December 25, 2022- Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone

With the very cold weather, more pumpkins have finally come out to amuse passerby's with something unusual.

I will try not to discuss the weather, other than to state the obvious.

Winter Storm Elliot has been on our collective minds all week. We saw it coming. It came. As I write on Saturday morning, it is still here. Fortunately we have no travel plans this year.

We have such a tendency to name things. I label my plants. That lets me remember them better.  It used to be that only hurricanes got names. Now it seems like all storms get names.  This tendency went a little over the top when we got a Christmas tree this year. You guessed it. We picked out the tree named Nimble. Please. Maybe the name was needed to justify the price. 

With Elliot in the neighborhood, it was a quiet end to the week. We got our grocery shopping done on Friday. Like most sensible Iowans, we just slowed down and only went places that were necessary.  Now we are staying inside. 

It is time for me to think about plants and flowers and warmer times.

Last Week in the contest the winner in a tight race was the orchid cactus.

Here was the full vote. With the strong second place finish the red tulip is now the wild card winner. As they say however, the season is still young.

This Week which is Week #5

#1 Purple crocuses April 10, 2022

These purple crocuses, more than any other crocus in the garden, make a tight clump. The variety might be C. vernus Flower Record. 

#2 Pink Shirley Poppy June 1, 2022

I have already talked about how much I like Shirley Poppies.

In this picture I like the color contrast between the pink and the yellow.

I want to do two things different this year, in growing them from seed. First I will wait to start them until at least the middle of January. I have always wanted to start the seeds right on January1. The problem is that they get too big in the pots before they can go in the ground.

Second, I want to start some in the ground in mid May, in the same area where I plant the already grown seedlings. Those will be for July and August, at least that is the theory.

#3 Orange Asiatic lily June 24, 2022

Asiatic lilies are the first of the lilium to bloom. They come before the Orientals and all the crosses.

This one has been around for a long time. Spots are present in a lot of the Asiatic lilies.

#4 Coneflower July 9, 2022

I sort of got lost when it came to coneflower names. There are now so many. I sometimes have a time gap between when I buy the plant and when I get the label. 

This slightly orange one might be one named Tiki Torch.

If I think about changes in the world of gardening in the last few decades the developement of coneflowers would be on the list. It used to be (maybe 25 years ago) that there was the wonderful wildflower, the purple coneflower. Then there was the other wildflower that was taller and yellow.

Well, the hybridizers have been at work with coneflowers. Terra Nova nurseries in the Pacific northwest was a big one in this area. I bought some plants from them 25 years ago, which you needed to do in quantity. They were proud of the fact they had more laboratory space than greenhouse space. 

#5 Lantana August 18, 2022

I have grown lantana for years. They commandeer the sunny spots and reward the grower with months of these really interesting flowers. They particularly look good late in the year.

These plants have found a home along Fairview Avenue, right next to the curb. In 2023 I resolve to move out at least one of the daylilies in that area, and get more lantana. I am interested in a bed where the lantana is everywhere.

Lantana is a genus of 150 species of plants in the verbena family. Some varieties have become invasive. 

Here is the wikipedia with many obscure facts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantana

The plant is apparently poisonous but the seeds are a staple for some birds. I would assume from this that the deer would leave them alone. I do not recall having a problem with deer munching on them. 

My favortie strange fact was that lantana is classified as a bush in some circles. Some variety is even used to make furniture. What?

I just ordered some lantana seeds. Supposedly sometimes they can be blue.

There you have the contestants for Week 5. The new year is just around the corner. Vote away and sometime write back and say hello. 

 Bonus pictures

Lantana

I did have a hard time picking the picture for the contest. Here were other possibilities.

Right now

Bird of Paradise

I have had this plant sale for the food banks the last 3 years. It started as a COVID thing in 2020, as many people did not want to go to public stores. One wonderful part of the experience has been that people just bring plants for the sale, often leaving them without a word.

Someone in August brought this very pot-bound Bird of Paradise plant, wishing me luck with it.

I had never grown a Bird of Paradise plant. But I understood the concept 'pot-bound.'

I got it out of the pot to see what was what. There were these really old and big roots

August 6, 2022

Here is a slightly different view.

