April 21, 2024- something new every day

Julia flew away to Maine for a week yesterday. Right before she left the washing machine stopped working, for a while. Earlier in the week the computer was very slow. I had trouble moving pictures around. The diagnosis there was that it was 10 years old. Yesterday afternoon I went to write this post. I got a message that "something was wrong with posting your data."Great. What next?

So it obviously finally started working. I tried several things inluding  restarting the computer many time. That is the technological way of hitting it with a hammer.

Yesterday, without the structure of another person in the house, I engaged is disjointed behavior all day.  I snacked from the refrigerator all day. I gingerly did half loads of laundry. Maybe next week I will tell you the story of blue jello.

I puttered in the garden, off and on. Part of that was the temperature. Maybe it got all the way up to the mid 40's. The hat of choice for gardening was the stocking hat.

We have all 100 caladium bulbs potted and placed on a shelves inside. They need soil temperatures of at least 65 degrees to germinate. 

We have over a hundred Shirley poppies in little pots. About half of them moved into bigger pots this week. These were started inside on February 1. In previous years I have started than January 1. However when I did that, they were blooming in their pots in early April, which was less than ideal.

The garden is bursting with energy. A warmer sunny day today will be wonderful. We had two good rains this week. We are still ahead of normal on rain for the year. 

Voting for daffodils

The daffodils are fading, except for a few late ones. And there was voting last week.

By a nose the daffodil with the orange ruffle got the most votes.

Here was the vote total

I always appreciate when the votes are spread out that way.

 Coming soon

It seems like there are lots of plants that are preparing for their display. The list of things to come includes

Tree peonies, including one new plant.

Martagon lilies- there are many more this year. I even have labels for them.

Camassia- do you know this plant? It was grown as a food source

Cyprepedium orchids- the backyard clump is bigger than ever. The front yard now has a clump of two.

Lupines- There are so many of them. I just hope there is not a big storm right after the flower stalks have gotten tall. That can knock down the display.

English bluebells- the buds are coming

                                        Right Now

There are wonderful things happening.

Both the white crabs and the one remaining pink crab bloomed nicely this week. As did the pink dogwood. That dogwood now reaches almost to the top of the window in our bedroom, on the second floor.

The pink rhododendron in the front is in fall bloom.

Mostly it is bluebell season. They are everywhere. They are particularly great late in the evening or first thing in the morning. They go so well with everything.

The lupines are all over the place. I actually thought to myself could lupines be regarded as invasive?

Look at these videos.

As I mentioned there were still a few good daffodils.

Other pictures

This is one of the few monsella tulips we have left at this point.

I have written down in several places that we need to order them early, before they sell out.

The little dwarf iris have begun to bloom.

The bluebells dance nicely with several epimedium.

This is Martian.

This is the little dwarf iris named Boink.

It has to be on the list of best named plants.

Last year's ornamental kale is going to seed.

This is one of my martagon lilies. I think the name is Orange Marmalade. It is the only one that has the dark stem. I so look forward to the martagon lilies blooming.

Cypress spurge is such a nice companion to the lupines. They are like tiny fireworks.

This is a variagated lily of the valley. It does not spread like the regular variety.

Julia's recipe

Rice with mushrooms and ginger 

Another NYT recipe - this one for a one-pot rice dish. It's pretty fast, It can be a vegan main dish or a side dish with a protein main dish. I like rice and I like mushrooms and I like one-pot, so I was on board. 

The ingredients:

1-1/2 cups medium grain rice;

2+ cups vegetable broth (I used better than bouillon);

2+ cups cremini mushrooms (or whatever mushrooms you like);

2 teaspoons cornstarch;

3 tablespoons soy sauce;

2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine or if you don't have it, 1 teaspoon rice vinegar;

1 tablespoon regular sesame oil;

1" fat piece of ginger, peeled and sliced;

2 thinly sliced scallions; and

salt and pepper. 

I did not use that whole piece of ginger. I broke a fat piece off and peeled and sliced it.

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The first thing I was supposed to do is rinse the rice three times. Okay. I put the rice in a big sieve with a handle, put the sieve in a pot and added water.  I let it sit for no more than a minute and drained it by lifting the sieve out of the pot and pouring out the water. Then I did it again and again. 

Why? The only thing I can think is that rinsing it made it less sticky. So the grains would be separate.

I put the tea kettle on. I was going to need vegetable broth. Often, I stir the bouillon paste into the stuff in the pot and add the water later. As we will see below, that wasn't going to work. 

