November 5, 2023- It is the start of inside time

Greetings from the other side of the garden. We have moved through that curtain into the new season. The inside season. Dawn comes artificially in that new season, with lights set on timers, going off at slightly different of the early morning. Upstairs dawn is about 5:45. Of course time is now messed up a little as we adjust our watches away from daylight savings time. Some clocks are smart clocks, magically knowing to change on their own. The timers for the indoor lights, not so much. They will have to manually be changed.  

Of course some people call it the big dark. 

This week I am going to do two things. I will tell you about garden life in that new season. I will then tell you about what is happening outside, as we move past the first freeze. We had the freeze but there has since been somewhat of a thaw.

Inside

Some plants come inside, with buds already formed.

These cactus were a pleasant sight, blooming for two days.

Plant storage

Plants are everywhere.

This is the plant stand at the office. These plant stands last for years. We have one at the office and one at home. They must be 20 years old. Occasionally we have to change the ballasts or the light bulbs. They are worth paying the extra price.

These are just cattleyas. When you divide them you get more. It is simple mathematics.

These are some of the lights in the basement.

I think the cactus will move upstairs to the cold room once they have bloomed. Actually there is one more bud coming.

Buds coming

These are orchids. The buds are quite slow to develope. But they are coming, perhaps to brighten up Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Plant maintanence

There was the big rush to get all the plants out of the cold. It has now been almost two weeks. Now I have to have to water most of the plants. Some types can go completely dry. Amaryllis and clivia are two such groups. 

Others need to be watered every 2-3 weeks. Some like the crotons need watering every week. Some already started to drop their leaves complaining of a 10 day drought.

Orchids are tricky. How much water they want depends on the size of the pot and the potting medium. Bark dries out quicker. 

Flowers

Violets were added to the indoor colection last winter. They are so cheerful, once you get the trick about watering with wicks. They do get big. You can also make little ones from leaf cuttings.

This is the tiniest order I have. It has its place over the sink in the winter. 

Speaking of the kitchen sink, here is tillandisa, which has graced that location since 2015. 

I did bring in some small zinnias, when it was going to toast them. They make a good combination with the purple Persian Shields. One year one of the zinnia flowers grew some roots. They did not amount to anything.

Outside

Last Sunday is technically within the pictures for this week. The freeze was not until Sunday night. These last flowers were photographed before the cold descended.

What a wonderful yellow.

The kale did not really show any signs of frost damage. That is the thing with kale.

One other thing about kale. The plant can survive down to perhaps 10 degrees. So can the cabbage worms. Remarkable. 

There are perennials that survive the frost. Epimedium, pulmonaria and hellebores are the big three.

The other task for outside, now that migration is over, is bulb planting. I planted the first 100 of the aconite Friday. 900 to go. But at least I have a good idea where they can go. The frost is gone from the 7 day forecast, so the ground can accept any bulbs that are planted.

Update- 800 aconite to go. 

Julia's recipe

Green beans with tahini

This green bean dish is from Madhur Jaffrey's Asian vegetarian cookbook, which is full of good recipes. I had not made this dish in a while; in hindsight, I blame a difficult can of tahini. The oil floated to the top and the solids became impenetrable. Then I got a new brand of tahini (Wild Harvest organic tahini), which I recommend. The jar told me to refriegerate after opening, which I did. Maybe it's the brand, maybe it's the refrigeration, but it is both stirrable and measurable, a vast improvement over whatever it is I used before. But I digress.  

The ingredients:

about 3 or 4 cups of cut green beans;

1/4 cup regular oil;

2 teaspoons mustard seeds;

1-1/2 teaspoon smushed garlic;

1 tablespoon grated ginger;

3 or so tablespoons tahini;

about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt;

about 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper;

about 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; and

1 tablespoon lemon juice.  

If you have fresh green beans, by all means use them - cleaned and cut into 1" or so pieces. (See below for more.)  I had a package of frozen green beans plus about 1 cup of leftover fresh green beans, the last of the farmer's market crop. So I ended up with something like 3-1/2 to 4 cups. 

I have made this recipe with broccoli, which is delicious. Or you could use cauliflower - any sturdy choppable vegetable. Cooked carrots give me the willies. But they would probably work too if you are not averse. 

I started by prepping the garlic and the ginger. 

As I have probably said before, I keep my ginger in a small plastic bag in the freezer. This way it doesn't get moldy, and it is easy to grate on a rasp type grater. I don't even peel it. It doesn't matter in the final dish. 

Next, I poured the frozen green beans into the skillet I would be using to cook everything. No reason to use a saucepan to cook the beans. I used a tiny bit of water - maybe 1/2 cup. I just wanted to thaw out and warm up the beans. 

If you're using frozen broccoli or cauliflower or carrots instead, you could use this method too. These are harder vegetables, so you will want to cook them until they can be pierced easily with a paring knife or skewer. Green beans are not so hard. 

If you are using fresh (that is, raw) vegetables, you will have to cook them separately. Just until they are pierceable. Not mushy.  

When the frozen green beans were cooked through and the water pretty well evaporated (this took maybe 5 or 6 minutes on medium high heat), I added the leftover green beans (a slightly different shade of green).

Then I shoved the green beans off to one side of the pan and added the oil. When it was hot, I added the mustard seeds. 

As soon as the mustard seeds started to pop (but before they began to jump all over the stovetop), I added the tahini, garlic and ginger and stirred everything up. 

After those ingredients were combined, I added the salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and finally the lemon juice. More stirring. 

As the ingredients combined, the tahini clumped up a little with the ginger and garlic and mustard seeds to make some delicious spicy bits. 

On the table. We served this with meatloaf, roasted red potatoes, pickled beets and green salad. 

It is nice to have a combination of somewhat bland foods (meatloaf, roasted potatoes) and more assertive foods (the green beans and the pickled beets). Kind of a harvest time meal, really.

We have served the broccoli version with baked fish and potatoes or with baked chicken and sweet potatoes. And sometimes even with other Indian dishes. 

Odds and Ends

I do find it odd that cabbage worms can survive a freeze. But I already told you that.

Today will be odd as we adjust for the time change. I do not think the outdoor plants will notice.

This little lupine seedling cheered me right up. Then I noticed the really tiny sprouts all around it.

The world did not get any better this last week. I hope that voters in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia give us some cause for cheer.

Be kind.

Do what you can to make this a better world.

Philip