I pulled the roots apart. At that point I whacked off about half the roots.

I then put the remaining growth into two larger pots

I tried to sell the plants. For a variety of reasons they did not sell. I am not sure there are that many people who had experience with the plant. 

The note did say the plant bloomed.

When plants do not sell I often assume responsibility for their care. In the case of tropicals that means overwintering them. I now have 2 large birds of paradise.

I read they want sun. I put them under the high intensity light in the basement.

Sure enough there were new leaves. In about November one new growth looked different. In fact it was a bud. When it opened a week ago it got to come upstairs.

I have no idea how long it will bloom. I think it will continue to open as more of these colorful parts of the flower emerge. I will keep you posted.

Julia's recipe

Dutch Baby

The webcite with all of Julia's recipes is located at

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

The NYT called this confection a Dutch baby. No idea why either Dutch or baby. It's a big baked pancake. I saw the recipe on the NYT recipe site recently, and it reminded me of long ago when a history professor of my acquaintance came to brunch and made several such pancakes in our oven. I don't remember what he called them, exceptit was not Dutch baby. 

I am posting this recipe now to facilitate your properly celebrating the New Year. Readers of this blog may remember I have written about my grandmother's views of what to eat on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve, you eat chicken because the chicken scratches back with its feet (thus, putting the old year behind you). On New Year's Day, you eat pork because the pig pushes forward with its snout (thus moving forward in a detemined way into the new year).

It is possible to start the New Year with a pork tenderloin or crown roast, but you don't need to get that elaborate: Dutch baby with a side of bacon, satisfying tradition in less that 35 minutes plus there's maple syrup (or berries or marmalade or, according to the above-mentioned professor, lemon juice, brandy and powdered sugar).   

The ingredients:

3 eggs;

1/2 cup flour;

1/2 cup milk;

1 tablespoon sugar; and

4 tablespoons of butter.

A pinch of nutmeg if you like, but I didn't bother. 

You will need an oven-safe skillet (cast iron is good), and a blender makes batter preparation easy, but you could use a mixer or even a whisk. 

I broke the three eggs into the blender container. The recipe said the eggs and milk should be room temperature. I was not patient enough to wait, and it didn't matter. 

I turned the oven on to 425 degrees.

While the oven was heating up, I put the skillet with the butter in it into the oven. 

Philip had just carved a pumpkin - it is finally cold enough to carve pumpkins which will freeze-dry rather than rot. The pie pan on the top shelf is pumpkin seeds (with some salt) to snack on. People do not live by Dutch baby alone.  

While the butter was melting (and I kept an eye on it), I added the flour, sugar and milk to the blender, put the lid on and zizzed it up. I was looking for smooth, which just took seconds.

When the butter had melted, I used a silicon brush to work some of the melted butter up the sides of the skillet. 

I poured the batter into the skillet.

More pouring. It didn't really take very long.

Into the oven. Don't forget the skillet is hot. Use a potholder. 

I baked the baby for 20 minutes. Then I lowered the heat to 300 degrees and baked it for another 5 minutes. 

And there  it is: hot and puffy. Interesting topographically. 

While the oven was heating up (before the butter skillet went in), we baked 4 pieces of bacon. We cut the pancake into 4 pieces and each ate 2, with butter and maple syrup. I think stewed apples and powdered sugar would be great. Or marmalade (I made some recently) or berries and whipped cream. 

Sweet (when garnished) but also light and airy. And an easy way to comply with my grandmother's instructions for a successful move into a new year. 

Don't know about leftovers. We didn't have any.

Odds and Ends

Odds and Ends

The wind has finally died down. Remarkably I read that the temperatures will get to almost 50 degrees next weekend. 

The rivers are now mostly frozen. This should be time to go look at eagles.

There is still much to be done as Chistmas morning dawns,

The days are getting longer, even if it is only a matter of a few seconds at first.

Please enjoy the pictures and think of warmer times.

For a while it had been hoped that there would be a Christmas truce in the Ukraine.

It was not to be. 

Remember the many people who are cold.

But do try to find the joy that is out there. 

May that joy overcome the cold.

Philip