December 31, 2023 Week #6- look for a new beginning

Goodbye 2023

 Happy New Year from all of us, including the pumpkins

The absurdly warm weather lasted through Tuesday. Temperatures were in the 50's for 3 days in a row. We even had rain.  Now we have settled into a weather pattern where the temperatures are just a little above normal. Normal highs for the end of December are about 32 degrees. Normal lows are about 17.

Thursday we even had maybe 2 inches of snow. It has been melting ever since. Yesterday got to the upper 30's.

Lots of things are stirring.  The seeds in the picture to the right are the little blue silla or squill. 

Last week in the contest 

the winner was...

The Pinks Shirleys

Here was the full vote

The purple anemone was a strong second. It may have a shot at a wild card.

Voting note- A neighbor asked me about how to vote if you looked at the blog on your phone.

Well, you have to go to the bottom of the post where you will see a place to click for "view web version." Click there and you will get to a version where you can vote.

This week will be Week #6

#1 Daylily Summer Hymns 

July 21, 2023

This is daylily Summer Hymns, a plant near our kitchen door. It has a really nice ruffle, which could be used in breeding. It is easy to cross daylilies, even by hand.  Then you have to have the patience to wait four years for a seed to grow into a blooming plant.

#2 Japanese Anemone 

Honorine Jobert

September 16, 2023

This great plant is described as a low maintanence perennial.

I planted it at least 10 years ago and it has spread slowly, crowding out competitors.

It is an ideal plant for the late summer, fall garden.

The type of plant is commonly called a Japanese Anemone, but appears to have come from China.

It was "discovered" in a garden in France in 1858, hence the name.

It was the Perennial of the Year in 2016.

It blooms later than the pink variety that is so common in my garden.

One thing is interesting about the difference in varieties. The pink kind has a very different leaf than this white variety. HJ has a smoother leaf. This allows you to tell which is which before they flower.

I really like the green globe in the center of the flower.

#3 Frosty Ornamental Kale 

December 14, 2023

As I reflect on 2023, one of the real successes was growing ornamental kale from seed. I had really "discovered" ornamental kale in 2022. If you look at the post from October 9, 2022 you can see this revelation right there in print. We discovered kale in a nursery in Chicago. There were many, many plants. I talked to the plant guy at the nursery. He explained that November was the prime kale selling season.

In this warming world you can actually start thinking of what your garden would look like after November 1. Even into December. 

So this year we started about 150 little Kale plants in late July. In the bonus section you can see the progression over the last 4 months

Here is a link to talk about planting and caring for kale.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/kale/ornamental-kale-plants.htm

Comments from a now a seasoned kale grower- 

They recommend starting kale July 1. We were about a month late. We will do betterin 2024.

Kale prefers cooler weather, to develop color. It is not exactly cool in July. We were fortunate to have access to some greenhouse space, where there was some temperature control.

In the article on growing kale, there is no mention of pest control. There is the dreaded cabbage worm. Once the small  plants were put in the ground the little white moths put the garden on their map.

I will really want some worm control for next year. 

Here is an article about those critters

https://www.almanac.com/pest/cabbage-worms

I read that -5 is the bottom temperature for kale. I also read that the bottom number is 5 degrees. We have avoided either so far. (We got down to maybe 7-8 at one point.) The plants are going strong. While the cabbage worms survived some earlier freezes, they really are done for the year.

Kale is listed in places as a biennial. In the second year it would bloom. We'll see.

#4 Night Blooming Cereus

 September 1, 2023

This is what most people know as the Night Blooming Cereus. Purists would say it is not a cereus at all. Its botanical name is Epiphyllum oxypetalum.

It is from Central America. It does only bloom at night....unless it is cold and/or it is late in the season. Then you might still get a picture early in the morning.

I think it will bloom more than once during the season. The first could be in late July. The second flowering can be into October.

It blooms in flushes. I mean that it will set buds which will develop over a month, and then bloom almost all at one time.

Sometimes I would have some of these Queens in diferent parts of the yard. Remarkably they would bloom on the same night. This I understand is so that they can get pollen from another plant in order to be fertilized.

I have 3-4 of these oxypetalums. The biggest one was given to me in 2021, by someone who did not want to move it in and out of the house anymore. It found a place in a pot in the front yard. It is too big to be in a hanging basket. 

