January 20,2019- It is finally cold.

Burr.
After almost 7 weeks since the temperature has been below 15 degrees, it is finally going to get cold. It snowed again Friday night. It was about the same 3-4 inches we had a week ago. But the 0 degrees was forecast for this morning, and next weekend is suppose to get even colder.
It had to happen. It is January.

But we are in the second half of January. That is the time that the historical average temperatures have bottomed out. They may even begin to creep up by the end of the month.
Do you know what the average historical temperature range is for January 20 in Iowa? It is 30 degrees with a low of 14.
That means the last pumpkins can be carved and hung outside.
Here are two from this week. I still have a few more.

Picture Contest
week 7

Last week's winner was something of a surprise...to me. It was the little moss rose. I would have bet on the orchid cactus. But as we have seen so far this winter, bright colors do well in the contest.

Here was the full vote:

After 8 weeks the race for the three wide cards is as follows:
The Black Asiatic lily from Week 6 got 27%
The white orchid from Week 4 got 24%
Several have  23%

Week 8

#1 Asclepias- butterfly weed (June 15, 2018)



Orange
Asclepias is the genus. It is the grouping of plants that are the milkweeds.
Milkweeds are important plants for bees and butterflies, hence the common name for this variety.
This picture is from the hardy perennial know as butterfly weed. It is Asclepias tuberosa.
I love the little flowers, all bunched up.
It does take a while to come up in the spring. For that reason I have to be careful I do not do it damage when I weed the early spring garden.

Here is more than you would need to know about the genus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias
There are some good pictures on that site.
I found myself thinking that in  clusters they begin to look like the clusters you get with hoyas.

I understand that they have deep roots. That means they do not transplant well.


#2 Blue anemone blandas (April 28, 2018)



What almost perfect ray flowers.
I love these little spring flowers.
They grow from bulbs. They clump up over time.
Actually let me correct something. They grow from corms. What is that?
Education alert:
This is from that definitive source 'wikipedia.'

Corms are sometimes confused with true bulbs. They are often similar in appearance to bulbs externally. Corms are stems that are internally structured with solid tissues, which distinguishes them from bulbs. Bulbs are mostly made up of layered fleshy scales that are modified leaves.
As a result, a corm cut in half appears solid inside. A true bulb cut in half reveals that it is made up of layers.

If you want more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corm#Comparison_to_bulbs
See what happens when you work on a blog but the weather will keep you inside most of the day.
Some other time we can explore what is a tuber.

The corms for anemone blandas are not expensive. (100 for $18)
You should plant them close together.
They are also known as windflowers, or Grecian windflowers.
They come from...you guessed it, southeast Europe.
The genus is anemone.
They come in white and pink.




#3 Closeup of Iceland Poppy (May 18, 2018)



Orange
Closeup pictures
Amazing
I love Iceland poppies.
They have appeared in many contests.
I started some from seed last weekend.
I try to do that each winter.
Last winter I managed to grow about 50 nice plants to put outside.
They do like sun.
I find they do best in May.
They do best in full sun.
They can survive the season.
A few were planted at church, on a hillside. One bloomed in late October.




#4 John Hancock Asiatic lily (June 21, 2018)



This was another Asiatic Lily addition to the garden in 2018. I had neglected to add any Asiatic lilies for a while.
This one is good.
Black and Gold anyone. I am surprised that flowers are not marketed by school colors. Well, maybe I am not much surprised.




#5 Fall Crocus (October 23, 2018)



At the time when the fall garden is fading fall crocuses can really brighten the day. This little clump stuck around for a good 3-4days.

You can plant fall crocuses in July and they will bloom that fall.
I do not know why it seems hard to order them at that time.




There you have the contestants for week 8.
My goodness we have come a ways since we began. We are over half way through all the contestants. (There are 13 weeks.)

Bonus Pictures

This is the Iceland poppy from church. It had good sun and a very wet September.