When the water boiled, I mixed about 2 teaspoons of the bouillon paste into the boiling wate and stirred a bit so it would dissolve.  

When the rice was rinsed and the bouillon was melted, I poured the rice into a dutch oven and added the stock. I let that sit for 10 minutes.

While the rice and stock were sitting around, I prepared the mushrooms. I bought small-medium cremini so they would only need to be cut in half. 

I washed and halved the mushrooms and put them in a bowl. I added the cornstarch and tossed that around.

Then I added the soy sauce and the rice vinegar (I did not have Chinese wine) and the sesame oil. Finally, I added a bit of salt and pepper and tossed some more. 

At that point, it was time to cook the rice. I brought it to a boil and added the ginger slices. I turned it down, covered the pot and cooked it at a simmer for 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes, I added the mushrooms and used a big spoon to gently mix the mushrroms throughout the mixture. 

I put the cover back on and cooked the mixture for another 10 or 12 or maybe 15 minutes. A few minutes in, I checked the mxture. It seemed dried so I added some more water in 1/4 cup increments. I think I ended up using an extra 1/2 cup. 

While the rice and mushrooms were cooking, I cleaned and sliced the scallions.

In the attractive serving piece, with scallions scattered over the top. 

We ate this as a side with baked chicken pieces. I had 2 chicken breast halves, each of which I cut in half. At the beginning of the cooking process, I turned the oven on to 375 degrees, cut the chicken breasts in half, sprinkled them with a spice mix and put them in the oven. They were done with the rice was done. And I was cooked some asparagus because this time of year, I am crazy about asparagus. And it isn't even asparagus season here yet!

Leftovers were good, hot or cold. 

Odds and Ends

    The plant sale for the food banks is picking up steam. We have reached $1400, with plants just now starting to come in from other people. I have potted up some nice big hosta. Someone brought some nice brunnera, in flower. I then noticed that the ones in our garden were blooming.

    I am struck by the thought that the garden has many plants at the moment that are finished. Daffodils have joined the scilla and snowdrops and aconite. But the daffodils look finished. You actually should go around and deadhead them. Spent iris flowers should also be removed.

And the weeds. They really are a lot of them. I try to dig up 25 dandelions every day. There was that magic moment in the garden in March when the early spring bulbs were on display, and the weeds were still asleep.

I potted up a second year tree peony yesterday. We will see how that goes.

Governor Reynolds announced this week a $900,000 program to feed kids for the summer. This, of course, was after she turned down a program that would have meant $29,000,000 in food aid to kids.

You wonder if she did not think people would remember the earlier amount she turned down.

The Iowa legislature will go home soon, for the year. 

Congress  finally passed money for the Ukrane. If that former president is elected there will be no more money. I really believe he will do whatever Putin wants. 

I just have to wonder if people really will vote for him. I keep thinking that one day people will notice the emperor has no clothes on. But probably not in Iowa.

War continues. Hunger persists in the same world with billonaires. Then there is the climate.

There is so much to do.  

I wonder if the frost last night harmed some plants. At some point I will have to open the door and look to see.

Be safe.

Be kind.

Find the small things you can do to make it a better place.

Philip

April 14, 2024- the hot weather comes

After a cool  few weeks, the above-normal-temperature weather is back. It got to 80 yesterday. That seemed much warmer than 80 degrees will feel like in July. Windows have been open much of the week. Plants are going outside, trying to find the shade to avoid sunburn.

The garden is going into overdrive. There is just so much going on.

It has been a great season for daffodils. Cooler weather will do that. I will give you a daffodil show in just a bit.

In fact let us have another vote. Is anyone listening?

Before I get to voting and daffodils, let me show you several different white daisy like flowers, which were out in groups yesterday.

This is a nice clump of the special blootroot we have been selling for several weeks. Right below them, in the middle of the bottom of the picture, are two shoots of cypripedium orchids.

This is a nice clump of a native wildflower called twinleaf. The botanical name is Jeffersonia diphylla. It is surrounded by aconite foliage, which will be with us for another month. Apparently this is another plant where the seeds get carried around by ants.

Finally this is anemone blanda, a/k/a wildflower. Windflowers come in other colors. The white ones are the biggest. I got more last fall. They should stay on the "more" list for this fall.

I got my 10,000 steps in the garden yesterday, which wore me down by the end of the day.

