Jim Long's Garden Talk

Blog Address Changing

2010-01-07T15:31:00.003-06:00

I apologize in advance; you're probably going to growl under your breath at me, and I sincerely regret that. However, due to a glitch (meaning my own ignorance and inexperience) a year and a half ago, I found myself unable to post to this blog, so, I created a duplicate. When I learned enough to correct the mistake, I found myself posting to two blogs twice weekly, with more followers on the new one. I've put posting this note for months, but it's time that I quit doing duplicates and concentrate on the other blog.

I really hope that each of you will follow me to this "new" blog and become followers there. It's easy, just sign up like you did here. I'll be deleting this blog you're reading now, in a short while.

Here's the address of the duplicate blog: http://jimlongsgarden.blogspot.com. Please follow me there. To read today's posting, go to that address.

Again, my apologies for any frustration I may have created. I value that you care enough to read what I write and you can find all of the previous postings and information there, too. If you have questions and want to contact me, please leave a comment with an email address (which I do not post) so that I can answer you.

Thank you, I appreciate you and hope you will switch over to the other blog. :-) I do not want to lose a single reader, I have always looked forward to your input and comments.

(And the posting today is the Story of Long Creek Herb Farm, because so many readers asked.)

Rants and Raves for the Year Just Past

2010-01-02T23:04:00.002-06:00

Like lots of people, I'm spending New Year's weekend thinking about the good and not so good things of the past year. That prompted me to look at products and suppliers of our company this year. In case you aren't familiar with what we do here besides the garden, we manufacture and sell my herb formulas and books through our website and catalog. Our products are all based on herbs and plants, and some, like Herbal Nail Fungus Soak, are healing; others, like our Roaster Seasoning, give flavor and taste to meals. My Dream Pillows and Dream Pillow blends give pleasant, peaceful sleep. We ship our products all around the world and it is very satisfying to know that people's lives (and toes and fingers) are better because of what we create here. We recycle, we live lightly on the land and we take pride in what we offer our customers.

For my rant, I'm going to mention a box company, and it relates to my garden and to yours, too., no matter where you live. This company gets my "award" this year for being the most detrimental to the environment of any of our suppliers in 2009. This company, Uline, makes great shipping boxes and we are grateful for their good service and helpful personnel. However, they get the award, from me, for being our least green supplier of the year. Why?

Uline sends us between 30 and 50 catalogs a year. One in each order, one to our billing address, one to our shipping address and one a month, regardless. This is important for 2 reasons: 1 - The catalog weighs one and one half pounds! That amounts to between 45 and 75 pounds of paper that is unnecessary. And, 2 - because there is no "opt-out" option. We've requested to be sent just one catalog a year, which would be ample, but the company tells us they can't do that. Other companies who order from Uline have also complained, according to our UPS and FedEx drivers. So, for the least green supplier we have this year, the "Boooo-Bad for the Environment" award goes to Uline. We recycle their catalogs but, how thoughtless of them to waste such resources. With thousands of customers, that's a lot of trees cut down that are totally wasted. No one can use 50 catalogs a year, no matter how big the company is! (And if you'd like to tell them they got the Booooo-Bad for the Environment award this year, or to complain that they are unnecessarily filling the landfills with their wasteful catalog mailing practices, here's the "Contact us" link: http://www.uline.com/CustomerService/ContactUs_menu.aspx).

Fortunately we have some wonderful suppliers who do care about the environment with what they produce. Lavender Lane comes to mind. They don't have a paper catalog, all of their products are on-line. They've been supplying bottles, jars, packages, oils and special kits for many years. I first met and got acquainted with the owner, Donna, at an herb conference almost two decades ago. I list them in the Sources section of many of my herb books for folks who are in herb-related businesses, simply because Lavender Lane will sell you just one bottle, or a thousand. Thanks, Lavender Lane, we appreciate what you do!

Evening Shade Farms, the nice folks who make our bug-repelling soaps for us, along with other specialty products, are just great folks to know. They have a simple, recyclable catalog, sent out once a year, with a website and fast, personal service. They care about the environment as much as we do. They use their own organically grown herbs and their own goats milk in their soap. I first met the owner, Gayl Bousman, at a Small Farm Conference, again almost two decades ago. Check out their website and if you ask for a catalog, Gayl won't send you pound and half catalog 30 times a year, I promise! (They sell both retail and wholesale).

And the folks at The HerbPharm are also fantastic to work with. I first met "Herbal Ed" Smith, the founder, at an International Herb Association conference back in the late '80s. He was presenting a program about marketing, both the ethics of what you produce and how it effects people, along with how to price and market what you make. I credit Herbal Ed for opening my eyes to the philosophies of ethical marketing. Their company supplies us with Spilanthes-Usnea Tincture, which we sell as an additional product to our Herbal Nail Fungus Soak, for people with especially difficult nail fungus. (You probably know, any gardener who digs in the ground, eventually will encounter nail fungus). So, to Herbal Ed and all the folks at The HerbPharm, thank you for the outstanding service this year.

One more ranting "award," which has little to do with my garden, and you will will laugh, but bad juju on the Ocean Spray people for ignoring their customers completely and switching to a cheaper, less functional can for their Ocean Spray cranberry sauce. The traditional way for eating this common holiday condiment (or is it a side dish, as I maintain?) is to cut both ends out of the can and slide it out onto a platter, slice it and it's ready to serve. But, no, Ocean Spray has ignored customer complaints about the new can and went ahead anyway. Now, you have two choices: dig the jellied sauce out of the can with a spoon, which is just plain wrong, or, turn the can upside down and pound the daylights out of the bottom with an ice pick (which I did last week; ice pics are dangerous when people are hungry). After puncturing the bottom of the can a few times, you have to then flip the can over and cut the can lid off of the one end that the can opener will work on, and shake until the contents come out. From all of us who still eat canned, jellied cranberry sauce at the holidays, boo and hiss on Ocean Spray. (And yes, I always cook real cranberries, too, but the jellied is a tradition, a nod to the days of t.v. dinners and black and white television). Ocean Spray, hire a packaging consultant. If you agree, and want to tell Ocean Spray what you think about their customer un-friendly can, here's the contact link to send them your comments: http://www.oceanspray.com/contact/

So there's my rants and kudos to wrap up the year. Rants against companies that ignore their customers, against companies that could actually do something for the environment in a substantial way but instead continue to produce millions of pounds of over-sized catalogs, wasting resources and filling landfills unnecessarily.
And kudos to companies like The HerbPharm, Lavender Lane and Evening Shade Farms, that care about the environment and conduct their businesses in ethical, sustainable ways.

Here's to a better year ahead for each and everyone who read this blog. Thank you, I appreciate you all!

Double Deep-Fried Hot Dog on a Bun

2009-12-29T11:23:00.001-06:00

(Shown here, my herb shop next to the garden, with a light dusting of snow today).

I think the observance of the New Year holiday is more emotional and psychological than it is real. It's a bit like paying a religious person to forgive you for all the errors you made in the last 12 months, so that you can simply start all over again with a clean slate and make the same errors of judgment again. Granted, it is an observable date, something you can point to on the calendar and say, "That's the day I quit smoking" or, "I swore I'd cut my soft drink spending in half, beginning there..." But the date's also loaded with minefields. Intentions are good on the first day of the year, less so after the second piece of candy the day after. But if for nothing else, setting aside one day of the year to start anew, make promises, allow ourselves some forgiveness for being slackers, is in the end, a good thing.

You may already know that this New Year's Eve holds something special. This year when we celebrate the death of 2009 and the birth of a new calendar year, we'll have not just a full moon on New Year's Eve - something that doesn't happen that often, but a blue moon, as well. If you go to bed early and miss seeing this full, blue moon on New Year's Eve, you will have to wait another 29 (or was it 27) years to see another. And no, the name blue moon doesn't relate to its color, it will likely be its regular moon-color. Read the link to see why it's a blue moon. Additionally, this Saturday will be a palindrome date --- 01022010. (A palindrome is a number, word, or something that can be read the same forwards or backwards).

The seed catalogs keep arriving daily and piling up in my office, beckoning me to STOP and read them. I'm just not ready to leap into the pile to ferret out the exciting new plants I want to grow in the coming year. With last year's record millions of new, first time gardeners, seed companies have pulled out all the stops to offer us even more tempting selections. Jeremiath Gettle, who with his wife, Emilee, owns Baker Creek Seed, said they have expanded from 900 varieties of vegetables and herbs last year, to just over 1,100 this season! And our friends, Rose Marie and Keane McGee, owners of Nichols Garden Nursery, have lots of new and tempting additions this year, as well, including offering seed for the Achocha plant I've been crowing about this year in earlier postings on this blog. If you want to grow some, they are the only source I know, and theirs comes from the strain I was given by my friend in Bhutan.

In Indiagarden, you can see they are growing all the things we in the cold Midwest only imagine from our seed catalogs at this time of year. And in Puerto Rico, see the plants this San Juan, Puerto Rican gardener is growing. If we can't garden this time of year, we can experience and appreciate other people's gardens through their blogs.

Our friends in Hawai'i, Bill and Betty Daily, sent this link for some New Year's day food suggestions from the CopyKat Recipes page. The bottom one, lovingly titled, "White Trash Sushi" consists of ham rolled around a dill pickle, then wrapped in an egg roll wrapper, sealed and deep fried. The reviews say it is really good. As Americans, we firmly believe that anything is good, provided it is deep-fried! (That's why weight-loss programs are such money makers for their creators).

Immediately I went off the creative deep end and began to imagine next year's winner for deep-fried State Fair food. (You'll remember that last year the winners were, deep-fried Coca Cola, and deep fried M and M candies; this year, deep-fried butter took the prize). The vendors at all the state fairs across the country compete each year to see what weird new food can be deep fried for people gullible enough to try it).

So I'm thinking, if you took a hot dog, put it in a bun, added relish, mustard, pickles, onions, dipped it in batter and deep fried it, THEN, dip it again in more batter and roll that in chopped onions and deep fried it again. That should win. It combines state fair food - the always America hot dog - with all the traditional condiments, it fulfills the category of ordinary/unusual food that is deep-fried, and no one else is doing it. Now there is a perfectly good reason to swear off deep fried food for the whole New Year. (And for those of you who are reading this from countries that have more civilized food, it's just fine to deem American food as just plain silly; often times, IT IS!).

Steven Litchford, over at the ManDish blog, posted this recipe for using up the refrigerator left-overs from Christmas dinner. Check out his Warm Maple, Ham and Apple leftover casserole, which I am certain is better than a double-deep fried hot dog on a bun.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope this finds you looking forward to a new year ahead. Whether your New Year comes at the end of December, or it comes later, I wish you the very best for the coming year.

