September 18, 2022- fall comes

The darkness is closing in on the garden. The equinox is this Thursday, September 22, 2022. 

Several nights this past week we have eaten dinner in the dark. Of course we are working too hard at the moment. That means we get home late. I write this at 6:15 Saturday morning. It is completely dark. I see that sunrise is at 6:48. Since it is cloudy the darkness is more pronounced. At least I cannot feel guilty that I am not out in the garden at 6. 

While I have begun to worry about lowering temperatures, we have had the air conditioning running this week. This coming week's forecast contains a 91 and a 44. We will see the 91 first. It is so up and down at this point. Several days this last week we  wore sweatpants to go for walks. That was  the first time since spring. 

The rain totals from last Saturday night into Sunday was 1.36 inches. There has been none since. There is enough in forecast that I have not started the sprinkler. 

Update- it rained off and on all Saturday (yesterda). Sometimes it was rather hard. As of Sunday morning we may have had another 1.3 inches of rain. I should roll up the front yard hose.

Garden News

At the moment the garden is full of the present and the future. I suppose that is not all that different from most times. 

The toad lilies have begun. There is one early plant that is blooming. Other plants will join them over the next month. They really should bloom until frost.

There is a white flowering toad lily. I want to get. That may be a job for January.

There are many buds on the toad lilies that have not begun to bloom.

Fall crocuses are blooming. Remember that the general category of "fall crocuses" there are both actual crocuses (for example the saffron crocus) and colchicum, which are something else.

The ones blooming now are actually  colchicum. They are not actually related to the crocus that blooms in the spring. In bulb catalogs there is one page for colchicum and another for the true fall crocus. The colchicums are more expensive. Here are pictures of those blooming colchicums.

There are several differences between colchicum and the actual crocuses that bloom in the fall.

Colchicum have 6 stamen. Crocuses have 3. ("Stamen are the male parts that have the pollen on them.)

Another difference is that colchicum bloom without leaves. They grew their leaves in the spring which then die down. They probably are related to those pink blooming naked ladies. (lycoris)

The colchicum foliage is about the earliest sign of spring bulb. This picture was taken o February 16, 2022.

The fall crocuses are not expensive. I just ordered 300. They  cost about $.40/each in that quantity. I bought that number figuring I would sell a bunch to Iowa City gardeners for the food bank. The bulbs arrive on Tuesday. So far I have orders for 230.

The combination of crocus and impatiens is good. 

You do want to plant new fall crocuses in September. It is almost instant gratification. 

Here are crocus pictures from last year in October and November.

My other garden bulbs are also ordered.  It is fun to make those orders. Part of that is that ordering does not involve having to actually plant them. 

Think about spring bulbs. Don't you feel better?

I thought it only appropriate to include pictures of crocuses.

I took out the picture of snowdrops in the middle of snow. I decided that was not the good feeling I was looking for.

Gardening with an eye to the future does require garden cleanup. The "farm" is closing on October 1. The City must have projects there they want to do there for the future. Maybe they are going to bring the water source closer. Right now it is about 50 yards away. That is not really close enough for a hose.

I will have to go dig up the amaryllis bulbs that have been fattening for the summer. I will say goodbye to the second year eggplant plant. I like saying that. Eggplant plant. It was a nice experiment to overwinter it. There is no reason to repeat the experiment. 

Other pictures from this week

This is a cactus someone brought to the sale. I hope no ones buys it so I can buy it. I set the price rather high to make that possible. (I would pay the price if I keep it.)

The same person brought this bromiliade.

One of the my cactus bloomed this week.

This anemone is darker than the double from several weeks ago. I believe it is called Prince Henry.

This is a special tradescantia called nanouk.

Julia's recipe

Breaded Chicken Breast with tomatoes

This chicken recipe, from the NYT, is a little bit summer and a little bit fall: summer for the availability of good tomatoes and fall for the willingness to turn on the stove to fry the chicken breast cutlets. I have not done a lot of frying on the stove, but this turns out to be pretty easy. Not spattery. No need to use the oven. Ready to eat in 30 minutes or so.   