It set about a dozen buds. They curve up right before blooming. That night however there were thunderstorms predicted.

I moved the entire plant to the front porch. 

That turned out to be a good idea.

#5 Dwarf Iris Lyonaise 

May 4, 2023

Lyonaise was obtained fron Aitken's Salmon Creek Garden in Vancouver, Washington. It was develped in 2020. I get a lot of my little iris from them.

Bonus pictures

Closeups of contestants

I would like to try something different. Here are the same contestants, only with a carefully cropped blow up of all or part of the picture. I will be interested in what you think about your choice from above, compared to the blowups. 

Do you think the cropped image makes for a better or more interesting picture? There is no second vote. You may have to actually interact with me on this one.

Kale

This was part of the inspiration in 2022. The gardener at this garden center in the Chicago area explained that this was a very popular seller, in November.

Here are the kale pictures from August to December. 2023.

August 12

September 3

September 23

October 21

October 26

December 2

December 2

December 23

December 23

More Night blooming cereus pictures

This picture was taken by our neighbor Bob on 8-1-23 after my bedtime. They really

 do not open fully until a few hours after sunset.

This next picture shows what the bud looks like right before it is going to bloom.

Taken on 10-4-23

That last picture was taken the evening before we left for our east coast trip this fall. It was also the latest that the plant had ever bloomed. I kept showing the buds to a neighbor who regularly walked his grandchildren to school in the morning. He told me that the morning it bloomed those grandchilren ran down to the house to see the flowers.

Fortunately it was late enough in the year that they were still in bloom at 7:45 am. We, by that point, were on our way to Virginia.

One big reason to garden is to share your garden with others.

When those people are chldren that means so much more.

Right Now

Orchids do carry the gardener through the winter. Here are two of the bloomers at the moment.

The really strange airplant, which is really a bromeliad, has gotten bigger.

Julia's recipe

Hot and Sour Soup

Katie sent me this recipe for hot and sour soup, which she got from a Cook's Illustrated stews-and-soups cookbook. It's good and quick and makes a nice light dinner. I have a couple of tweaks to suggest to brighten the flavors and shorten prep time. 

The ingredients:

8oz. extra firm tofu (or more);

1/4 cup soy sauce (or more)

3-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch;

2 cups raw pork (a pork chop) cut into little matchsticks (or raw chicken or cooked pork or chicken)

3-1/2 tablespoons water;

1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil;

1 egg (not shown, but used);

1 teaspoon of pepper (white pepper was called for; I had black pepper);

6 cups chicken stock or a combination of stock and water to make 6 cups (I used pork stock and water);

1 can bamboo shoots (sliced in half lengthwise);

4 oz. shiitake mushrooms (or more), stems removed and caps sliced;

5 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar or 1 tablespoon wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (or more);

2 teaspoons chili oil; and

3 or 4 scallions, sliced to garnish.

And think about having some wonton strips or chow mein noodles on hand. We did not at dinner, but we bought some in time to add when we had the leftovers for lunch later on.

I had 1 lb. of tofu and I used it all, as I do not use tofu that often. The extra tofu was fine. I will use more mushrooms next time, and I may use cremini. I can't tell the difference between fancy and not so fancy mushrooms in cooking. I found, as I will speak about later on, that the amounts of soy sauce, vinegar and chili oil called for in the recipe were not enough for me. We added both soy sauce and vinegar at the table, and when I make the recipe again, I will add more on the stove. I had about 2 cups of cooked pork and also 1 quart of pork stock. So I used pork stock instead of chicken stock and got to 6 cups by adding some water. Using cooked meat shortened the prep time. I often use cooked protein in dishes like this that are not meat-centric. 

I started by opening the package of tofu and putting it on a paper-towel-lined plate. I put a piece of waxed paper on top of the tofu and then put a Dutch oven on top of that and lastly, the sugar canister in the Dutch oven. In other words, I weighed down the tofu so it would drain. I let the tofu sit for about 15 minutes. 

While the tofu drained, I made 3 different mixtures in 3 little bowls. 

I mixed 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and the toasted sesame oil in one bowl (the white bowl with blue circles). 

I think I will double this mixture next time. It seemed skimpy. 

I mixed 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and 3 tablespoons of water in the little white bowl with the red rim.