Global Warmer

2009-12-20T15:38:00.004-06:00

I'm pretty sure all those folks who refuse to believe global warming is happening, are not gardeners. My belief is, if you have a connection to plants, soil, seasons - a garden - then you can't help but notice the way the climate has changed. I'll grant, maybe there's an outside chance, that some of the changes can be attributed to a cycle, a thousand years of this or that, heating up or cooling down. The earth's been through that before, but even if that's so, it's serious and we have some input as humans. There's too much evidence to be ignored and it may not be too late to fix it. I believe in cause and effect. If you burn down the rain forest, kill the animals and trees, suck all the oil out of the earth and turn it into smog, burn up billions of tires a year, and pollute everything in sight, there will be a result. I've gardened in this exact same spot for the past 30 years and I've seen some rather significant changes.

When I started gardening here, May 1, 1979, there were no nine-banded armadillos in my garden. There were none closer than half a state away in Arkansas, to the south. (I live right on the line that divides Missouri from Arkansas, in the Ozarks mountains). In 1991, I saw my first armadillo in my yard and even though the Missouri Department of Conservation said it wasn't possible, it was, and soon people were seeing armadillos digging up their yards and gardens all over the Ozarks. Since that time, armadillos have moved northward the entire length of the state of Missouri, and are now seen in Des Moines, Iowa, several hundred miles away, according to friends there). Global warming, or just adventurous armadillos?

When I first arrived here, figs were impossible to grow. Now I grow two varieties quite successfully, along with muscadines, which also shouldn't be growing here. And this year there were reports of fire ants being discovered in the Bootheel of Missouri. Those nasty little ants' bites are hard on livestock and humans. We've long had bans on nursery stock being shipped into our state from other places which have fire ants, requiring that the soil of the plants be treated first. Evidently the little pests hid in hay and now that the climate is warmer, they're on the heels of the armadillos and are pioneering new settlements northward into an area they've not been seen before.

In all my years of tromping the woods and forests of the Ozarks I have never once seen mistletoe growing. In my knowledge, the nearest sightings of this hemiparasitic plant (that means it attaches itself to a tree branch and lives there, partially dependent on the tree, but not totally, for its survival) was about an hour's drive to the south. But lo and behold, right there in a couple of oak trees about 4 miles from my farm, there's a little colony of mistletoe alive and thriving.

You'll remember that mistletoe is poison (unlike poinettias, the other plant associated with Christmas, which aren't poison). At least the European variety is poison, although I don't know anyone who's actually eaten any of our dozen or so varieties of American mistletoe. Phoradendron flavescens. It has traditionally been used for medicinal purposes under controlled conditions. Birds eat the berries, especially cedar waxwings and cardinals, and that's the way the plant spreads, through bird droppings, dropped on high tree branches. (The name, mistletoe, apparently springs from two Anglo-Saxon words, "mistel" for dung, and "tan" for branch; "mistletan" is Old English for mistletoe). In California, the Extension Service puts out bulletins showing how to eradicate mistletoe from the landscape, while the state of Oklahoma declared it the official flower.

Tradition holds that when a man and woman find themselves accidentally under a sprig of mistletoe, hung in the house at Christmas, they must kiss. The tradition comes from Celtic rituals and Norse mythology. In Gaul, the Druids considered it a sacred plant. Mistletoe is also said to be a sexual symbol, because of the consistency and color of the berry juice as well as the belief that it is an aphrodisiac, the “soul” of the oak from which it grows. Sp here is mistletoe, almost in my backyard. Global warming, or adventurous plants/insects/mammals, you be the judge. The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Denmark is a beginning in the right direction, but rather timid in its outcome so far. The problems are great, the decisions should be, as well.

Our Friday Night Dinner Group had its annual Christmas gift exchange last night. All of us, 11 in all, are like minded, similar in age, and many in the group either have no other family, or are estranged or distant from them. So we are all our own adopted family and this ritual of silly gifts and a dinner in someone's house, is always looked forward to by us all. The holiday season for many people who are older, is a time of everything from melancholy to downright depression and our little party is meant to bolster all of our spirits. Our night out is our single celebration for the season. We eat and laugh and open presents, some bought, some from last year's gifts, some homemade, then we eat some more.

I was responsible for the appetizers before the main course. I took an assortment of fresh vegetables and dips. Here's the dip I made, from my book, Great Dips, Using Herbs:

Beach Party Shrimp Dip (it works just as well for the holidays)

2 cups cooked, shelled shrimp, finely chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
2 green onions, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, or 1 small, hot pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 tablespoon dill pickle, chopped fine
1 tablespoon Dijon or good, brown prepared mustarrd
2 teaspoons, or more, horseradish
2 tablespoons catsup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce.

The easy way is to put everything into a food processor and pulse for 3 or 4 times, but you can also chop and dice everything by hand then combine them. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. Serve with fresh vegetables or chips.

Regardless of who you are or where you live, I hope you find peace and happiness. This may not be a holiday season in your country, or it may, either way, consider this, from my little collection of quotes, mine and other people's:

It doesn’t cost anything to love others. Do it freely, love is never wasted, even when it appears it is....Jim Long

Oh My Beautiful Jalapeno

2009-12-15T21:51:00.002-06:00

The very long and welcome pepper season in the garden is gone and I had to buy a jalapeno at WallyWorld (you may gasp, there aren't many choices for fresh produce nearby). But when I unpacked the groceries last night, there was NO jalapeno to be found anywhere. I looked through the recycling bin of plastic bags. I looked in the 'fridge. In the pepper bin on the counter. There just was not a fresh jalapeno anywhere. Breakfast burrito would be bland, bland, bland. Today, in a hurried walk through the cold, between the house and my office, there it was in the driveway, flat, lately run over by a car wheel, my beautiful jalapeno! Pepper withdraw sets in quickly.

I'm addicted to hot peppers, I admit it. That's why I grew so many varieties this summer. The morning's breakfast just isn't the same without some heat. I rescued this one from the driveway, smashed as it is, and will cook it tomorrow. Gee, I miss summer already.

As we drove through Birmingham a couple of days ago, home of Southern Living magazine and the Grumpy Gardener, we drove by Grumpy's little castle to see what he was up to. As I suspected, the jolly old elf was in high holiday style. He complains about the holidays - Grumpiness is, after all, his middle name - but I figured deep down, he's just a pushover for carols and lollipops and all the hoopla of Christmas. There he was, dressed in his finest red outfit, a fresh-picked amaryllis in hand, about to drag his Christmas tree into his castle. (If you want Grumpy's tips on how to choose a Christmas tree then check this out: How to choose a Christmas tree).

If you have never checked Grumpy's blog, then you don't know about his myth-busting story about poinsettias. As I have long suspected, they're not poison, at all. I've claimed it for years, but now we have it in the expert's own words. Check out this Poinsettias aren't poison!.

One of the things that gives me great pleasure, are you, the followers of this blog. I've visited most of your blogs and websites and I must say, I'm honored at the talented people who stop by here to see what I'm up to. And your blogs lead me to other blogs, and I learn what's new and important and fun. Some of you have fantastic food blogs with great recipes. Some of you "do" art. Lots of gardeners, folks from around the globe and good friends and neighbors. Thank you for checking in from time to time! I'm truly honored.

If you're looking for a great Sparkling Gingershap Cookie recipe, here's the link to Man Food, Steven Litchford's food blog. Now, if I can figure out a way to make stevia sparkle like sugar crystals...

And a question...do any of you Southerners happen to know these berries? As we drove through northern Mississippi and Alabama there were lots of trees in the swampy areas with what looked like flowers. Upon closer inspection, I found they're a 2-lobed, white berry. The berries arrangements on the trees made them look flower-like. I'd like to know the name of the tree if you recognize the white winter berries.

There's still a little life in the garden, even this time of year. Even with 17 degrees F. tonight, the cilantro will survive a bit longer. Tomorrow, the fresh cilantro will be introduced to a smashed, run over jalapeno and some eggs and sausage... Happy gardening and thanks for stopping for a visit.

Cabbage for as Far as the Eyes Can See

2009-12-11T22:38:00.001-06:00

It's supposed to be warm in Florida. Two days ago, in south FL, it was 90 degrees. Tonight, in Panama City, 40 degrees. I know, if you live in the cold, frigid north, that sounds warm. Not if you thought it would be warm down here. Even the local Floridians are complaining loudly that this is not Florida weather.

The past 3 nights we've stayed in motels that promised they had high speed internet. Each night it either didn't exist, or it would be on for 3 minutes then off for 5, not long enough to post to FaceBook or here. And so I've not been able to keep up with postings the past 2 days.

After a day at the best thrift shop in Florida, the Women's Center in Sarasota, we headed down to the town of Imokolee to the rare plant nursery I'd visited last January. We picked up some black pepper plants, one variety from Thailand, a Piper nigrum, that's a bush pepper. The other variety, also a Piper nigrum, is from Guatamala and is the typical vine. Black pepper, if you aren't familiar with it, is a modest vine that grows up the trunks of trees. The berries grow in clusters along a stem and are harvested when ripe. Pepper berries become peppercorns when they're dried. And since pepper plants quit blooming and producing when the temperature drops below 40 degrees, I just went to the car and brought the pepper plants inside for the night.

We also picked up a miracle fruit plant, something I've been wanting to get for quite awhile (and which I wrote about here last January). The fruit is amazing in that it switches your taste buds from sweet to sour, or the reverse. If you eat a lemon, then taste miracle fruit and it's so sweet you can hardly stand it. Or, eat a bit of sugar, then eat a miracle fruit berry and it's incredibly sour. And it happens instantaneously.

We stopped at the Seminole Casino in Imokolee for about an hour, eating dinner and gambling away ten dollars. From there we drove up to West Palm Beach where I've given lectures before at the West Palm Herb Society festivals. The Mounts Botanical Garden is an admirable collection of rare fruits and herbs, along with a good sampling of Florida native trees and shrubs. It's part of the Univ. of FL University Extension system.

One of the things I found interesting at the botanical garden is the hedge that surrounds the herb garden. Can you guess what it is? I walked past it 3 times before I noticed what the plants are. Imagine, if you will, a hedge 16 ft. tall, of allspice! You may recall the photo in a posting here a couple of months ago, of the 1 gallon allspice plants I have on our sun porch. Well, this is what fully mature allspice trees look like, trimmed into a hedge. Allspice berries come from this, the same spice you likely have in your spice cabinet. And the leaves are used in cooking, as well.

I took this photo of a mature cinnamon tree, as well. In places like Sri Lanka and India, where a lot of cinnamon is grown, it's trimmed back each year. When the new, sturdy sprouts grow back and are big enough, the bark is split and peeled off and dried, and that's the source of stick cinnamon. My cinnamon plants are still about 12 inches tall so I won't be harvesting my own cinnamon any time soon.

And if you wonder where your cabbage comes from (besides the grocery store) there are hundreds of acres of cabbage in this part of the state. It's cabbage harvest time now, and we've seen lots of trucks loaded to the top and over, with fresh-cut cabbages. We even had to dodge a huge head of cabbage in the middle of the intersection!