I potted up my first hosta. I will need to spray them this weekend. Deer will leave hosta alone while they are still just shoots emerging. But when they begin to unfurl, that it when they can be munched. I have a lot of hosta. Of course I have a lot of daylilies which is another deer favorite.

The jumbo caladium bulbs arrived on Thursday. There are 100 of them. Scott and I got the first 25 potted Thursday.  I  left work at 3 and came home and gardened. I potter another 25  yesterday. They are put in 2 quart containers, and get placed somewhere inside. They will not germinate unless the soil temperature gets to 65.

Daffodils

Let us have another vote

Let us see which you like from this group. Since I am somewhat challenged on daffodil names we will give them numbers,

#1 pink cup

#2 Yellow cup

#3 Red cup

#4 Pink cup

#5 Orange ruffle

Other daffodils that are not in the poll this week.

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

Right Now

This is a hipatica. I have not had the best luck with hipatica. But I did get some nice little flowers this spring.

This is iris bucharica. It is a keeper.

trillium

Leucojum

A big tulip, having been sprayed several times this spring.

The big double bloodroot. 

One of the epimediums, which are so difficult to photograph. This one is called Bronze Maiden.

The ornamental kale is about done

Species tulip. The fact it is a "species" means it does not taste as good as a hybrid. 

Julia's recipe

Salmon and oranges 

Another simple and tasty thing to do with salmon. As I have probably said before, I did not have fresh salmon until maybe 10 or 15 years ago. I had been exposed once or twice in my younger days to canned salmon, and it turned me off the whole species. Canned tuna appeared often in my childhood, and I liked it. When I finally got around to fresh tuna, it was a (whole) nother thing. Then I liked them both. But not so with salmon. Anyway, this is a simple baked salmon with a nice orange-y glaze. Tasty and pretty.

The ingredients:

1 or 2 piece(s) of salmon, skin on;

2 oranges;

1 tablespoon honey;

1 tablespoon lemon juice (not shown);

non-stick spray (also not shown);and

salt and pepper.

I'll explain the olive oil below. I did not actually use it. But you could, depending on your presentation. 

My 2 salmon pieces were small, probably weighing in a little more than a pound.

I lubed up a baking dish with non-stick spray, and I turned the oven on to 325 degrees.

Then I removed whatever pin bones I found in the fish and put it skin side down in the baking dish.

Sitka Salmon (our purveyor from Alaska) has a theory that to be able to debone salmon mechanically, you have to let it sit around for a while. Sitka thinks this is a bad idea so they flash-freeze the salmon immediately and ship it in dry ice. So sometimes there are bones. This seems to vary by kind of salmon and where the cut comes from on the fish.

Then I salted and peppered the fish and zested one of the oranges right onto the fish. 

I juiced the orange I had just zested and also 1/2 of the other orange. I ended up with about 1/2 cup of juice. I added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for some zip. 

I put the juice in a little skillet and cooked it on high heat until it was reduced to about 1/4 cup. 

When the juice had reduced, I whisked in the honey. 

I used a silicone brush to dab the glaze onto the fish. Pouring would have dislodged the salt and pepper and orange zest. 

Then I cut the other 1/2 orange into really thin rounds.

I laid the orange slices over the fish.

Fully covered fish.

I baked the fish for about 20 or 25 minutes. 

And this is what it looked like coming out of the oven.

I had some glaze left over which I drizzled over the top of the dish. 

The recipe said I should buy myself 5 oz. of salad greens (like one of those small clam-shell containers of spring greens). Then the remaining orange glaze would get whisked together with 2 tablespoons of olive oil (shown above) and used as a salad dressing. Then the fish could be nestled on top of the greens and wouldn't that be attractive? 

We didn't do that. We had rice and asparagus and our usual green salad. Maggie joined us for dinner, and there were no leftovers. By the way, the baked orange slices could be cut so that a bite of fish could include a bite of orange. Very nice. 

Odds and Ends

No much went on in Iowa City this past week. As the world knows Catlin Clark finally lost. 

Raygun had a t-shirt, or at least they said there was a t-shirt, that said something like

Catlin Clark lost.

The sun came out.

Then it was taken away.

When it comes back a billion bugs will rise.

I found another sign that the winter was mild. I found a parsley plant that over-wintered.

I saw a story this week that Greenland's gravity is weakening. I had not included this on the things to worry about.

I hesitate to look at the news these days. I do appreciate gardening all the more.

But we must put one step in front of the other.

Pray for peace, and for reconciliation.

Pray for kindness. 

Pray to find the little ways to move out world to a better place.

Philip