September 22, 2024- Fall is here

Fall is officially here. And with it should come the first rain in 3 weeks. It is suppose to get here in the early morning hours. 

Update- there is a lot of green on the radar. I heard some thunder last night. I do not see much evidence of rain. 

I finally got the sprinkler out Friday. I set it up in the back yard and just let it run for several hours. It says something that I waited for that long.

Before Friday I had just been using the waterwand, mostly on plants in pots.

I had forgotten how you can feel productive by just having the sprinkler going. You can even go do some work in other parts of the garden.

With the dry weather my garden enthusiasm has been low. I could feel it going up just by having the sprinkler on. Rain in the forecast helps.

Those zinnias that were not eaten, do last a long time.

The toad lilies are starting to put on a show.

One cheerful thing is the occasional lupine seedling.

The crotons do look good.  I found a nursery that has a lot of crotons. It is 

Village Green Farms. It is located in Hawaii.

https://tom-piergrossi.squarespace.com/

I was able to find names for some of mine by looking through their catalogue.

This is a lovely croton named Punctatum. We must have had it for at least ten years.

To get a decent picture I have to move the plants away from their garden spot. You almost need a big black sheet for the background.  

Several crotons have been blooming. Here is Franklin Roosevelt.

Crotons are rather hardy, for plants that have to come inside for the cold. They are however rather slow growing.

Good old addenium.

A client of Julia's brought us a vase of dahlias. Maybe that is what I should do with a little patch of sun.

Another client brought us this rooted sansevieria. It immediately made 4 little side shoots.

Julia's recipe

Apricot bars

These are baked bar cookies, suitable for cooler weather when it's okay to turn on the oven. The recipe comes from Michael Knock, the Iowa City Press-Citizen's recipe guy. The bars are a variation on lemon bars, in that there is a shortbreadish crust which is prebaked followed by a layer of flavorful goodness, in this case apricot fruit spread. These bars then get a streusel topping and are baked again. I thought they were delicious. Of course, I really like apricot fruit spread. Raspberry would be good too. A little sweet and a litle tangy.

The ingredients for the base layer:

12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) room temp. butter, cut into cubes;

1/2 cup powdered sugar;

1/4 teaspoon salt (or 1/2 teaspoon if using unsalted butter);

3/4 teaspoon vanilla;

1 lemon's worth of zest (maybe 1 teaspoon - depending on your lemon);

and 

1-3/4 cup flour.

Next: 1 5 or 6 ounce jar of apricot spread. Not jam (too sweet), not jelly (too thin), not preserves (too chunky). 

Lastly, for the streusel:

1/2 cup flour;

1/2 cup packed brown sugar;

a pinch of salt; and

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of butter (a little cooler than room temp.)

I started by lubing up a 9" x 9" pan. 

I made the crust in the food processor. I have come to appreciate the food processor. It does not some things so much more easily than by hand. This shortbread crust for one thing. 

I just put all of the crust ingredients into the work bowl and pulsed until the dough was crumbly, as shown. 

I dumped the crust mixture into the lubed-up pan and used my fingers to press the dough into an even layer.

I chilled the dough-in-the-pan in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so. While the shortbread layer was chilling, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. 

Then the pan went into the oven for about 25 minutes.  

Here are the bars, out of the oven. Not much color except around the edges, but slightly tan and firm to the touch.

I let this layer cool on the counter for a while.

While it was cooling, I made the streusel topping. I think I mixed the ingredients in a bowl with a pastry blender. Maybe I used the food processor. Or maybe Philip had already swooped in and washed it. He does that. 

When the crust was not hot any more, I added probably 3 or 4 ounces of the apricot spread, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon. Again, as with the crust, the idea was to have a more or less even layer. 

I sprinkled the streusel all around with a measuring cup. 

Back into the oven for another 25 minutes. 

On the plate, having cooled in the pan. They actually could be eaten out of hand. 

A 9" x 9" pan of bars can last the better part of a week in a small family like ours. The bars held up very nicely.

Odds and ends

It is time to collect seeds. Yesterday I started collecting blackberry lily seeds. I do need to remember that they will need to get cold over the winter. 

Some seeds  are not ready yet. These are some of the yellow ones.

These are the seeds from the regular orange ones. This is why they are called blackberry lilies.

There are fallen leaves everywhere. The linden tree is one of the first to drop its leaves. Raking up the leaves is a never ending task. 

As I finish this post, in the dark, early on Sunday morning, I wait for the sound of rain. I am still waiting. Actually if I put my ear to the window, I can hear a sprinkle. 

Pray for the end of violence.

Pray that children can play without fear.

Pray that people will have enough to eat.

Pray that sensible people will be elected. 

What can I do, today, to help make this a better world?

Philip