Heading homeward to a frozen garden. Stay warm!

Road Trip!

2009-12-08T20:53:00.003-06:00

After weeks of basking in warm fall-like temperatures, the weather turned loose and froze the garden and then snowed on it. It had to happen eventually. We'd been planning a trip south for several weeks and the timing was good. We both packed a few token summery things, hardly able to visualize warm weather again and headed south.

The big first stop was the Unclaimed Baggage store in Scottsboro, AL. If you ever wonder what happens to unclaimed or completely lost luggage, well, this is where a lot of it ends up. These folks have been in business for 20 or 30 years and the place is jam-packed with goodies and not so goodies. Occasionally they'll find real gold. Once it was a suitcase of Egyptian artifacts. Just a few weeks ago they found a huge emerald. We saw mink coats, Rolex watches, cameras--- hundreds of cameras and lots more.

What'd we buy? Luggage, of course, they have lots. Josh bought a carrying case for his navigator, I bought a bag of nail trimmers, tweezers and scissors. Ever wondered where those 3 inch long scissors they took away at the airport security? They end up in the Unclaimed Baggage store. I bought a baggie full for $2.09!

Today we made it to Sarasota, one of the goals of the trip (after Unclaimed Baggage). The Women's Center Consignment & Thrift Shop is probably one of the best thrift shops anywhere short of the famous Salvation Army Store in Washington, DC. We spent about 4 hours there. Seems like lots of people from Chicago, New York City and everywhere else, retire around Sarasota. Then they grow older and want to get rid of their collections. Oriental rugs, great buys for antique ones, antique furniture, jewelry, sculpture (no, not the concrete kind, but real collectible art), paintings, marble fireplace fronts and mantles. It's an amazing place to visit. Unfortunately it doesn't have a garden.

Lunch was local salad with actual, vine ripened tomatoes (remember those, from summer?) Josh was munching away on a steak salad. Notice we're sitting under umbrellas, in 80 degree weather? I may just stay, I can hardly bring myself to think of heading back to freezing weather. I'm certain if there was a reasonable way, I'd spend the winters somewhere warm and grow my own winter tomatoes!

More details later. We're going garden hunting tomorrow but may hit another few salvage and thrift stores along the way. Happy gardening!

Oh, I couldn't pass up this sign, it was just too funny not to add to my collection. You have to look close at the sign on the door to see why it's funny. Bad humor, I know, but there it was, driving down the road with that sign on it.

I wish all of you could be basking in 80 degree weather and eating ripe tomatoes today!

Pears, Crows & Chili

2009-11-30T20:52:00.008-06:00

I know it's a stretch to connect the above photo to the garden, but this newspaper clipping is just too good not to share. I guess the connection is: peppers come from the garden; peppers go into chili seasoning; chili seasoning goes into the chili cook-0ff. There, that's the only connection I can think of for garden. But you have to admit, both captions make this funnier than the newspaper probably intended. It is, indeed, a large crowd, but I don't see how it does anything to help hungry children.

We've had several crows in the orchard every day for the past couple of months. I get a kick out of watching them. I start the day nearly every morning, sitting in the hot tub out on the deck. Being in the hot tub is a bit like being in a duck hunting blind because the birds don't recognize me as human nor a threat and basically don't even notice that I'm watching them.

Every morning one crow, which I call the Advance Guard, flies to the power line above the orchard, near the old pear tree, and looks around. If there's no danger about, he gives 4 short and one long caaaaw. Within seconds 3 or 4 more crows fly to the ground and hop over to the pear tree. There are still fallen pears beneath it and they like the pears as much as we do. They'll eat for awhile, sometimes calling in their friends, then Molly will give chase and they'll fly on to other pursuits.

Josh has been gathering pears and cooking them down into pearsauce, just like applesauce, since early September. He's canned quite a bit, frozen some, and has dried several bags of pear slices in the dehydrator. We've gladly shared the pears with the crows. They're great clowns and I really like watching them. And over time I've come to recognize some of their different calls.

In very early morning, the crows leave their rook, their night roosting area. The crows that have the job of Advance Guard go in different directions, about a quarter to half mile apart, and report. If one gets distracted and doesn't answer the "report in" call, one of the others comes and checks on him, and gives him a tongue-lashing for being negligent. They have particular calls for when there's food; calls for just having landed somewhere to look around, and especially a different call when they spot an owl. From my vantage in the hot tub each morning, I have come to recognize and enjoy their many calls they use to communicate.

I found these great natural stone nail files that we're selling with our Nail Fungus Soak. It's the same kind of mineral stone that's used for sharpening knives. The files are 5 different grits, designated by color, from very fine to coarse, with one large one for smoothing calluses and heels. (The files aren't even on our website yet, you have to call). The great thing about the files is you can sterilize them. (The fastest way to spread nail fungus from one nail to the other, or one person to another, is by the use of trimmers and nail files that are already infected). Dunk them in rubbing alcohol once a week and you're safe. Natural stone files last for years! And, yes, my Herbal Nail Fungus Soak is all natural, made with herbs, and works. I guarantee it!

You probably already know I've been making and selling my formula Nail Fungus Soak for almost 18 years now and have lots of happy customers who've gotten rid of their cracking heel and nail fungus. Most anyone who digs in the soil or gets a nail injured, will get nail fungus. Oddly enough, some doctors still believe the only remedy is to kill and remove the nail. I certainly wouldn't want to go to a doctor who did that if I had a broken arm! Imagine, removing either one as a "cure." Nail Soak does a great job on athlete's foot a the various kinds of nail fungus. We sell through lots of chiropractors, podiatrists, pharmacies, some doctors, lots of natural foods stores and the amazing Amish Country St ore in Branson. We also have a helpful Questions & Answers page, which includes comments from our customers and tips on dealing with nail problems.

My good friend, George Hudson, drew this caricature of me and it pretty much describes the past several days. I hope your week is going well, and you're recovered from Thanksgiving. Happy gardening!

Ghost Towns, Calico Rock

2009-11-23T00:06:00.001-06:00

Jenny, who's our friends', George and Pat's favorite chicken, was agitated and upset at the news of Mr. X this week, as you can tell by the video. Rosalind Creasy responded to my post about Mr. X and set the record straight. Here's the update:
"Thanks Jim, I enjoyed your link, though Robert drove Mr. X from coast to coast, and he spent a lot more time in nursing homes, school classrooms, and in front of garden club audiences than he did on TV. I have had him cremated and am going to scatter his ashes over Robert's grave next summer. My cats are under my roses, however."

I took a drive down to Mountain View, AR yesterday to see friends and pick up some trees for our front yard where I had a tree cut down last week. I bought a 12 ft. white dogwood, an Autumn Glory maple and a Savannah holly. I picked a few bitter oranges (Poncirus trifolium) in a friend's yard. These golf ball sized oranges are bitter and not really edible, but have a nice fragrance. If you don't know the plant and want an unpenetratable hedge, this is the plant. With 3 inch thorns, and a little dab of something on the tips that hurts like the dickens if you get pricked, this is one mean plant. I had one once that reached about 12 ft. tall and even after I'd cut it down, the left over dead thorns still could cause intense pain when picked up. It's almost worth growing this tenacious plant, however, just for the fragrance of the orange blossoms in the spring. And it's plenty hardy to zero or below.

I also photographed some sumac. I've written about this plant here before. It's used as a seasoning herb in many Middle Eastern countries. Here in the Ozarks we simply boil it, add some sugar and coriander seed and serve it hot as a tea, or over ice.

Rather than retrace my tracks, I drove north from Mountain View to Calico Rock. This is a great little town situated on top of bluffs that overlook the White River, with still operating railroad tracks that follow along the river. Calico Rock is named for the miles of moss and lichen-covered sandstone flats around and beyond the town. Just driving along the roadway you can spot 1 to 2 acre-sized patches of flat rock outcropping and every square inch of the stone is covered with moss and lichens. There must be dozens of kinds growing there and what's fascinating is there's so much life in the moss. It's actually like a miniature world, the closer you look at the moss and lichen colonies, the more activity and life you notice there. An entire world that operates separate from and independent of, you, me, anyone.

In the town of Calico Rock (which is known for it's tourist fishing economy in summer) there is a ghost town called, Peppersauce Ghost Town. As many times as I've been to Calico Rock, I had never known there was an old town just across the creek. Lots of 1800s vintage buildings, setting empty. There's a jail that is about the size of my closet, made of stone with tiny holes for the prisoners to peek out of. Mostly it housed drunks, I understand. The name, Peppersauce, was the local's name for white lightning/homebrew, which was made and sold there. It was the seedier part of town and the more respectable townsfolk didn't venture into that neighborhood, not during the daylight, at least. So I looked over Peppersauce Lane, which was the main questionable section long ago, and it led across a little bridge and into Peppersauce Alley and what is now the ghost town. Peppersauce - good name for Arkansas home brew!

Today, Josh's mother, Barbara, was out in the garden looking over the salvias and roses, still in bloom with our beautiful weather. I planted the trees I brought home from Mountain View along with a few dozen tulips. Happy gardening!

The Famous Mr. X Dies

2009-11-17T10:17:00.011-06:00

I received word yesterday from our friend, Rosalind Creasy, that the famous rooster, Mr. X, had died. He'd lived to a ripe old age of 15, a substantial yearage for a rooster, and passed away quietly in his sleep Sunday night. Our condolences to Mr. X's family and friends.

And there were many of both. Just last year we heard the details of Mr. X's birthday party, which was attended by neighbors and friends. Cathy Barash, who's assisting Ros with a new book, and staying in California currently with Ros while the book is in progress, sent photos and the menu from the big birthday party. No chicken or chicken products were served but a special menu from Ros's garden was the fare. Ros is well known for her incredible plant and garden books and calenders for the Sierra Club.

She inherited Mr. X from her husband, Robert, after he was killed in a motorcycle accident. Before that time, Mr. X, with Robert in tow, had appeared on numerous Good Morning America and Today-type shows and Robert could be seen carrying Mr. X through the airports and boarding planes for media appearances from Coast to Coast. Mr. X was a house and garden pet and had a cushy life for a rooster.

Mr. X evidently didn't bother the garden plants. I've heard that Ros maintains a very well groomed garden, which she uses it in her photography and writing business, as well as for developing recipes for many incredibly beautiful her books.

Our own rooster, which simply has the name, GET OUT OF THE GARDEN!, has been a pest all week. He has his own harem, but flies over the fence every day and picks through the beds and bugs in the garden. This coming weekend he'll get his wing feathers clipped and his flying days will be a thing of the past - until they grow out again, that is. Why not leave him in the garden? He's scraping the soil out of the beds, digging in the gravel pathways and generally making a mess of things.

