Harris, I work with Builder Bridge International.

Builder Bridge International is an arts and education nonprofit based here in Philadelphia.

It's been around for over 20 years.

It was founded by Dr. Jay Nathan Corbin and Dr. Vivian Nicks early a psychologist and Ethnomusicologist, a music therapist.

They wanted to leverage the power of art making to empower.

Its therapeutic qualities.

(mellow piano tempo) - What are you doing?

- Can't you tell?.

- Well I think so.

- It should be obvious.

- Can you show me?

- [Ami] When we talk about restorative art making, we're talking about helping people find their resilience, helping people strengthen their agency to be able to, be more self efficacious in terms of things that they need in life.

The thing that's different about Build a Bridge is that we're not a clinical institution.

We're not trying to medicalize or stigmatize or try to cure people, but we really wanna find people's strengths to help them grow and move forward with that.

- And I say, okay.

- [Ami] A lot of people that we work with have been through traumatic experiences.

Trauma takes away possibility.

It takes away what's taking place in front of you.

Art making is an incredible way to help people begin to have a greater sense of agency.

We train our artists to not just look at art for the sake of making art, but how can we empower people's lives and help them see the power in their own lives.

Today build a bridge, gets to do a public programming, some public programming here in Point Breeze and inviting some of our friends to join us, some of our teaching artists to come and hang out and make some music for the public and bring people in to have a creative experience.

- My name is Anssumane Silla from Guinea-Bissau, I'm a African dance syndrome instructor.

So today, I'm here today to share the African culture.

- Build A Bridge is hopefully creating a ripple effect that providing a space of love and respect and compassion through art making that helps people navigate the trials of living in Philadelphia and turn some of those trials into victories.

- Here's how you can connect with Build a Bridge.

- If you've ever visited Philly, you've probably seen the well-suited gentleman on the corner of Fourth and Market playing the saxophone.

Well here's how he got there.

- [David] I was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey and then I moved up to Orange, New Jersey High School, I joined the band and started playing my horn then I wasn't serious about it, I was just playing and after that I ended up going to Southeast Asia, going to Thailand, Vietnam, and for four years got the experience and then that was good because that's when I got a better appreciation of music because I started running into different individuals who knew about Felonious Monk and knew about train.

And so I got a history lesson into the music that I eventually wanted to gravitate to.

So it was there that I began to have a love for the music.

I came back, I got out and went to Montclair State in Jersey and got a BS in the Business administration, but my heart wasn't into that, got married and so you got the obligation of children.

And so that takes precedent over wanting what you want to do.

So on the journey you try different things after that failure cause I still had the love for the music.

I end up just going around the country learning and mainly being with different people and experiencing different things and listening to the music.

So then I came back around 2000 when I came to Philly.

I hadn't played in 20 years.

I just wanted to give a sincere effort to play the horn the best way that I can play it.

I wanted to do what I wanted to do, the way I wanted to do it.

And sometimes you bite off a little bit more than you chew, but then again, through it all, you know you stand tall and you still do it your way.

So the best way to do it is just do it.

I'm making a offering.

So it's all about technique, it's all about preparation and then how you approach people or how you want people to approach you.

As far as the dress.

They say, if don't mean a thing unless it's got that swing.

Do what says the same thing when you come there because you have people from all over the world coming to see Independence halls, the Liberty Bell.

So if people come by and say, I wanna take a picture, but then they gonna take that picture all the way back to where they came from.

So therefore you wanna present yourself in a favorable way.

Etta's Baby Boy is a tribute to my mother.

My mother's name was Etta and I never had a relationship with her.

I wanted to, in a small way, let her know that it's all good.

So to me it's the second time around.

I got two older sons, I had limited access with them growing up.

So now I have an 8 year old.

So once again, it's a rebirth to another opportunity to do what I have to do.

I'm a single parent to get up every morning, especially at 73, and to be able to come down here and to play and have him with me, that is the best reward for me right now.

If you're good inside, then the goodness to come outside.

And so therefore when I blow the air has come out, when they hear those appassionato, they hear those rifts, they can feel what I'm feeling often imitated never duplicated, right?

So therefore I just wanna be me.

I just wanna be Etta's baby boy.

So when you come by forth in market and you hear the music and if you can get them for two minutes with a couple of riffs, I've done my job, people come by and say, Look, I appreciate what you do.

You made my day.