I mixed the other 3 tablespoons of soy sauce with the chili oil, wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar and black pepper in the little pyrex bowl. I will use more of these ingredients next time too.

Okay then there was one more little bowl - for the last 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch plus 1 teaspoon of water plus the egg, mixed together with a fork.  

And I sliced the shiitake mushroom caps and the scallions. 

The pork stock was frozen so I got it out of the plastic yogurt container and warmed it up in a big pan. 

(To get frozen stock out of a plastic quart container, turn it upside down in the sink (with the lid on!) and run cold or warm water over it. After a few minutes, it will loosen up enough to be dumped out (carefully) into a big pan.)

I shredded the pork and added it to the sauce in the white bowl. I let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes while I dealt with cutting up the tofu and started adding things to the stock. 

Here is the egg I forgot earlier.

Once the tofu had drained, I cut it into 1/2" cubes (more or less). 

Once the stock melted, I added the water and then added the mushrooms and the bamboo shoots. I simmered the soup for about 5 minutes to soften the mushrooms a bit. 

Next I added the tofu and pork (with the little bit of sauce that the pork had been mixed with). 

When the soup reached a simmer and had simmered for a couple of minutes, I stirred up the cornstarch/water mixture and added it. 

I turned the heat up a little (more than a simmer, less than a furious boil) and stirred the soup. 

The cornstarch mixture thickened the soup a bit. 

Next, I added the contents of the pyrex bowl - the mixture of soy sauce, vinegars, chili oil and pepper - and stirred it in.

I cracked the egg into the tiny bowl with the bit of cornstarch and water. I took the soup off the stove and drizzled the egg in slowly to make what I guess could be called egg threads in the soup. 

On the table, garnished with some of the sliced scallions. As I said, I found it a bit bland, oddly enough, so we added soy sauce. 

When we reheated the leftover soup, we added a couple of tablespoons of vinegar (just plain cider vinegar) and soy sauce. And sprinkled some chow mein noodles in as well. 

Although a bit bland, that was fixable and the soup was good. It took maybe 30 to 40 minutes to make. 

Happy New Year. Let me remind you of my grandmother's views on the menu for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day: chicken on New Year's Eve and pork on New Year's Day. It's a way to accomplish "out with the old and in with the new." My grandmother said that the chicken scratches back - pushing last year firmly into the past. And the pig pushes ahead (with its snout) - moving forward into the new year. 

My grandmother often made chicken paprikash on NYE (the recipe is on the kitchen blog somewhere), and that's what I will do. She had several different pork dishes - spareribs and sauerkraut, for one. I will make somwthing simpler: a small pork loin roast, with sweet potatoes with yogurt and spinach with scallions on the side. I figure we need all the help we can get to push past 2023 and into 2024. 

Odds and Ends

Unusual products...in the grocery store.  Sometimes I think this could be an entire topic.

I challenge you to find any product in your grocery store that is more odd than this.

The Chicken nuggets were in shapes. Including shapes of dinosaurs and letters of the alphabet.

December is almost behind us.

What a roller coaster.

Those 3-4 days around Christmas, when the temperatures stayed above 40 for the entire time, was what really woke up the garden. On the chart you can see the lines for normal highs and lows.

There was also the fact that it rained. Actually it gently rained all day on Crhistmas. Look at this chart.

For the first time in a long time, we had slightly more rain in December than normal.

I checked, looking at this same extension service webcite. The last month, for us, with normal or more rain was February, 2023. We had more than an inch of rain on February 27. That was the rare event.

We finished the year (so far) with 24 inches, where 35 is normal.

There are only 82 days until official spring. (March 21.) If the cold time of the year is from November through February, we are half way done. 

62 days until March 1. 

A federal judge just (at least for the moment) put a hold on the legislative ban on certain books in public schools. That is another piece of the Florida agenda that the Republicans in Iowa seem intent on adopting.

The Republican governor of Ohio just vetoed a bill being bad to trans youth. Every once in a while the sun shines through the clouds.

World news is depressing. 

We have two more weeks of advertising for Republican's getting ready for the Iowa caucuses. Here is something odd. Political ads for Republican candidates are all over the TV. Yesterday we watched most of  the Iowa women's basketball game on TV.  I do not recall seeing one add. I guess they know their selected audience. 

Pray for peace. 

Find kind things to do.

Maybe, just maybe, think about planting some seeds.

Philip