We may finally get our first frost of the season tonight. Here it is, the 17th of November and we're still having lemongrass, basil, oregano, parsley and even a ripe tomato this week. The big bunch of 12 ft. high red castor beans in the chicken yard next to the garden (and which I can see from my window as I type this) are still looking lush and tropical. Winter is just over the hill, but what a grand ride it's been to have a pleasant and productive fall season after the wintery October we had. Every day without frost, freeze or snow is one day closer to spring!

The food dehydrator has been going all week. Josh has been drying pears between my pepper drying. The pears, sliced thin, dry to a nice leathery, pear-ish flavor that is sweet and make a good snack.

I'm drying peppers as fast as I can. I split them open and in some varieties, remove the seed clusters. My fingers still have that deep pepper burn from yesterday's pepper splitting process. They dry faster that way, rather than just putting the peppers in whole. It takes 2-3 days to dry them to the crisp/dry stage, when I bag them up. Then when I have a few gallon bags of peppers dried, I'll mix all 12 varieties together and grind them up in the food processor. I like the blend of flavors, from mildly hot to pure heat, and that will become pepper seasoning for winter foods. From scrambled eggs to Chinese dishes, peppers are an important component to my cooking.

Many of you may recall I take photos of unusual, silly, strange or funny signs when I travel, so here's my sign of the day. It makes you wonder, do they also rent ethics, too? Maybe sincerity?

Happy Gardening!

Season Out of Sync

2009-11-10T22:47:00.007-06:00

Blackberries in November....larkspurs blooming...fennel blossoms being feasted upon by insects, the months have gotten reversed. October was one of the coldest and wettest Octobers on record in the Ozarks. November, thus far, at least, is what September and October should have been. With highs in the 70s, sunny and mild, and as yet, no frost, we're getting the beautiful fall weather we wished for last month.

Yesterday I took this photo of a ripe blackberry. There had been more, but friends had eaten them, not even noticing that blackberries are generally over and done 2 months ago. I was glad they found them to eat while visiting! These are especially productive blackberries, hybrid thornless varieties from the University of Arkansas. They've introduced Arapaho, Navaho, Ouichita and several other thornless varieties in the past few years and the vines are enormously productive. But in all the years I've grown thornless blackberries, I've never had them produce berries in November.

The continuously chilly weather the past 2 months, with the constant, daily rains, has convinced plants like the larkspurs that are in bloom in the garden, red raspberries and blackberries, that spring must be here.

I noticed my bronze fennel plants are still blooming, also a bit out of season. Most of the leaves of the mature plants have dropped, but the stalks have blossom umbrels, and the pesky cucumber beetles are enjoying the nectar. And the assassin bug, shown here on the fennel flower, is enjoying eating the cucumber beetles. Assassin bugs are beneficial predators that feed on garden pests and they are welcome to all the cucumber beetles they can find.

People often tell me they can't tell the difference between fennel and dill. Akos, our first intern, many years ago from Hungary, worked with us in the garden for nine months and said to me one day that he didn't know the difference between the two plants. I had him smell and taste both and then he could better tell between them. I told him he could not leave Long Creek Herb Fa rm, not knowing the difference between those two plants because I would be ashamed to have failed him as a teacher. As you can see in the photo of the leaves, they do look similar. The one on the left is fennel, and is slightly lighter in color, while the dill, on the right, has more of a blue tint. And no, it's not true that you have to keep them separated because of the possibility of them crossing. They are two distinct plants, it's not possible for them to cross pollinate, any more than it is for a rose bush and an apple tree.

Our webmaster has been working feverishly on our new website, soon to be launched. In support of what he's doing, I have been photographing a few more products for the web pages. Chili Seasoning, Roaster Seasoning, Anne's Perfect Pumpkin Pie Spice and Teas of India, were all on today's photo menu.

Happy season, whether yours is in sync, or completely out, like ours. I won't complain about beautiful sunny days, nor blackberries in November!

Normal Rockwell is to blame

2009-11-06T13:22:00.005-06:00

I blame it all on Normal Rockwell. The barbershop where I got my haircuts as a kid had an old calendar of N. Rockwell prints and one of them was a kid and his father raking leaves, a spotted puppy playing in the leaf pile. They were smiling. They were having fun. It was what leaf raking was supposed to be.

I blame Norman on a lot of misconceptions from my childhood. Those Saturday Evening Post covers of the big family gathered around the Thanksgiving table, or the aforementioned leaf raking, or the big day at the grandparents on Christmas. I grew up believing people's families were actually like that.

Trouble is, leaf raking is a solitary duty. When the leaves fall, every year, other people are too busy, or have too much to do. Or, "tomorrow." We have several nice, big oak trees in our yard, and a couple of maples, and I'm grateful and glad for every one of them. Until the leaves fall, that is. Oak leaves are like hand sized pieces of brown cardboard and they pile up in the corners and under hard to get at places and stick themselves between the boards on the deck. If left to their own devices, after a rain or two, they pack down like those trendy Cuban pressed sandwiches, and once glued together, have to be pulled out with tongs. Nearly.

So each year I slog along, glaring at the neighbors who drive past, never stopping to help, at the UPS guy who could surely take a few measly hours out of his busy 12 hour day to help, while I stubbornly whale away at the leaves. Yes, I know how much good mulch they would make. They could fill the bottom of the pond at the lower part of the pasture and seal it up so it actually holds water. They could be put in the goat barn for bedding. The fact is, we have mountains of leaves and I have a limited amount of energy. So, with rake and the sometimes-working leaf blower in hand, I round them up into giant piles. I run over them with the lawn mower and mulch some, but it's too big a job for the mower, and in the end, I pile the leaves in the driveway and set them afire. And once burned to black ash, I track some indoors every day just to keep the memories alive. And no matter how carefully I rake and blow and puff, plenty will remain stuck in the flower beds, hiding behind the stacked flowerpots and under places they shouldn't even be able to get to.

I think it's not that I actually mind leaf raking, what I mind is Normal Rockwell having convinced me a long time ago that people came together to do the job, that it was fun, that people smiled while working. I also don't like the fact the leaves aren't green any more and the trees look bare and dead for a whole season.

We're still picking raspberries, roses and lavender, grateful for another week without frost. And the ancient, 'Brush Pile' tomatoes are still producing, as well. These tasty little tomatoes reseed themselves each year in the blackberry patch and grow up and through the berries. When the other tomatoes have quit for the year, these little berry sized tomatoes, just keep producing tiny tomatoes until a freeze finally halts their growth.

So Norman, where ever you are these days, I hope you had to put your paintbrush down and rake a few leaves. Your paintings might have turned out a lot different had you been using a rake instead of a watercolor brush.

Easy Dips, Using Herbs

2009-10-30T10:26:00.018-05:00

I'm pretty sure pumpkins look forward to Halloween all year. They know they'll get to dress up and look scary and remind us what wonderful characters they are. This is the pumkins favorite holiday; mine, too. There's no guilt about gift giving, no worries over fireworks or fake Christmas trees vs. real ones. Halloween is simply a time to have fun, to remember our ancestors, eat candy and put on a costume. Pumpkins do all of those things really well.

Today is Molly's 10th birthday. She celebrated the ending of her 9th year last night by saving the chickens in the barn, from a 'possum. Mr. Possum goes in at night and eats chicken food, and sometimes eats a chicken from time to time, so Molly saved the day. She'll get a special treat this evening. Maybe a homemade doggie cookie from our Doggie Cookie Kits.

This week we've been celebrating the garden in another way. Our chef friend, Eddie, and his friend, Gregg, have been visiting from California. Eddie stayed with us several months almost 4 years ago and cooked some amazing meals. I knew little about Chinese cooking back then and it was the during the time I was working on my book, Easy Dips, Using Herbs. Eddie taught me how to make wontons from scratch, including a pepper dip I've grown very fond of. (You'll find his recipe on page 92 of the book). While he was here, and cooking anyway, he decided to check his recipe in the book. It's pretty basic, some fresh and some dried peppers, shallots or onion, chopped fine and cooked in some oil until the color of the peppers change. Then you add rice vinegar, brown sugar and sometimes ginger and cook it down by about half. It keeps for weeks, although we usually eat it up much faster.

Eddie browsed the garden like he used to when he was here visiting before and gathered rainbow chard, green malabar spinach, peppers and a few other things for dinner. I gathered a couple of handfuls of figs, a bunch of small achochas (I've written about those several times here before) and nasturtiums for the salad.

So here's the menu that resulted: Eddie made my favorite Chinese soup, which consists of chicken broth with ginger and garlic in which he cooked Chinese meatballs (pork, ginger, dill, garlic, shallot, pepper); he stuffed some jalapeno peppers with the same mixture and sauted it. The soup was poured over noodles and topped with chopped green onion and cilantro.

I chopped up some garlic, ginger and shallots, added some raspberry jam, brown sugar, rice vinegar and marinated pork steaks in that. I grilled the pork steaks, and near the end of cooking those, I split the figs in half, brushed them with vegetable oil and grilled them for about 2 minutes on each side. Grilling carmelizes the sugars in the figs and they are very tasty.

Eddie took the baby achochas and sauted them in some oil with garlic for about 5 minutes, then added a half cup of the soup stock and simmered it until the liquid was absorbed. The achochas remained somewhat crisp and everyone liked this method a lot. (Nichols Garden Seed will be offering achocha seed next spring from my crops).

We invited over our friends, Brent & Tammy, who also like to cook and seven of us feasted on and incredible Chinese dinner. We finished the meal with a pear galette, from the Keiffer pears from the orchard behind the house. You might enjoy Eddie's blog (called Chef Chong's Leftovers), which has lots of his food and recipes.

Recipes for this meal will be on my Recipes page in a few days. Enjoy Halloween, with friends and good food, or your favorite Halloween candy. Our just stick your face in the window and grin like a jack-0-lantern!

Weird Sedalia Cornfield

2009-10-25T14:53:00.001-05:00

Last August I posted my observations in my blog posting, on a roadside corn field which had ears where the tassels should be. Friends at the Univ. of Illinois commented and explained that some corn varieties, in cool, wet years, may have a few of these errant ears. This field, however, was filled with this oddish corn. I was curious how the corn had fared and last week, went back to look over the field again.

I noted that the field is slightly over one fourth mile long on one side, and my guess is it's an 80 acre field. Because of the long, wet fall weather, the corn had not been harvested. I noticed that the corn ears, both at the top, and the normally placed ones lower down, had matured somewhat equally. The tassel-ears weren't as fully filled out, but most of the stalks had one or two fully filled ears at about waist level in addition to one or two ears at the tassel level.

The photograph, directly below, of the two fields together showed each field had reacted differently. The field on the right, just feet away from the weird corn field, was normal. No odd looking corn at all.

Notice in the second photo, the normal field view, all of the ears grew at about the top level of the fence posts (the road where I photographed was a bit higher than the ground level). Those ears, going on for about a half mile, were all exactly in the same position on the corn stalks with none at the tassel level, whereas, the field just to the north of it, had ears at the tassel level as well as approximately waist high. So the theory that this aberration was from weather/cool/moisture, doesn't completely hold up, or else, both fields would have reacted similarly. And both fields had corn maturing at the same time. It appeared the mixed up corn went a considerable distance into the field, although I could not be certain as the field was too muddy to walk into. But as far as I could see into the field, weird corn was the norm.

