August 18, 2019 Cactus and Zinnias

The Night Blooming Cereus bloomed this week. It was Thursday night. There was a single flower. But it was magnificent.
It started to open about 8. That was close to sunset.
It was fully open by 10. By that point it was completely dark.
Even though it was a single flower its fragrance showed up 20 feet away.
By dawn it was done. It really is a flower that you can only see at night.

Here is a progression over time. The first picture was from the day before. Next to that is Thursday during the day.
Then Thursday at sunset, followed by the open flower.




What was a little remarkable was that 2 cactus plants, with two flowers each, bloomed the same night. What was it about some night 5 weeks ago? What celestial event triggered reproduction?




This was Thursday during the day.















This was at 10 o'clock. I was able to take this picture on the same trip outside to see the NBC.





This was Friday morning. At least the cactus flower stayed open until the morning so people could see it.
Actually they stayed open until Saturday morning.






And then there were the zinnias. I do not plant a lot.But you do not have to have a lot of anything to enjoy them.
I do plant them later than you might think. These were planted about June 1. That is so they will be coming into bloom in the later part of the summer, when other things are fading.






I love how they have such complex centers. There is more going on in the centers than almost any flower I can recall.



















This little orchid blooms during the summer. It has more flowers than usual this year.








Some of these pardancandas are still blooming. Now I am waiting to see if they set seed.















This lovely hydrangea is going strong.















There have not been all that many water lily flowers this summer.














But as you can see in this enlarged picture, there are frogs. There are two if you look hard enough. They are in the lower right. One is in the water.

Julia's recipe

A no cook tomato sauce

Here is the link to all Julia's recipes that have appeared on the blog.
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Fresh tomato season is also hot-and-humid season, and so it is a good time to look for recipes that don't require cooking. Like this tomato sauce. I have made another recipe for no-cook sauce that was a bit thin and a bit bland. This sauce has good texture and is flavorful, which is all one can ask for in a sauce.  I found this recipe (which I fiddled with a bit) in a magazine while waiting in a doctor's office, proving that waiting can be rewarded.


Here are the players: 3 medium beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes (about 1 lb.); 1-1/2 cups little tomatoes (cherry or grape); about 1 tablespoon of garlic slices (pieces, not smushed); 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 2 teaspoons capers; 1/4 cup olive oil; and 1 cup of pitted olives (I used mixed Greek olives. I think green Spanish olives would be okay. Not black olives - too bland. Not kalamata or oil-cured olives - too strong.)




I started by coring the tomatoes and cutting them into chunks. No need to peel. Then I fished out the tomato seeds. This is why you should use beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes - fewer seeds.










I put the tomatoes into the food processor. I peeled the big clove of garlic and sliced it and added it to the food processor. Then I added the red pepper flakes and the salt and pureed these ingredients until I had a smooth sauce.










I poured the sauce into a bowl. Next I cut the little tomatoes in half and I chopped the olives coarsely. I added the cherry tomatoes and the olives and the capers and the olive oil and stirred it up.

Meanwhile, I had put a pot of water on the stove and cooked about 1 lb. of linguine.







When the pasta was done, I drained it, put it on a big shallow serving dish and poured the sauce over it.













I used big tongs to mix things around. I had saved 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water to thin the sauce if needed, but it was not needed.

We served the pasta with some nice roasted salmon (seasoned only with olive oil, salt and pepper) and green beans from the farmer's market. The pasta and sauce were the stars of the show in terms of flavor. Some people sprinkled Parmesan on their pasta, others did not. Cheese: optional.

The next time I make this sauce, I think I will serve it with shape pasta (like bow ties or penne or medium shells) as I think they will hold the sauce better than noodles.

We had the leftovers a day or two later. I cut the pasta into smaller pieces by running a sharp knife through contents of the container with the pasta/sauce in it. Then I heated the pasta and sauce up in a shallow skillet until just warmed through. The result was excellent - brief heating did not change the flavor or texture.

Odds and Ends

We had 3 days this week with some rain. All were somewhere between .25 and .75.
It is still dry but little rains eliminate the need to turn on the sprinkler.

Update- It is Sunday morning, 5 am, and this time we are getting a lot of rain. The radar suggests this will last for a while.
I feel so empowered having my own rain gauge. I will not have to wait for some often inaccurate statement from some official report. It probably measured the rain across town anyway.

I was able to get compost this week. 1100 pounds of the City's finest. Iowa City really has a wonderful operation out at the landfill. The city collects yard waste and turns it into compost. This year we even give them table scraps at the same time, in the same containers. They do this and the price is really inexpensive. My load cost about $10. (On top of that I did have to pay a delivery fee to a neighbor.)
There are some bargains out there. The compost is now safely stored in the back garage. I will use it over the next few months. In past years Iowa City has run out of compost during the summer. If they ran out this year I missed it.
What was different this year? Well for one thing the City now collects yard waste, and table scraps from everyone, with no charge besides the monthly fee everyone pays. I suspect that more compost is being given each week.
In addition this was not the best spring for gardening. It was cool and wet. I expect the demand was down. But those are only my idle speculations, early in the morning.

Plant rescue. Three of us went and rescued the big jade plant from the house of a friend who had died this past winter. It had been in its location for at least 30 years. It had been watered regularly. It was still a little leggy. We had to cut off some of the bigger side branches to get it out the front door.
Here is a picture of the plant in its old home.
Next to it is the somewhat traumatized plant in the back driveway.
It experienced the outside for the first time it could remember. And of course it rained like crazy earlier this morning.
















I am trimming it up. Pruning is what I am actually doing. I am taking the cuttings and starting lots of new plants.



That is it for this morning.
Hello to those of you who are at the beach.
Philip