Category: Preserving

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07/22/2022 more popcorn and the judgement of cats upon it

I think the latest glass gem popcorn (right) was harvested at a better time. The colors are brighter and the kernels are looser. The plant stalk was completely dry as well as the ear husk.
Tuqu wanted to rub her face on it.
Gram was only mildly intrigued.
Shackleton went under the bed to avoid responding to our survey.
Briar only had eyes for Shackleton.
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Okra: a poll (n=17 people) for future reference (updated Sept 2022)

  • Roast okra with olive oil and salt until softened or blackened: 5
  • Fried: 3
  • Don’t like it: 1
  • Pickled with or without hot peppers: 3
  • In various saucy bases:
    • In tomato sauce with garam masala: 2
    • Coconut curry (Sri Lankan): 1
    • Bangladeshi curry: 1
    • Curry (region unspecified): 1
    • Chili: 1
    • Gumbo: 4
  • Don’t even bother: 1
  • In chili: 1
  • Boiled: 2
  • In patties with egg, flour, and onion: 1
  • Not sure: 2
  • Eat it raw: 1
  • Saute in any vegetable with seasoning such as garlic granules, salt and pepper, smoked paprika, vegetarian spice blends: 1
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07/05/2022

Baby cushaw squash!
Recovering from removal of benign sebaceous cysts is more complicated than either of us expected.
Purple hulled pinkeye cowpea.
I really like the little signs Paula got me for Christmas. They stand out well.
A gray hairstreak on a Madhu ras canteloupe flower.
Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata is blooming!
In fact, it has two. She says it had six earlier this year too.
New tiny moth – a spotted thyris!
Bee butt in loofah gourd.
Paula made Thai green curry for dinner. It contains last year’s garden white currant tomatoes (from frozen, so that works well), garden onions, and garden walking onions.
The Texas buckeye is very angry. I put a hose out to soak there. Jeanne has let me know the wild ones do this too, so maybe it will recover.
Possibly purple prairie clover from free packet from prairiemoon.com?
A second round of standing cypress flowers on a different plant.
A volunteer Carolina snailseed in the front yard.
Will Rogers Zinnias are looking good in the rainbow garden.
Briar loves escorting Shackleton for a walk.
Shackleton doesn’t know why we have to ruin a good thing by bringing the dog.
We were about to go back inside, but she got up and scooted closer. He turned to glare while she got a treat for laying down.
Shackleton says no eye contact.
Here you can pretend there is no dog, only lush, succulent grass and corn.
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06/28/2022

The accidental shot of the week. I didn’t notice this bee kicking a wasp off its foot until I looked at the photo later!
The bumblebee is feeding on Echinacea purpurea.
Front of the bumblebee face is yellow.
A zoomed in shot. The short overall hairs, all yellow on thorax and head, smoky dark wings, and minimal color on abdomen have led me to think it may be Bombus griseocollis, the brown-belted bumblebee. I have entered the sighting and photos on Bumble Bee Watch’s community science website where they can verify or correct this identification. This would be our fourth bumblebee species for the yard if I have identified it correctly. 🤞🤞
I found a second partridge pea plant blooming in the “prairie”!
An all orangish solider beetle on a Rudbeckia flower.
Shackleton the cat enjoyed hiding in brown crinkly paper. He has such big eyes!
Paula is experimenting with kombucha fermentation thanks to a culture from Abby. This is the first sample and contains a garden strawberry for added flavor. It was good!
Briar helps us observe bees out front. I’ll do a separate post with evening bees if any pics turned out.
A baby moon and stars watermelon!!
A baby praying mantis on the mint!
Paula and I weeded the orange and red section of the rainbow garden. It has a lot of invasive grass in it.
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06/19/2022

Will Rogers Zinnias came back true.
A little Solanaceae volunteered in the rainbow garden.
It conveniently has a yellow flower.
Paula started a batch of kimchi fermenting. Walking onions for the green onion.
Who is this
This friend not want to play
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06/18/2022 onion time

Oops. We disturbed this big beautiful toad.
The toad hopped over our onions to nestle down under some bean plants. We turned the soaker hose on after we were done harvesting to make sure any other plants we disturbed weren’t too upset, and hopefully that will keep the toad safely into the cooler night too.
Three kinds of onion!
The shadiest bed has Inca pea beans planted over Thomas Laxton sugar peas which we removed as they were getting mildewy. Now the pea beans have room to grow.
Our supervisor chose a shady, cool corner.
Left are the dried Thomas Laxton sugar peas for next season. To the right are Oregon sugar pod II (the original kind I had) from earlier this spring. I am going to bleach them to prevent transfer of the mildew to next season. We also put the plant waste in the city yard waste bins as their composting gets much hotter than ours.