Often the seed company that sells the seed corn to the farmer puts up a sign somewhere along the edge of the field to identify, and advertise the seed variety, but I could find no signs at all and couldn't locate the farmer to ask about the variety. I'm sure the seed corn company would not want to advertise even their name, with this throwback corn as it's not a desirable trait, although highly entertaining while driving along the highway for us strange plant watchers.

And speaking of plant watching, here's a mushroom I'm always happy to find in the fall of the year. It's known as a Bearded Tooth (Hericium erinaceus) mushroom and is found on black oak trees which have had some sort of injury to the bark. Possibly insect damage, being hit by a falling limb, or shot by someone using the tree for target practice, the mushroom seems to appear the year following the injury. (Don't shoot trees, they're living things, too. If you want to target practice, use buckets, paper targets, etc.)

The bearded tooth (I've always known it as "bear's paw") mushroom grows about shoulder height, looks a bit like a white, fuzzy kitten stuck on the tree from a distance. Up close it's more like a smooth-topped mushroom with white fringe beneath. These are very tasty mushrooms, used in soup, or my favorite way, sauted in butter. Simply slice the mushroom in half inch slices first. Another way I like to fix these is to dip the slices in buttermilk, then dip them in fine cracker crumbs and fry until it's crispy on the edges. The flavor is mild, very pleasant and this is one of the really good fall mushrooms in the Ozarks. But, always be absolutely certain of the identification of a mushroom before eating it. Check this site for good information about identification.

If you like wild mushrooms, we offer locally grown and packaged wild woodland mushrooms. The Ozarks Forest Mushroom Medley mixture contains morels, chantrelles and several other tasty spring and summer mushrooms. We offer them through our catalog but not on the on-line catalog, due to availability and supply. If interested, go to our Contact Us page of the website and give us a call because we currently have a good supply. They're easy to use, with complete directions on the box and these work well in soups, as well as in sauces and toppings for steaks and chicken.

I'm still harvesting things from the herb beds every day, knowing that eventualy frost will come. As of today, no frost yet and it would be great if we can go to the end of October frost-free. You may notice along the right side of the garden path photo in the raised bed, the basils are still looking relatively happy although the cool nights have slowed leaf production. It's been an outstanding basil production year and I have not dried, frozen or preserved one single leaf and will regret it come the cold of winter. Happy gardening!

Dream Pillows and Bhut Jalokia Peppers

2009-10-21T19:02:00.012-05:00

We were honored and pleased to have our friend and last summer's intern/WWOOFer, Adam, come for a visit this week. Last summer he kept the garden in fantastic shape, planting, tending and harvesting throughout the season. Adam shares my passion for good food and cooking, so we cooked the garden all season long. Adam came to Long Creek Herb Farm a year ago last May, when I was still recuperating from my January surgery. He was a lifesaver for the garden! We convinced him to stay the summer and see the season through and enjoyed his wonderful spirit. From here he went on to Washington state to work on an organic production farm. He was only home for a short while to visit his father, and came by to see us. I was a bit embarrassed to show him the garden. With some back-pain issues this summer, and constant rain, it didn't look dressed and ready as it had when he was in charge. He harvested peppers, lemongrass and a variety of herbs to take back with him.

Our friend, Arne Arnsteadt, an organic grower in Ava, MO, sent this picture of his giant castor bean plants. He's dwarfed and looks child-size under the enormous canopy. He cut them down yesterday, resorting to a chain saw for the job.

I've been harvesting the pepper crop, trying to keep ahead of frost. We generally don't have a frost until Halloween, or after, and lots of fingers are crossed that will be true this year. My figs will ripen if they have another 10 days of warmth. This week it's been in the upper 70s and sunny, so the figs are racing to get ripe.

Here are a few of the pepper varieties I grew this year (click to enlarge to see the labels). My favorites this year include Jamaican Spice, Fish Pepper and a new one, the Elephant Tusk. I also grew a few plants of the bhut jalokia. If you were following last year you may recall that a jalapeno pepper is rated at about 2,500 ~ 8,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), a cayanne is rated at 30,000 ~ 50,000 SUs while an orange habanero is rated at 150,000 ~ 325,000 SHU and the bhut jalokia (also called naga jalokia) clocks in at a whopping 800,000 to 1,041,000 SHUs! While a habanero pepper has intense heat, it also has flavor, especially when moderated with mango, pineapple, peaches or cream, but the bhut jalokia has little flavor. It's simply the hottest pepper in the world, according to the Guiness Book of World Records. Here's what they say: "It was measured at 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), at the New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, on 9 September 2006." So why do I grow it? Because I can!

Someone asked me on Facebook what allspice looks like, so I took photos today of my allspice, bay rum, lemon bay rum and cinnamon. These are the great little rooted cuttings I found when I was in Florida last February and they've grown a great deal this summer. I use the leaves for seasoning. With all 4 plants, I like to crush a couple of leaves in some heavy whipping cream and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. Next day I remove the leaves, whip the cream and add a bit of sugar. It's very tasty! The leaves work well in cookies and other desserts, too.

I moved all the plants out of the sunporch yesterday and sprayed each one with ultra-fine oil spray. I'd sprayed once already but it rained before I got the plants indoors and washed off the spray, then it turned cold. Within slightly over a week, mealy bugs had formed a community on one of the unsprayed plants, so to be safe, everything went out for a complete spraying. Now they're all tucked inside. They'll go out and get sprayed several times during the winter to prevent bug problems. Our cat, Squeak's daybed is right under the orchid shelf, just below the cinnamon and allspice plants. She whiles away the daylight hours curled up, dreaming.

One of my other jobs today was photographing some of our products. Our website is getting a complete make-over and the webmaster wanted fresh photographs. Squeak got to be a model for the Purr-fect Catnap Pillow with Catnip but she got so excited it interrupted her nap. I also took several photos of our various Dream Pillows and the Cat and Dog Cookie Kits, too.

If you're a retired English teacher and my occasional grammatical error bothers you, I'm sorry for that. I'm mostly sorry you can't read for content and intent, instead of criticism. I work long days, I stay up late, updating my blog. (The definition of a blog is, web diary, my thoughts, written to share). If you want to obsess over writing, check the writing format for Twitter messages. Language is a living thing, it grows and changes with the times.

Now, like Squeak, I really am off to dreamland! Happy gardening to all and thank you for checking in.

Teetering on the edge of cold

2009-10-14T16:56:00.010-05:00

We've had more than 6 inches of rain in the past 10 days. It's too much, let's share some of it with folks who don't have any. It's cold at night and the last of the summer's plants aren't a bit happy. The figs aren't ripening - they need our normal 70 degree days to finish up before Halloween and get ripe. The muscadines, too, are just looking a bit bewildered. All of the basils are dropping leaves, not happy with upper 30s at night and 40s & 50s in the daytime. Plus the rain. It just keeps on coming and the ground is like a big, wet swamp. No frost yet, but it's been found just a few miles away.

The hardy fall cyclamen are happily blooming away, oblivious to the out of season weather. I noticed today their flower stems, before blooming, are like coiled springs. Click on the photo to make it larger and look at the point of the arrow and you'll see the coiled up flower buds, ready to burst forth out of the leaves. I don't think I ever noticed these coiled buds before, although the larger houseplant variety of cyclamen does unfurl as the buds come to the top of the leaves. (That's not a cyclamen leaf in the photo, but instead, a euphorbia variety).

The myoga ginger ( (Zingiber mioga) is also blooming in spite of the weather. Myoga is the most cold hardy ginger and it generally blooms in the heat of early September. The flowers you see here at the base of the plant stalks are the parts that are used, rather than the, "hands" or tubers. The mild ginger flavored flowers are used in anything where you would use fresh ginger.

I've grown two varieties of achocha this year, both coming from a friend in Bhutan. He collected seed for me last year and I'm surprised how different they are. One, the bright green, deeply lobed leaves, look exactly like the achocha another friend brought me from Brazil some years back.

The second variety, collected by a friend from the Bongo Valley of Bhutan, doesn't look at all like the first variety. This one has a quite different leaf and the fruit is shorter, fatter, and ripens much more rapidly. Oddly enough, this Bongo Valley variety, pops open into something that looks like an orchid flower. The vines sometimes look like they are in bloom, when it is actually these seed pods after opening into 3 sections, each one having seed on the tips of the "orchid petal."

I'm not giving up to the frost yet. Like the last grasshopper, fiddling away, ignoring the warnings, I will hold off bringing in the last few house plants until the frogs in the pond quit chattering and when the crickets' songs slow down to just a squeak, then maybe, I will admit that frost is eminent and watch the last of the garden die away. Not just yet, though!

Heritage Herb Garden

2009-10-06T22:16:00.001-05:00

Fall is a great time to visit the Ozark Folk Center's Heritage Herb Garden. It's been a long time since I was last there. Back in 1984, the Committee of 100 in Arkansas, hired me to design a new garden for the State Park. Billy Joe Tatum had already established an authentic homestead garden, and we were to build upon her early work. With little funding and a State Park Director who didn't want an herb garden, I managed to implement the beginnings. I named it the Heritage Herb Garden, because it was created to document and preserve the plants that were on homesteads between 1830 to 1930 in Arkansas.

The Director "allowed" the Committee, and me, to have a tiny, north-facing slope, filled with bermuda grass for that first stage of the garden. He promised, but never delivered, stone masons to execute the handicap-accessible walkways and planting beds. Without workers, I layed the stones myself. A back injury during the process ended my participation, and in a round about way, gave me a new direction in life. It was that time, laying flat on my back in bed for most of a summer, unable to sit at my drafting table, or even walk without using a chair for a walker, that I bought my first computer and began writing. Hillary Clinton dedicated the garden in 1985 and from that, she became a customer of ours. In 1986, the Folk Center hired Tina Wilcox as Head Gardener and through her guidance, the garden has evolved into a much larger, vital and interesting teaching garden for children and adults alike. Tina took those very small beginnings all those years ago, and has made the garden home to plant collections and season long activities.

One of Tina's annual projects for the garden is the Fall Harvest Festival, which is the reason I was there. My part in the Festival was to plan the menu and recipes for the kickoff Herbal Extravaganza Dinner, and to give 3 programs during the 3 day Festival. My menu focused on local foods. I'm a supporter of the Slow Foods movement, which encourages the use of local foods, rather than imported.

Attendees had a choice of Dry-Cured Ozarks Ham, Fennel-Stuffed Trout, or Meatless Meatloaf. Side dishes included Fall Harvest Relish, Baked Butternut Squash with Apples and Walnuts, and Grandma Garrison's Corn Pudding. The first course was Curried Pumpkin-Apple Soup, followed by a Field Greens Salad with Creamy Basil Dressing. And for dessert, a choice of Double Chocolate Chess Pie or Buttermilk Pie.

I hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be for the kitchen to find dry cured Ozarks hams and after a lot of searching, I found some in Missouri. The trout, too, was difficult to obtain but I found 40 at the Bear Creek Trout Farm near Harrison, AR. The dinner came off well, people were well pleased and asked for the recipes.

Henry Flowers, who is the head gardener for the late Madalene Hill's gardens at Festival Hill, near Roundtop,TX, gave a program, "Roses are Herbs, Too." My program, "How to Eat a Rose" was just before his. Along with my program, I provided Rose Cookies, Black Tea & Rose Tea and Rose Sandwiches.

The Folk Center showcases crafts and culture of the Arkansas Ozarks. Local musicians perform several nights a week in the auditorium; craftspeople demonstrate traditional crafts. There are mule-pulled merry-go-round rides for children, lots of plants, games, musicians throughout the grounds and a restaurant that does the State Park proud. I always feel like I'm getting a small view of what the Ozarks was like, many years ago.

World Championship Burrito Eating Contest

2009-09-25T16:17:00.002-05:00

If there is one unifying theme in New Mexico, besides the breathtaking landscapes, it's the peppers. Thousands of acres are devoted to pepper growing. And to celebrate that, the New Mexico State Fair hosted the first ever, World Championship Burrito Eating Contest. Fifteen contestants competed for the grand prize of $3,000. There were no "reversals of fortunes" (what they politely call it when you gag and upchuck), but doing so would disqualify the contestant. The burritos, which were prepared by the sponsor, a local restaurant, were 1/4 pound burritos and you won or lost by the number eaten in a 10 minute period. There was a large crowd, an impressive production with lots of lights, music and fanfare. The third prize winner was from Wisconsin, but the winner of the $3,000 was a local guy, who ate 32 1/2 burritos!

I was running short of time when I left Bent's Old Fort and had to miss driving through Rocky Ford, Colorado, home to the famous Rocky Ford melons. I would have actually made it had my normally trustworthy Garmin navigator not led me wrong. She kept giving me wrong directions. A trip that amounted to 14 miles off the main road, to get to Rocky Ford, turned into a 38 mile trip in the wrong direction. I turned off Ms. Garmin after a giving her a sharp tongue lashing and threatened her with going back into the box unless she did better on the rest of the trip.

I admit I was tempted to steal some melons along the way. Fields, some of them 80 or 100 acres, had melons laying everywhere, rotting. The melon harvest season has passed, produce companies are wanting squash and pumpkins now, not melons. And there were lots laying in the fields, going to waste. I did stop at a little roadside stand and buy 3 not great Rocky Fords that nearly spoiled before I got home but at least we had a taste of that rightly famous melon. Last time I went through that area 10 years or so back, I took great delight in eating Rocky Fords, in Rocky Ford, CO.

One of the things I looked

forward to along the Santa Fe Trail, was the roadside pepper roasters. The roaster, seen here, is typical. It's a wire cage with propane pipes underneath. Hank H ill, (from King of the Hill) would certainly approve, since he's the promoter of "propane and propane accessories".

You could bring your own peppers to the roasters and have them roasted, or buy them from the roasters in little baggies. The big advantage of these roasters over roasting them yourself on the grill, is, a guy stands there slowly turning the wire cage and as the peppers roast, the peelings fall off through the wire into a catcher below. So what you are buying are bags of roasted peppers, with the hard work of peeling the skins, already done.

I also found this booth at in the Santa Fe Farmer's market, selling some pepper varieties I'd wasn't familiar with (Padrone and Shishito). The seller was demonstrating how to cook them, and handing out samples. One taste and I was hooked. I bought a bag of both varieties. The cooking consisted of a hot skillet with about a teaspoon of olive oil. A good handful of peppers were dropped into the hot skillet, tossed around for about 60 seconds so they began to burn on one or two sides, then they were dumped out onto a plate and dusted with coarse sea salt. Because the peppers are quite young and not mature, the seeds are tiny and there is almost no heat. What you get is a slightly charred, smoking tasting pepper that is still crisp. They are addictive whether you like heat, or not!

The roadside flowers this time of year are primarily yellow and purple. Rabbitbrush is in full bloom with waist high bushes of bright yellow. I'm not sure whether the name comes from the fact there's a rabbit under every bush, or from the berries, which look a lot like rabbit droppings when they fall to the ground.

I found this interesting white blossomed plant along the highway but have no idea what it is. Anyone recognize it? If so, leave a comment. I collected some seed. It grows in dry roadside settings, takes winter freezes and appears to be an annual. The flowers are substantial, even though they look somewhat fragile. I'm going to freeze the seed, then plant them in a marked area in the garden to see if I can get them to grow next year.

Bent's Old Fort

2009-09-19T00:22:00.001-05:00

I arrived at Bent's Old Fort, a National Historic landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Traders set out in Missouri, stopping at Dodge City and the few other trail towns. Bent's Fort was a major stopover, because it had supplies, both to trade, and to help the traders make it the rest of the way to Santa Fe.

The old storehouse is said to be accurate to what was sold there in the 1820s and '30s. Some of the items may surprise you. Crackers were shipped from Philadelphia; macaroni came in large wooden cases, also from that city. Pepper sauce, lemon syrup (used in medicines and to prevent scurvy), crates of candy, both peppermint and horehound, I assume. Shanghi tea was shipped from China. Cloth, scissors, coffee, guns, gun powder and lots more, came down the Trail.

There weren't gardens at the Fort as best as I can tell. The Indians used native plants and grew gourds, corn, beans and squash, and may have traded it at the Fort. But by and large, the traders who traveled up and down the Trail, relied completely upon the goods they carried.

Bread was shipped from Philadelphia, although I can't imagine what state it would have been in. Accounts in the Diary of Susan McGoffin, one of the few women to have traveled the Trail (and one of the best accounts of life on the Trail), the bread was usually buggy or full of worms and very stale. Considering it took 3 months to travel from Missouri to Santa Fe, and the bread was made in Philadelphia, you can imagine what it was like. You had to pour water or juices of some kind just to soften it enough to chew.

Just outside the Fort are marshes and in those grew (and still grow) cattails, rushes and swamp milkweed. The cattails are edible in several stages. My friend, Billy Joe Tatum, makes biscuits out of cattail pollen when it's in bloom in the spring. Even earlier, just as the young cattail leaves are poking up through the water, you can pull up the tender shoots beneath the water and wash them; cooked, they are very tasty. I steam or boil those and add a bit of some butter. They taste an awful lot like roasting ears.

The Santa Fe Trail was about buffalo and commerce. The Fort would not have existed without trade for buffalo hides, which were shipped back East. They were tanned for leather, the fur used for hats and clothing, and would bring a good price in the East. The photo here is a buffalo hide press. The hides were folded 4 times and put in the press, stacking more and more hides on top. The press was screwed down tight and ropes wrapped around the hides to make a square bundle. Those were loaded with a small wooden crane, into the wagons to send back to Missouri and beyond.

So I'm still here on the Santa Fe Trail, taking lots of photos and updating my little Herbal Medicines of the Santa Fe Trail book, which is sold at the Fort (and of course, on my website, too).

The Santa Fe Trail

2009-09-15T23:59:00.002-05:00

Westward ho! I'm heading out West this week, checking out other people's gardens as I go. I drove down the Santa Fe Trail several years ago when I gave a lecture to the Santa Fe Trail Symposium, in McPherson, KS. I drove about half of the trail and the result of that trip was my little book, Herbal Medicines of the Santa Fe Trail. On that trip I photographed a lot of plants, and acquired a serious addiction to fire roasted peppers. (More on that later).

The Santa Fe Trail was totally about commerce, trade and making money. It was the Wal-Mart and Hunts Trucking of its time. The U.S. had just taken the land that is now southern California, all of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and a piece of Kansas and Oklahoma, away from Mexico. That done, traders set out into "our" new land. Never mind that the Native people were quite happy here, both the Plains Indians, and their cousins, the people of Mexico.

That's a representational statue in Kansas City, of Massasoit, a Wampanoag Indian, who likely wouldn't have given the Pilgrims that first mouthful of food had he known what was in store for his people. But he did share food with the visitors and they reproduced and kept moving Westward. The Santa Fe Trail existed between 1822 and 1846 and carried freight between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Trail began near St. Joseph, Missouri, down through Independence and on through Dodge City, then the Trail splits into the Cimmaron Cutoff, through the corner of Oklahoma, and the Mountain Route, that headed farther west to Bent's Fort in southern Colorado, near the present town of La Junta, where I stopped for the day. Tomorrow I visit Bent's Fort, which has a gift shop that sells my books.

Tonight, though, I visited one of my favorite (ok, I've just visited it once before, years ago, but it instantly became a favorite) restaurants - the Hoggs' Breath Saloon. The sign says Boss Hogg, simply because Clint Eastwood, it turned out, owns the trademark rights to Hog's Breath and in order to not be sued, the Hoggs Breath folks, changed their name since I was here last. What do you eat in the Hoggs Breath Saloon? Steaks, of course, it's cattle country. What did I eat? The salad bar, an order of Snake Eggs (jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon) with a plate full of Mountain Oysters. If you have to ask what that is, you don't want to know.

Lots of the trading that took place had a strong impact on those who lived at either end of the Trail. Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce, went southwest. Cayenne pepper made its entry into medicine in the East during that time, traveling back up the Trail. The addition of cayenne pepper helped the body absorb other medicines faster, just as it is sometimes used today. You can read all about medicines of that period, and how they changed because of the Trail and it's commerce in my little book if you are interested.

I pushed right on through Dodge City, which someone called, "Branson, without the music and a lot of fake tombstones and faux gunfighters." I drove highway 50, which mostly follows the original Trail along the Arkansas River. There are pull asides where you can still view the wagon tracks. They're just variations and folds in the prairie, but after those thousands of wagons went back and forth, compacting the soil, there are still different plants that grow in those tracks. Hopefully, if you click on the photos to enlarge them, you can see the variations in the grasses.

Kansas doesn't have a wide variety of wildflowers this time of year, mostly varieties of native sunflowers, some beautiful blue flowered salvia and lots of liatris (those are the purple spikes at the top of the page). Tumbleweeds are still green and are simply innocent looking weeds along the roadside. But come fall, a good heavy frosty night, and those waist sized weeds will curl into balls of stickery, stiff mobile objects. When the limbs curl inward, making the ball shape, the stem at the base of the ground weakens, and at the first wind - the wind blows a lot out here - that weed becomes a rolling ball of stickers that you won't want to be in the way of.

You have to dodge them on the highway, they pile up against the fences and buildings and can be a real pest. But of course, from the tumbleweed's point of view, it's how they spread their seed and get ready for next season. (No, those aren't tumbleweeds pictured, but some variety of perennial sunflower cousin that lines the roads).