The ingredients: 

some tomatoes, any size;

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts;

2 tablespoons cider (or white wine) vinegar;

1 egg (despite what the picture shows);

2/3 flour or so;

maybe 2/3 cup of grated parmesan;

3 tablespoons regular oil; 

maybe 1 teaspoon kosher salt;

maybe 1/2 teaspoon black pepper;

some parsley or basil or mint. 

First off, I cut up the tomatoes. I had cherry tomatoes (red) which I cut in half plus a beefsteak (reddish purple) tomato and a yellow big tomato which I cut into smallish wedges. No need to peel or seed.

I added the vinegar to the bowl of tomatoes plus about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. I stirred it up and set the bowl aside. 

Next I destemmed some of the parsley (which is what I had) which would garnish everything at the end. 

Next I took each of the two chicken breasts. I set the breasts sideways on the cutting board and cut each one through: in half width-wise. I ended up with 4 thin pieces of chicken breast. 

I sprinkled the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper on the chicken pieces.

Next I set up a little production line, right to left: plate of chicken; plate with about 1/3 cup of flour; shallow bowl of beaten egg; plate with about 1/3 cup of flour and the parmesan cheese and (out of the picture) a silpat-lined rimmed baking sheet for the chicken pieces to land in after being dredged and dipped and dredged again. 

Here I am dredging. After setting the chicken on the plate of flour, I turned it over and patted the flour on the other side of the chicken and then shook the chicken so any loose flour would fall off. 

Next, I dipped the chicken in the egg, not letting it go but sort of dragging it in the egg on both sides. Then I shook it.

 

Last of all, I dredged the chicken in the flour/parmesan mixture. I put it in the mixture on both sides and sort of patted the chicken to encourage this coating to stick.

Here is the rimmed baking sheet with all of the cutlets sitting quietly.

I let the chicken sit for maybe 10 minutes. Near the end of that time, I heated 2 tablespoons of the oil in a big skillet over medium-high heat. 

When the oil was shimmery, I laid the 4 pieces of chicken in and backed away for about 4 minutes. A bit nerve-wracking as there was some sizzling. 

After 4 minutes, I peeked and then let it cook for maybe a minute or 2 more. At the end of that time, the chicken pieces were easy to flip (no stickage).

As noted above, after about 6 minutes, I flipped the chicken pieces over and cooked them for maybe 6 or 7 minutes on the other side, having turned the heat down a little. 

My chicken pieces were thin enough that they were fully cooked by the end of that time. (I checked by testing with an instant-read thermometer. Done = 165 degrees.)

If the chicken had not been done, I would have slid the skillet into a 375 degree oven until it tested as done. 

And here it is. I put the cutlets on a platter and put the tomato salad in a bowl on one end of the platter, after adding the last tablespoon of oil to the tomatoes and stirring it up. 

I sprinkled some parsley over both the chicken and the salad. We served this with big cous cous (with some butter and parmesan) and green salad and cantaloupe. 

On the plate

Cold chicken cutlets, like any cold chicken, are great.

Odds and ends

I had to drive to Centerville this last Monday for a court hearing. That is down by Missouri, south of Oskaloosa, for those people who know Iowa. It was a 5 hours drive for a 15 minute hearing. Virtual hearings can be good. However... it was a clear day and the fields and ditches were quite nice. The ditches are all golden at this point with golden rod and a form of helianthus. The rolling hills with ripening crops were good too. The soybeans are turning brown but they first turn yellow. 

I also stopped at Reha's Greenhouse on the way back. That is one way to break up a drive. I got a sansevieria called "tornado."

I planted more lettuce yesterday between rains. If it is ready in 50 days, that is about halloween. I think of that date as the frost free date. I do think lettuce can take a frost.

I also potted up blackberry lilies that were growing in the paths. 

The Queen of the Night rested this week. However, on almost every leaf where there was a flower last weekend, there is now a little bud or two coming. Maybe there will be an October bloom. Last year there was a bloom on October 7, 2021.

We must have lost power for maybe an hour in the middle of the night. I know this because when I looked at the little weather station in our bedroom this morning the time did not seem right, and the temperature was in centigrade.

In the darkness and quiet, pray for peace. We must do what we can to make this world a better place. Amd by all means we must keep those crazy people out of our governments. 

Philip