I get back so much love and I'm grateful for the opportunity and that's why I'm thankful for the citizens around Old City.

I'm trying to blossom into what the best that I can be.

- He really gets a kick out of giving others joy.

- For some people, the most difficult part about falling on hard times is dealing with the feeling that you've also lost your dignity.

It can be the smallest things that make a big difference.

Broad Street Ministry known for helping people cope with homelessness, deep poverty, and other downturns in life.

Is taking their show on the road.

Recently their care team rolled out a 16 foot box truck to distribute personal hygiene items like soap, deodorant, toothpaste, socks, undergarments, and much, much more.

Shahid Guyton, director of Broad Street Ministries Restorative Services says as someone who was once homeless himself, he understands how this bus can be a hand up for people in need.

- [Shahid] Well, for one thing, not having to find a way to get it is accessible in its own right.

And that's basically because like most people don't have the means to be able to get transportation, to get to certain locations to receive these products and services that's provided.

But with a service like a hygiene truck that drives around different parts of the city, I think that makes it more accessible and more easy for people to receive.

You do have some people that have some pride around certain hygiene products.

Like tomorrow our older population's is not gonna ask for diapers and things of that nature.

So we have a creative way of asking if they need these products and getting them to them.

- [Regina] Since the project launched, the team has distributed over 17,000 personal care and hygiene items to areas in Philadelphia deeply affected by poverty.

Today they're parked outside the Women of Hope, Lombard Street, a safe haven for a single women experiencing homelessness.

Colleen Hendrick, the community hygiene and Clothing boutique manager says no matter where they go, residents are thankful they're there.

- These are products that a lot of times folks don't wanna ask for or buy or they don't want to ask that they need those products.

So it's nice just to have a facility where it's like easy come and go and practice radical hospitality outside of our main building.

- The hygiene bus has also set up a telehealth network to get medical attention to those who need access.

To learn more about the bus and where they'll be stationed.

Head over to our website.

- In this week's flicks Patrick Stoner talks to the stars of Armageddon Time about the complexities of their characters.

- I really like your stickers.

- My stepbrother gave them to me.

He's in the Air Force.

- That's so cool.

- How dare you?

I'll mix the two of you - Well, you're not to associate with him again.

- What do you mean why?

- I think, you know what I mean.

- Armageddon Time stars, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong in James Gray's autobiographical piece coming of age in Queens in the 1980s.

But it's also about this Jewish family and they don't seem to be able to cope very well with life in the new world that is to come.

- When I knew I was gonna be working with James, knowing what a cinefile he was, James Gray, our director, knowing what a cinefile he was, I thought that I should maybe see if I could find any interviews that he'd given where he talked about film.

And I saw this interview where he talked about Raging Bull and he told a story about, you know, reading about Raging Bull and how Martin Square says, he said that he wanted to make a film about emotionally inarticulate people.

And I think that your observation about our characters is spot on because these are people who don't possess the tools to deal with life.

Or rather, if they have the tools, they don't have a sophisticated use of them the way we might think of it nowadays.

And that influences the type of people they are, the type of relationship they have, the type of parents they are.

And this really is a home in which love and violence intersect.

And it can go from goofy to scary in the blink of an eye.

- You place such insular characters, you need a proscire of private space almost in which to work to create those characters.

How do you tune out all of the other bigger things?

I mean you both are on social media all the time, these big shows and what have you.

Don't you have to tune all of that out.

- Completely.

I mean I had about a month to prepare for this and, that does involve creating a real sort of in viable solitude, I think, I don't know, 90 whatever percent is done before you step onto a set and then the rest you sort of prepare the ground where you hope lightning will strike and you hope these electrical storms will come through you.

But the work on character and the work in order to walk onto that set is all done.

- [Anne] At the risk of contradicting you.

I wouldn't describe either of us as on social media all the time.

It is a very real part of our world and it is a very important part of our business that you be able to engage with in order to encourage people to go see your films.

And so I think that it's actually about expanding your ability to connect with all of those things in an authentic way.

And I just think it's about making yourself bigger, the bigger your life becomes.

- I accept your correction.

Absolutely.

Miss Hathaway - Thank you.

- Always a pleasure.

And Jeremy, thank you very much.

I appreciate both of you going there.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Well that's it for the show.

- Thank you for joining us.

We'll see you next week.

Goodnight everyone.

(blowing of saxophone)