February 12, 2023. Week #12

This is a teaser of a winter. Maybe I am only a little impatient.

There are sunny days that tease you with promises of spring. It is just around the corner. Maybe there are crocuses coming up. Where are those snowdrops?

Yet the reality is that the ground is frozen solid in most places. We had a quick snow on Thursday. 

The total was only maybe 2 inches. But it looked like winter, but then the sun came out. Yesterday there was that wonderful sight ans sound of melting.

 As I write early on Saturday morning, it is 17 degrees. It is going to be in the 40's most of the week. Then it will get back to single digits by the end of the week.

There is nothing to really complain about. It is still the first half of February.

All this is just an observation.

Spring will come. You know that because the HyVee grocery store has daffodils and tulips for sale. 

The lettuce I planted at the first of the year is getting to be big enough to eat. I am moving the plants up to bigger pots. 

Yesterday I took a few plants out for a little afternoon sun. It was mostly recreational, for them and for me.

Last Week in the contest the winner was the little iris. I am watching for those little iris, to emerge bigger than ever.

The full vote was

48%- That is the second highest total this season.

The playoffs are coming- in two weeks.

This Week- Week #12

#1 Confused Angel hosta 

May 20, 2022

Hosta have not done well in the contest over the years. They are after all mostly leaves, not flowers.

I thought I would include this one, which is a favorite of mine.

This is hosta Confused Angel. It is one of the few plants I ever ordered, just because of the name. I have had it for about 20 years. 

The backbone of my garden is hosta. We do have all those mature trees. I started growing hosta not long after we moved into the house in 1982. We were adjusting to having a lot of shade. Hosta was rather new to the plant world. At that time you could actually think that you could get all the varieties that were in commerce. I remember that was less than 50 varieties. I would certainly buy every variety the local nurseries/vendors had.

I discovered a mail order source called Naylor's Creek. It was Gary and Jack in Chimacum, Washington.

They had an actual catalogue that would be mailed to you in the late fall. I would go through the names and descriptions and pick out 4-5. There was free shipping if you ordered at least $100.

Blue Angel had been one of the early hostas. Often a successful plant would then have children that were a little different.

I had previously obtained Guardian Angel, which is still one of the signature plants on the east side of the house.

So that year, which was in the late 90's I think, there was a new one called Confused Angel. I ordered it right away. It did not do well in the first place it was planted. I moved it to the front yard which was what it needed. Not so much direct sun. It gets special care and does so well.

Naylor's Creek closed a few years ago. I remember Gary and Jack fondly. 

#2 Purple Calla lily

 June 3, 2022

Calla lilies are not lilies. I start by telling what they are not. They are also not trucks, but that does not advance knowledge.

Most calla lilies are in the genus Zantedeschia. 

They are a bulb that you have to dig up each winter. (Like cannas or dahlias.)

They are rather dramatic. 

They will bloom perhaps 60 days after planting. If you wait to plant them until July, you can have flowers late in the season.

#3 Red Shirley poppy 

June 3, 2022

Shirley poppies are good. Red is good. Red and yellow go well together. 

What more needs to be said. That little dash of white in the center stands out.

The Shirley poppy seedlings are still so tiny.

#4 Cactus flower 

September 16, 2022

I grow several of these cactus plants. The make side shoots. That means you can have as many new plants as you want. One bonus is that they bloom near the end of the year. 

#5 Fall crocus 

November 10, 2022

Sometimes the view from the top looks different. What a wonderful background. And late in the year. We actually had some of these late bloomers trying to bloom in December.

There you have it for Week 12. There is only one more week of  contestants for the year. Then there will be several weeks of playoffs. Then it will be spring.

Bonus Section

A note about this picture. In the foreground you can see the little colored straw, like the one in the odds and ends section.

Here you have both colors of the fall crocuses.

December 14, 2022

Right Now

Julia finished the last of the batch of mittens that gets mailed to several elementary schools in the area.

She is making mittens bigger these days, recognizing that children above kindergarden have bigger hands. 

I should add that each of the mittens in the picture is actually a pair of mittens.

The little white phalanopsis keeps going, with new flowers almost every day. We are up to about 17 flowers at this point. This stem is one of two stems with flowers.

