September 26, 2021

 I will have to confess something.

We turned on the furnace on Friday. I wonder if that was about the earliest we have done that.

Actually we turned on the furnace and nothing happened. So we called the furnace repair persons and they fixed it that afternoon. We had heat Friday night, the third night in a row it got down into the 40's. 

Cold, clear, and no rain. Actually there was a brief wind Friday, with a sprinkle. It was not that would have made any puddle. We are at about 23 days with the only rain having been 1/4 inch this past Monday. There is no rain in the 10 day forecast. There is not even the minimum chance which is 20%.

For more statistics see the Odds and Ends section down below.

The garden excitement of the week was this discovery:

That is the genuine Night Blooming cereus, Epiphyllum Oxypetalum. It has bloomed before in the fall. 

There was something about the conditions that triggered buds. I assume it is a combination of temperature and the amount of light. There are a total of 7 buds, all about the same size. That means they probably will bloom on the same night.

Let me take a guess for when they will bloom- 10 days. The flowers really do fully open 90 minutes after sunset. That is true whether sunset is at 8:30 in July or 7pm in late September. One year (2018) there was a group of flowers that opened when the temperature got down in the forties. They stayed open until late morning. I was able to take pictures in the daylight for about the first time. Pictures in the Odds and ends section. That actually was September 24, 2018. I should add that there was above average rain that month before they bloomed.

The biggest cactus is also going to bloom in the next few days.

Then there are the toad lilies. One clump is about half open. It has been blooming for a few weeks.

The other clumps, and there must be 7-8, are just about to start. There are hundreds of flowers. Perhaps with adequate moisture they would bloom soon. (That probably means watering.)

Other pictures:

Julia's recipe

Coconut cream pie

I made coconut cream pie recently. It tastes great, is impressive-looking and is easy to make. Those of you who recall the banana cream pie recipe that appeared here a while ago will be familiar with the procedure. Coconut instead of banana; coconut milk for part of the liquid. 

The ingredients:

50 or so vanilla wafers (enough to make 1-1/2 cups of crumbs when pulverized);

5 tablespoons melted butter;

1 big box of cook-and-serve vanilla pudding (not instant; not sugar-free);

1 can of whole (not lite) coconut milk;

enough regular milk to measure a total of 3 cups of liquid;

2/3 cup (or so) shredded unsweetened coconut;

1 small carton (1 cup) whipping cream; and

a tablespoon of sugar (not shown).

Before Philip took any pictures, I had used the food processor to zizz up a bunch of vanilla wafers. I had melted the butter. I poured the cookie crumbs into a bowl; then mixed in the melted butter; then dumped the resulting mixture into a deepish 9 inch pie plate. I used a 1/2 cup measure to press the crumbs down flat and up along the sides of the pie plate.  

I put the pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet (for ease of getting the pie plate in and out of the oven) and baked the crust at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

It came out slightly golden. I then carefully put it in the refrigerator to cool down. 

Next I put 2/3 cup of coconut into a dry skillet over low-medium heat to toast. I gave it a stir from time to time. It took a while to toast, but it did.

I poured the pudding mix into a saucier and added the liquid - one can of coconut milk plus enough regular milk to make 3 cups. 

I cooked the pudding as per package instructions - stirring and cooking on medium until it came to a boil and then a gentle boil for 1 minute.

Next - assembly. Here are the components: pie shell, pudding, toasted coconut.  

I spread a ladleful of pudding in the bottom of the pie shell to coat.  

Then I sprinkled about 2 or 3 tablespoons of coconut over the pudding. 

I covered the coconut with more pudding then more coconut. (But not all of the coconut - about 1/4 cup left to sprinkle over the whipped cream.)

Then the rest of the pudding: 3 layers of pudding, 2 layers of coconut. 

I covered the pie with a piece of saran wrap and patted it gently to make sure the wrap made contact with the pudding. 

Into the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Overnight is good. 

Here is the pie out of the refrigerator. It is easy to peel the wrap off. It does not pull up the filling. 

Philip whipped the whipping cream with just a tablespoon of sugar. And I plopped it onto the pie and spread it around with a rubber spatula. 

I sprinkled the rest of the toasted coconut over the whipping cream and there it is. 

The pie held its shape beautifully when cut. It held up in the refrigerator (covered with a loose fitting top) for several days. 

A great pie.

Odds and Ends

Here are the rain and temperature graphs for the month of September,

The webcite is pretty cool, allowing a view of these things in Iowa for the last ten years.

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/sites/hist.phtml?network=IA_COOP&station=ICYI4

September 2021

Here are the temperatures for this month.

Here is the rain in September 2020. With almost 5 inches in one week

Here was the rain in September 2019. Note the very many days when there was measurable rain. (There were 12.) The amount of rain was off the chart.

It is time for plant orders to start arriving. I got my little bearded iris this week. Unfortunately trying to plant them is an ordeal. Let me just say that the ground is rather hard at this point.

I looked up the time the NBC was blooming in morning light. I had found the picture and then went to the corresponding post.

Here is what I wrote for the post on September 30, 2018.

"I have now had my bigger Night Blooming Cereus for maybe ten years. Actually there is a blog post for August 12, 2012 when I first noticed a bud on the plant. I wrote that it had never bloomed before, despite my having had the plant for 5-8 years. It bloomed on August 20, 2012. I have the picture even though I did not put it in a post at the time. (Sometimes I would go dormant for times in the summer.)
So I guess it has been  blooming for me for the last seven years. It always would open about an hour after dark, and be done by morning. It was frustrating because it was not open for people to see. (Other than the neighbors I would sometimes go get to come view it in the dark.)
So it was about to bloom Saturday night I thought. I checked about 9 p.m. and the 9 buds had not started to open.
Well, the next morning, that would have been last Sunday morning, I looked and 4 were not only open, but were fully open as of 8 am. It was no coincidence that it was close to 50 degrees. "

Here is the picture from 2018. I went back from that picture and found a picture of buds from 8 days before the bloom. The buds were a little bigger than they are now. I think 10 days might be a good estimate. Of course I will have to water the plant.

Here were the Night blooming cereus buds Friday night, with a very nice sunset.

Stay well, and do lots of kind things.

Philip