I also found evidence of what really won the West, a piece of it laying in the road as I was walking off the plate of mountain oysters and eating my dessert of a local Colorado peach. Copenhagen, the label says, "since 1822" which means it came on the Santa Fe Trail. More about what else came on the Trail another day.

Chapatis, Kheer and Garam Masala

2009-09-10T19:51:00.010-05:00

This is the Texas Star hibiscus, with deeply serrated leaves and big rosy blooms, each having a star in the middle. The flower petals make a mildly tart, pink hot tea. It's growing in the upper bed of the garden.

Random thoughts for today...
1 - I was at dinner one night with friends and one of the guests asked the late Adelma Simmons, Grande Dame of herbs and owner of Caprilands Herb Farm, if she was a vegetarian. (She was 80+ years at the time); she said, "I don't really like vegetarians. When someone comes up to me at Caprilands and asks me if I'm a vegetarian, I pretend like I'm asleep. I'm old; I can get away with it." She was a feisty but quite wonderful lady.

2 - In the July issue of Southern Living magazine there's an article on Big Cedar Lodge, an upscale wilderness resort near us on the lake. In the article the owner, Johnny Morris (owner of Bass Pro shops nationwide) said of his lake cottages..."When it's hot in July here, I encourage our guests to crank up the air conditioning all the way, then build a fire in the fireplace to set the mood." (I'm paraphrasing the quote; I'd heard the rumor from guests many times and just didn't believe anyone would be that wasteful, or to encourage such waste).

3 - In a restaurant outside of Miller, MO, on the 100 mile yard sale where we had breakfast, I spotted this item on the menu: "Granny's Eggs Benedict. We take a big ole' buttermilk biscuit, split it in half, cover it with sausage gravy, put the top on and add a fried egg." (So you trade the English muffin for a biscuit, the gravy stands in for the Hollandaise sauce, the sausage for the Canadian bacon and the fried egg on top stands in for the poached egg. Gotta love down home cookin'!

The big event in the garden this week was a visit from our two friends from Washington, DC. Puneet is a long time friend and former penpal who we visited in India in 2001, and his friend, Robert, who's family was from the Philippines. They meditated in the vine covered gazebo in the garden and gathered things from the herb beds for several of our meals.

Puneet threw out my 8 year old container of garam masala, which his mother had made for me when we visited his home in New Delhi. You can't buy authentic garam masala here, and it is the only seasoning I like in black beans and rice in the winter. So I've been stingy with it, and even though it's lost its flavor and smell, I would not throw it out. (Spices, as you likely know, last 9-12 months; beyond that, their flavoring demise is rapid). Garam masala is a highly individualized and variable blend of 8-15 spices and seeds and varies from family to family in India. It's used in cooking many kinds of dishes. It's not hot, but has a robust flavor; the English tried to duplicate and standardize it, and what we know of as, "curry powder" here in the West, was the result. Indians don't use curry powder, most don't even know what it is.

The spice seeds are roasted separately. Fennel, fenugreek, peppercorns, black cumin and several others are dry roasted first. Then a substantial amount of whole coriander is added after the other spices have nearly finished roasting. Coriander roasts quickly; then other spices, included asophedita, are added at the very last. Once the mixture has cooled, the whole batch is ground to a fine powder and stored in an airtight container.

So Puneet cooked up a new batch then went right to cooking. Our Friday night dinner group came over for dinner on Sunday so Puneet and Robert cooked all day. I've not had homemade chapatis in years and Puneet whipped up a batch for us. (Chapatis are a flour & water dough, dry-fried in a particular way, not unlike parathas, tortillas or other similar flat breads around the world. However, chapatis are finished right on the flame of the gas grill and puff up with air like baloons).

Robert made pork adobo, a typically Filipino dish from his parents' country, and fried bananas wrapped in phyllo dough and baked. Puneet made grilled, curried chicken, a spinach dish which included queso fresca (fresh cheese that melts quickly), a rice and carrot dish with cinnamon and a big batch of kheer, also known as Indian rice pudding. Kheer is made by slowly boiling rice in milk for several hours, with a small amount of sugar and green cardamom pods, along with slivered almonds. There are no eggs, like rice puddings we make here, but it is rich, creamy and thick like American rice pudding when cooled. And it tastes incredible.

The meal was a big hit and even with 14 people, we had enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

Dogwood Blooming in August!

2009-08-31T22:09:00.005-05:00

This was the third year for the 100 mile yard sale on Missouri Highway 39, going through Monet, Mt. Vernon and onward. Josh and I traveled the route, hoping it was a better organized and supported event than the first year. But it wasn't. Every town we went through, had a few scattered yard sales, but nearly all of the businesses on the town squares were tightly locked up. You'd think the host town businesses would do a little something, maybe a card table out front of their store with outdated merchandise. Something. But none did. They should be embarrassed.

No great finds were made at the sales and it was, overall, a very disappointing garage sale event. I think they are trying to model it on the great 100 mile yard sale that goes from Tennessee into N. Carolina. I happened upon that once, and it's worth a trip in that direction to catch it again.

But it was a fun day anyway and along the route, along about Miller, MO, I spotted a pink dogwood in full bloom. The cool, damp summer had caused the leaves to fall, most likely because of leaf fungus, something dogwoods are prone to getting in damp summers. The tree was evidently confused, first by the loss of its leaves, then by the unseasonably cool August weather (last night it was in the mid-40s and felt like fall). The confused tree was full of pink blossoms. It's likely, with the lack of leaves so early and the out of season blooming, the tree will probably not live through the winter.

Late August and early September is the time for yellow. Sunflowers, goldenrod, yellowing leaves on the Spicebush. This last plant, Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is one of the few shrubby herbs that grows in the shade. It's the size of a lilac bush and produces spicy leaves, twigs and berries for seasoning soups, stews and venison. It's also a good tea herb for colds and flu in the wintertime. Ours here in the garden next to the Herb Shop already has red berries and is beginning to lose it's already yellowed leaves.

The air has been cool and clear, even chilly at times. It feels like fall. Peppers and tomatoes are producing well, although the tomatoes are smaller than in the heat of summer. I've cooked okra and tomatoes, we've eaten sliced tomatoes on everything, I've made cold tomato soup and we still have golf ball and tennis ball sized tomatoes. And we're still fully grateful for all of the produce from the garden.

I saw this great sunset the other day. We're on the east side of the big hill, so we seldom see a sunset unless we're out and about.

Every day, Josh's mother, Barbara, says this is without a doubt the most perfect summer day, and it's true, the days have been consistently perfect temperatures. I hope you are having such days, too, and enjoying them thoroughly.

Corn from Outer Space

2009-08-22T16:14:00.018-05:00

We saw this corn on the trip to the Fair last weekend, corn like I've never seen before. Sure, like you probably have, I've grown sweet corn that has an occasional wimpy ear of corn, not well filled out, that appears with the corn tassel. But I've never encountered an entire field of corn with the ears where the tassels should be. Nor with suckers (they're called, "tillers") which have what appear to be normal ears of corn. I contacted my friend, Chuck Voigt, the State Extension Specialist in Vegetables and Herbs at the Univ. of Illinois, who sent the photos on to other folks at the University.

From the information they sent me, what I understand this to be is the following: an uncommon but not that rare of an occurrence. It requires the following: (1) a hybrid corn variety that contains long dormant corn genes (remember, corn is an ancient crop, selected from wild grasses in the much distant past, in Central and South America);
(2) an event that damages the corn tops, such as hail;
(3) weather conditions, such as this year's, with excess rain and cool weather.

This phenomenon is called, "tassel ears" but by the descriptions I read, this happens on the tillers (aka suckers). The suckers in this field appear normal, while the strange ears of corn are on the top of the corn plant, not on the sucker. And they're pretty well filled out, too.

Generally when this does show up, from what I read, it is only seen in a small percentage of the field, usually along the edges. The field I photographed appeared to be a hundred acres or more, with "normal" looking corn fields joining it on both sides. And the entire field, for as far as I could see (and you can see more in the field photo if you click to enlarge it) is the same. Even driving along at the speed limit on the highway it was easy to spot this corn with the ears at the top of the plants. All the corn plants have filled out ears on top of the corn, with the tassel sticking out the top. And all have clumps (tillers) at the bottom of the corn stalk, with multiple ears that all appear to be normal and with husks.

We saw the corn between Lincoln and Sedalia, MO, on the trip to the Fair. I didn't see a sign anywhere designating what hybrid corn variety it might be and I would have liked to talk to the farmer whose corn it was to get an opinion from him. Of course the seed corn company may have removed their company name to avoid publicity for providing seed for outer space corn.

Years ago, many of them, when I was just a kid, riding along in my father's truck, we visited a farm in that area of the country. My Dad was hauling corn or livestock, I don't remember which, but the owner of the farm where he was hauling, gave him an ear of corn that had no outside husk, but every kernel of corn had it's own, tiny husk. I kept that for many years because it was such an oddity and I wanted to grow some. I learned that aberration of corn was a throwback to the old corn gene pool, as is this strange field of corn with the ears on top. So maybe it's something in the water of northern Missouri. Of course it is a substantial corn growing area, so some occasional corn from outer space just makes it more interesting!

For plants I know somewhat more about, I just harvested a guinea bean for supper tonight. Sometimes you'll see these sold as "decorative snake gourds," sometimes guinea beans, sometimes, "New Guinea beans." In the community where I grew up, we grew and ate these every summer. In fact, they were much more common where I lived than eggplant.

I slice the tender guinea bean into quarter inch thick slices and dip each in buttermilk then flour and fry them until golden brown. This vegetable can be fixed many other ways, but this one is my favorite ways. It's soft and mild flavored inside with a crispy outside.

Guinea bean is from Papua, New Guinea (thus the name, "guinea bean"). It's a gourd, and the traditional covering for men on that island. While some of the villages I visited while in New Guinea a few years ago have been pushed by outsiders to give up their cultural traditions, most of the men still wear the penis gourd, called a "koteka," thid same "guinea bean" vegetable. What surprised me when I was there and collected seed in 1999, was I didn't find people in any of the villages eating the vegetable. It probably has more to do with the more than 200 varieties of sweet potatoes grown on the island, and the abundance of taro, but according to The Gourd Book, by Charles Heiser, there are 5 varieties of gourds in New Guinea (including West Papua, New Guinea, where I visited) and 3 of those are used for food. I was also there at a time of year the gourds were already nearing maturity. And I certainly explored only a small area. Different tribes use different gourd varieties and you can identify the members of those tribes by the kind of gourd worn.

In doing Google searches for New Guinea bean I found a lot of wrong and misleading information. Some websites labeled this gourd as "cucuzzi or Italian edible gourd" which it is not. That's a completely different plant, which I have also grown. And you'll find some seed companies labeling it, "snake gourd," which it's also not. Snake gourds are not actually gourds and don't have hard shells. I grow these as well as guinea beans and they are a very different plant. Snake gourd, shown here is Trichosanthes cucmerina, and is not the same plant as the guinea bean.