This is the latest violet purchased at the winter farmer's marker in Iowa City. There is another market today. 

Julia's recipe

Shrimp jambalaya

I have been interested in shrimp lately, which I don't understand. But rather than brood about it, I decided to make shrimp jambalaya. I had never made it, knowing little of cajun or creole origin until we visited our daughter Katie in post-Katrina New Orleans where she was working for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana doing clean-up work. I came away from visits to New Orleans with a real fondness for gumbo, which I knew nothing about. Now I make it, and there is a recipe on the kitchen blog. We ate beignets and etouffe and lovely fish. I have not yet tried to make beignets or etouffe, although we do eat a lot of fish. I did draw the line at crawdads, but that is for a different day. I do not recall eating jambalaya, but why not make it myself? This recipe is derived from The Spice Cookbook, a cookbook published in 1964 that came into my hands while we were living on the farm in the 1970s. 

The ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil;

1/3 cup sliced celery;

1/3 cup diced pepper;

2/3 cup diced onion;

1 cup white rice;

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock;

1 teaspoon kosher salt;

1/4 teaspoons black pepper;

1/4 (or a bit less) teaspoon cayenne;

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme;

1/3 cup (or so) chopped parsley;

2 andouille sausages; and 

12 oz. cleaned and deveined shrimp.

I started, as always, by prepping the vegetables. I cut the celery stalk in half lengthwise before cutting across so the pieces would be smaller. 

I diced the pepper. (I used red. Green or yellow or orange or purple would be just fine.) Then I diced the onion, and destemmed and chopped the parsley.

I put the oil in a Dutch oven and added the vegetables, with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I cooked the mixture for about 5 minutes until the vegetables had begun to soften.

Next I added the rice and cooked (stirring regularly) for 3 or 4 minutes until the rice was mixed in and beginning to turn a bit opaque. 

Followed by a dollop of better than bouillon chicken base. I stirred that in, and then added the tomatoes and 2 cups of water as well as the rest of the salt, the black pepper, cayenne pepper and dried thyme.

I let the mixture come to a boil, then turned it down and covered it. 

I put the timer on for 10 minutes.

While the rice was cooking, I cut each andouille sausage in half lengthwise and then across to make half-moons. 

I added the andouille and the parsley, stirred it up and put the lid back on for another 10 minutes. 

Then I added the shrimp. 12 oz. comes to about 3-1/2 cups. My shrimp were mostly thawed. So I cooked the concoction for another 10 minutes or so, until the shrimp were thawed and heated through.

The shrimp I buy do not turn pink when cooked, but an opaque white.

Supper on the table. I do like one-pot meals. And then there are the variations. As I said above, any color of peppers will do. You could use ham instead of andouille; chicken instead of shrimp; some chicken and some shrimp; some cut-up mild fish like cod with or instead of shrimp or chicken. Fresh thyme instead of dried. Chicken stock or vegetable stock or some clam juice and some water instead of chicken base.  We had salad of course, and lemon pudding cake (recipe on the kitchen blog) as we had a surfeit of lemons. 

We had leftovers, some of which we froze and some of which we ate for lunch. Rice-based dishes freeze well, I have found. And frozen leftovers are reassuring in troubled times: dinner can be ready in minutes, with little muss, fuss or even thought. 

Odds and Ends

When it comes to the odd picture of the season this picture wins...by a lot.

I use little colored straws as markers. I had several on the shelf along Fairview Ave. We had a lot of walnuts come down. The walnut came down and became impaled on the straw. Imagine how that had to hit that straw and just the right angle, with some force. It was rather odd.

February is moving along. I keep hoping that as spring approaches, I will find some more energy. 

As I close it is time to remember those without hot showers. 

There are those who do not have a house to live in.

There are so many children who go to sleep without enough food.

And we build expensive houses, for people who do not pay enough taxes. But strangely those people can elect some governing bodies that make it easier for them to have pretty things. 

I read that Colorado is going to make lunches in public schools free for everyone.

I wonder what it would cost to do that for Johnson County.

Pray for peace, and reconciliation, and for an entire new government in Iowa.

Philip