Julia's Recipe

Broccoli Cheese Soup

All of Julia's recipes that have appeared on this blog appear in their own blog at

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

I am surprised when I reflect on how often broccoli turns up as an ingredient in dinner, as opposed to appearing as a side dish: potato-broccoli romanoff, potato-broccoli vichyssoise, and beef/broccoli/red pepper stir fry come to mind. Here is another broccoli dish, a soup that does not include potatoes and does include cheddar cheese. This recipe is courtesy of a website called Iowa Girl Eats, and I do not recall how I came to find it. This recipe can go from ingredients on the counter to soup on the table in about 1 hour, making it a good choice for a work day supper on a cold winter day.


Here are the players: broccoli tops (about 3-1/2 cups when chopped up), onion (about 1/2 cup chopped), carrot (about 1 cup shredded), butter (3 tablespoons), chicken stock (2 cups), water (4 cups), half and half (2 cups), flour (3 tablespoons), sharp cheddar cheese (8 ounces shredded), salt and pepper.








I started, as usual, by prepping the vegetables. I peeled the carrot and onion. Philip ran both through the food processor to shred. Of course, one could chop the onion and shred the carrot using a grater. I also chopped up the broccoli, snacking on the stems.

Then I melted the butter in a soup kettle and added the carrot and onion and maybe 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, cooking these things over medium heat until the vegetables were soft.

Next, I added the flour, again on medium heat. If you have gluten issues, you can use gluten-free flour instead; in fact, the Iowa Girl (whose recipe this is) recommends it.



I stirred in the flour, whisking to make sure the flour was incorporated. I next added the water about 1 cup at a time, whisking to avoid lumps of flour, then the half and half, and then the chicken stock which was frozen, hence the interesting visual.

If you have a quart of chicken stock from the store or from your freezer, feel free to use 4 cups of stock and 2 cups of water. If you are vegetarian, the soup would be fine with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.




After whisking in the liquid, I turned up the heat and when the pot came to a boil, I turned it down to medium and let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes.

Then I added the chopped-up broccoli and again brought the pot up to a boil and again turned the heat back down so the soup simmered.  I covered the pot to speed up the process. After about 20 minutes, I tasted a piece of broccoli, which was tender. The length of cooking time at this stage will depend on the size of your chopped broccoli pieces. Start checking at maybe 15 minutes. When I removed the lid, it seemed to me that some of the soup had boiled away so I added another cup of water.



I turned off the heat and added the shredded sharp cheddar cheese, a handful at a time.













I whisked in the cheese, tasted the soup, which seemed to have the right amounts of salt and pepper, and the soup was ready.











We served the soup with egg salad sandwiches, because we like egg salad. I think grilled cheese or tuna salad or ham on rye would also be a nice accompaniment. And a green salad of course.

Although this soup can be easily adapted to accommodate gluten-phobes or vegetarians, alas, I don't see a way to dairy free or vegan.

The leftover soup is good cold or hot. It reheats without textural incident.

Right Now

One winter garden activity can be growing plants from cuttings. Some cuttings work. Some do not. I have found that cuttings from some annuals like Persian Shield, will make roots in a few weeks. Coleus and impatiens root easily.
Some perennials like crotons will take a month.
I prune my hibiscus from time to time. I will then stick a few cuttings in water and wait.
It can take literally a few months before roots finally emerge.

But while you wait for the roots occasionally there will be a flower. Here is a hibiscus cutting that bloomed this last week, on the kitchen window sill. It had no roots.
I should add that the flower is smaller than it would be on the mother plant.



One variable sometimes while gardening inside is deciding where something will go. Cuttings like these can go on the window sill in little jars that had contained capers. Those jars are the best.

Odds and Ends

I asked the internet how long until Spring. There were webcites with timers, counting it down. Only they were not all the same. Let us say it is about 60 days.

Stay warm.
Think about all those good things. Think about daffodils, and snowdrops, and a functioning government.
Sometime we will have them, when the weather warms up.
Philip