And to confuse you even more (if you're still with me here and I'm not getting too botanical for you), "snake gourd" is listed on one website I found as Curcurbita pepo, which I'm pretty certain is wrong, but it IS the new guinea bean I am growing and they have seed for sale. Most places it's listed as Lagenaria siceraria or just "Lagenaria species."

If you don't know, or ever wondered, gourds have white blossoms while loofahs (which are also edible when young, like guinea beans), pumpkins and squash, have yellow blossoms.

So there you have it, dinner tonight at Long Creek Herbs: heirloom tomatoes with lemon basil, grilled chicken with quick fried guinea bean and a few ginger carrots. There are so many good things to eat in the garden this time of year.

Mo Fair, Great Veggies

2009-08-18T17:08:00.004-05:00

I've been going to the Missouri State Fair every year since I was 3 years old. My parents didn't have many traditions and they both worked so hard they never took a vacation. Running a small town grocery store was a 12 hour a day, 6 1/2 days a week job. It provided a respectable living for us, but it meant my parents had time for very little joy in their lives.

But a trip to "The Fair" was one thing they always did. The store would be closed for all day Sunday and Mom & Dad would load up the car about daylight. Mom would have made sandwiches the night before. This was back in the days when there were lots of warnings to fair-goers to avoid foods like potato salad and fried chicken - back in the days when coolers were rare. So Mom would grind up a variety of cheeses, mix in mayonnaise, pimentos and celery seed, and make a bunch of sandwiches. Those were all wrapped up, then put in plastic bags, then into a box with ice. Iced tea in a jug, potato chips, celery sticks and carrots, and always a pie or dessert, rounded out the meal. My parents had lived through the Depression and buying "expensive" Fair food didn't occur to them.

And that same drinking fountain, above, was a fascination to me as a child. Early on, I couldn't reach the fountain and had to be held. But I always stopped there and drank my fill, wondering where the cold water came from. It's still there, unchanged, still a cool, refreshing spot for a drink.

So in keeping with that tradition, Josh and I still go at least once to the Fair every year. We always visit all the agricultural displays, the Dairy House, to see the one ton cow made of butter. The FFA (Future Farmers of America) house, with all of the youth vegetable exhibits is fun, as well. I have noticed the changes in what vegetables are displayed over the years. It used to be there was just one kind of eggplant, but in recent years, the Ichiban, a long, slender eggplant has appeared. This year there were several kinds of eggplants on display for judging. And peppers - it used to be simply bell peppers of different sizes and colors. Now, there are almost as many hot pepper varieties on display as bells.

Pumpkins, herbs of many kinds, watermelons, canteloupes, pumpkins and lots of tomatoes, both heirloom and hybrid, had been judged. It's exciting for me to know there are lots of young people coming along who value gardens, who put in enough time and energy to grow vegetables and to show them at the Fair.

We took in the Midway, always fun for me because I like seeing carnival art. And to see what "weird and unusual" things are on display on the Midway, as well. There used to be the calf with two heads, the woman with a snake's body, a hairless dog and more. When I was about 12 or 13, I started taking a friend or two along with us when we went and the friend and I would leave my parents to explore the "old people's" exhibits and we'd go off to the Midway for the rides. Back then, if you had 25 cents, no matter your age, you could (and we did) get into the girly shows. Not that they were anything exciting, but the idea that we could, "get by" with getting in was the excitement.

Ten cents was the price of admission to see the woman with the snake's body back then. The two headed calf, as you might expect, unless you were 13, was dead and in a jar of formaldehyde. Nearly all of those kinds of exhibits are gone now, and rightly so, but I was surprised to see, "The World's Tiniest Woman" on display. "You can talk to her, she talks to you." Ok, exploitation aside and the sick feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, I would assume some little person makes their living being, "The World's Tiniest Woman." I didn't go to see that, however.

I hadna dish of Pineapple Whip ice cream, however and Josh had handmade, homemade vanilla ice cream and we had earlier followed one of our own traditions, which is lunch at the Beef House, which is sponsored by the Missouri Beef Industry Council. The food is always good, the place clean and the service is outstanding. Servers and cooks are all volunteers from various counties across the State of Missouri.

The grounds of the Missouri State Fair serve other functions during the year. It's home to State Fair Community College, and the grounds are host to tractor pulls, International Fair and a variety of other events.

But the biggest event ever on the fair grounds, not by size but by impact, was the Ozark Mountain Music Festival, July 19-21. It was the last of the huge music festivals following Woodstock, and ended the era of the great outdoor music festivals of the 1960s. Sixty thousand young hippies took over the fairgrounds, and the town of Sedalia, for music. Bands playing that weekend included some of the all time greats of that period: the Eagles, Ted Nugent, the Marshall Tucker Band, Jefferson Starship, America, Nitty Gritty Dirty Band, Boz Scaggs, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynnyrd, Charlie Daniels and the Earl Scrubbs Revue. Wolfman Jack, the famous radiohead was the emcee. Now that really was a concert of a lifetime! I missed Woodstock by being in the military and I missed the Ozark Music Festival by being newly married, employed and too timid to go. That, and I couldn't find anyone to go with me. That year taught me a lot, but one big lesson I learned from missing OMF, was to seize the day - go, and do, instead of always wishing I had.

Jim Ryun, the athlete and runner who broke the world record for the one mile run (3 min. 51 seconds) in the 1960s was also there on stage. (He was a conservative Republican who represented the 2nd District in Kansas, as a U.S. State Representative from 1995 to 2006).

So, with pumpkins, peppers, lots of fish, turtles, snakes, coyotes, deer, great gardens, interesting displays and shows, the Missouri Department of Conservation's Gardens, tractor pulls, free music, car races, Demolition Derby and lots more, the fair lived up to all that I've seen and experienced there over the years. Agriculture is alive and well, young people are learning to garden and feed themselves and good, healthy food can still be found at the fair. Fresh roasted corn, anyone?

Roadside Hibiscus

2009-08-07T09:42:00.013-05:00

This morning Felder Rushing called and asked me to be a guest on his Friday morning radio show, The Gestalt Gardener. We talked about easy things people can do when they're new to growing herbs, including things to get kids interested in gardens. (He's just been to visit the Huntsville Botanic Garden 2 days after I was there, so we missed each other by only a short while). If you'd like to listen to his show, click this link and go to the archives. The show's fun and people call in with their gardening questions. I've known Felder for many years through Garden Writers of America and he's crazier than I am at stopping and photographing strange, unusual or weirdly wonderful things on his trips. Check out his web site and you'll see what I mean! Felder's the author of a bunch of books and speaks often at flower & garden shows, conferences, etc. and like me, prefers to drive and see what's along the way, camera always at the ready. (That's Felder's Gestalt Gnome, on the left, I just borrowed the image for this post). Felder ended the show with what he said was a song, "Just for you, Jim," Rosemary Clooney's, "Come On-a My House." Little did he know, I liked Rosemary Clooney's songs as a kid.

When I go on long drives across the country to lecture, I botanize as I drive. I found, about 3 decades ago, I can spot and fairly well identify a plant when I'm going 55 mph, provided there's no traffic. Not that I can observe the little details of a plant, and sometimes I'm wrong, but driving along, meditating on the world, I can spot a ditch iris or a spider lily growing in a roadside ditch, even if it's surrounded by weeds. I can spot a few ripe blackberries or notice a couple of muscadines hanging in a tree across the fence from the highway. I can often see a variation in a plant color in a colony of single colors. I love plants and I look for them, and at them, everywhere. In my opinion, the whole world's a garden, that garden just has to compete with the highway mowers and roadside herbicide sprayers and chainsaws and neighborhood lawnmowers.

As I was driving along Interstate 40 between Memphis and Little Rock last week, I was admiring the continuing miles of native hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos). These are the same hibiscus I grew up with, growing in the ditches and marshes areas along the Osage River in west central Missouri. Mostly they're white with a red throat. Once in awhile you'll encounter a light pink one. (By the way, the French, when they owned most of the land in southern and central U.S. before the Louisiana Purchase, named the Osage River, the Marais des Cygnes, which is French for “Swan Marshes," which refers to the marshes that were once prolific, and that is where these same native hibiscus once grew).

But there I was, trucking along about 65 or 70 mph, and I spotted a beautiful pink hibiscus smack in the middle of a ditch full of white ones. The clouds were moving fast and the sky was darkening. I saw the hibiscus too late to stop, there was too much traffic, trucks bigger than mine were on my bumper. I thought I'd simply go on to the next exit and turn around and find the flower again and take a photo.

Just then I noticed a virtual herd of huge, roadside mowers ahead, mowing down the "brush and weeds" on both sides of the interstate. I hoped I could collect some seed before the mowers got there. Why? The occasional pink hibiscus is a natural hybrid, not that unusual, but still worth collecting. The various hybrids that have been released by seed companies and nurseries over the years, all trace their parentage back to this same native hibiscus.

It was 10 miles down the road before there was an exit, more than I had anticipated. I crossed over the highway and drove the 10 miles back to another exit, then back on the road looking for the hibiscus. The mowers were creeping closer and it was beginning to rain.

I spotted the pink hibiscus and pulled off the road onto the grass, well away from the rushing tractor trailers and fast moving traffic. I walked over with my camera and saw the plants didn't have mature seed. A shame, since they would soon be mowed to the ground by the approaching mowers.

These native hibiscus, as I mentioned, are the mother of the big plate-sized hibiscus we grow in our gardens and you can read more of that story here for more details. They're a long blooming shrub, often having flowers for 6 or 8 weeks and are lots easier to grow than the tropical hibiscus varieties (and with much larger flowers, too). They'll grow as far north as Zone 4 and as far south as you can go before walking off into the ocean. Give them sunshine and most any kind of soil - although moist soil is preferred, and they will grow and bloom. They've been used medicinally in folk medicines for centuries, the stems provide a very good weaving fiber, and the flowers make a colorful and pleasantly tart tea. (By the way, the darker the flower, generally the more tart and tasty the tea).

I wanted the seed because I would like having that particular one in my garden. Of course had there been miles of pink hibiscus and there were only a couple of white ones in the midst, my impulse would have been the same. Gardeners want to grow what's unusual and what their neighbors don't have. This pink variation among the white ones isn't that unusual and I spotted a few more pink ones as I continued my drive. But that one pink hibiscus did get photographed before the mowers got to it and this week, if you pass by, you'll see what appears to be a neatly mowed roadside with no hint of the beauty that was there last week. Nor will you notice the bees and butterflies that were flying about as I was photographing. I'm sure we need clean roadsides, but the ditch, 100 feet or more off the highway didn't seem to be a threat to anyone and the highway drive along Interstate 40 was certainly more interesting when it included millions of bright hibiscus blossoms and a few pink ones scattered in!