October 9, 2022- on the road again

 

Greetings from Maine.

Back in Iowa this wonderful cactus flower heralded a big plant migration week.

All week long we stared at a freeze on Friday or Saturday night. This was complicated somewhat since we left for Maine early Friday morning. We were not actually  in Iowa for the event.

(It is very early Friday morning when I write some of this. It is difficult to write about something that has not happened, for a blog post that will be published after it has happened. Verb tenses get very compliated.)

The local TV weather says  it will be 28 degrees. The weather channel fluctuates between 32 and 33. That is certainly cold enough to accelerate the movement of plants inside.

update: I understand the frost/freeze was not much of a problem. Whether the more tender annauls were toasted remains to be seen when we return in a week.

The plant stands are now set up, both at home and at the office. (Yes, the office gets its share of plants.)

This first picture is from the office plant stand.

This is the house plant stand. Pat- the clivia at the start of the video is the seedling from the yellow ones you gave us. It was planted on March 1, 2020. It now has 4 leaves, on its way to the 13 it needs to bloom.

As to the migration, orchids and hoyas were the first priority, along with a few tender succulents. 

I also gave some priority to those plants I would least like to lose.

The sansevieria were in that category.

I actually do not think it will freeze. I am not even convinced about a frost, at least at our house. For one thing the leaves are still on the trees. Even the buckeye tree has  a lot of leaves, considering it is October. With a leaf cover I figure the garden will be 1-2 degree warmer than the open field across the street. Town is also always a few degrees warmer than right outside town.

I have brought many plants inside, but some are just huddling near the house or in the garage.

Last weekend we visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens. As always the waterlilies were a big hit. 

There was an art show at the Gardens. One of the exhibitors was my sister, Ellen Mears Kennedy. She is a paper person. Here was one of her pieces.

Here is a webcite about her show.

https://ellenmearskennedy.com/index.html#issue/1

She was inside, across from one of the glass places, with plants to dream about. This is an adenium. My little collection tops out at about 12 inches.

This hibisus enjoyed a few last days outside.

This adenium was at the botanic garden.

When we were in Chicago last weekend we stopped at this very nice garden center in Des Plaines named Pesche's. Unlike Iowa City garden centers they have significant sales this time of year. They also have this answer to fall garden boredom:

Ornamental Kale

There were Kale plants as far as you could see. Well maybe not that far. But a long way.

It was also early October. I asked someone who seemed to be in charge, whether they would sell all of those plants. He said yes. Indeed they only grew what they had sold last year. Here was the surprise. They sell most of them after the frost kills off the annuals. That would be any time now. Out with the frosted annuals. In with the Kale. I know from experience that Kale will last until Christmas.

Apparenly some people replace the chrysanthemums with kale, once the chrysanthemums have finished blooming.

This was one of those garden ideas that will stick with me. It should be one of the top 10 tips for keeping the fall garden interesting.

The prices were reasonable. Big plants were $7. 

I had already been doing my part, on the kale front, before we went to Chicago. I have these planted in the front sidewalk bed.

Julia's recipe

Another eggplant dish

One more eggplant variation, this time from India. I found myself with a lot of eggplant at the end of the last week. I had a big eggplant and 4 small-ish eggplant (impulse farmers market purchases), and then we were obliged to clean out our garden plot (aka the farm) which yielded a bunch of small eggplant. I made baba ganoush with the big eggplant and ratatouille withall the little ones from the farm. That left the 4 smallish ones. I had decided to make potato curry, which led me to Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. This recipe caught my eye.  It's one thing to do with too much eggplant. 

The ingredients:

some eggplant I ended up with 4 cups of prepared eggplant slices);

2 teaspoons kosher salt;

1 cup onion sliced into half-moons;

about 1/3-1/2 cup vegetable oil;

1 tablespoon panchphoran (aka panchpuran), about which more below;

2 teaspoons lemon juice; 

2 teaspoons sugar;

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper;

1 tablespoon sesame seeds.

What's panchpuran? An Indian spice mix of whole spices, available at Indian grocery stores, composed of what appears to be equal parts mustard seed, cumin seed, fennel seed, fenugreek seed and kalonji (sometimes called black nigella or black sesame seed). If you have these spices on hand, you could mix some up yourself. Or not. I think another Indian spice mix (other than curry powder) would work in a different way, and if a powder, it would need to be added at the very end.  

First I prepped the eggpant, cutting the ends off and then cutting each eggplant into quarters and then each quarter into thin (less than 1/2") slices. I did not peel the eggplant as it was fresh from the farmers market. If you have eggplant of uncertain provenance, peel it. 

If your eggplant is/are long and skinny (Japanese, for example), no need to quarter, just cut it into thin rounds. If our eggplant is very big, maybe cut it into sixths before slicing. Or else you can cut it into quarters and have larger pieces at the end.

I put all of the eggplant slices into a colander, sprinkled the slices with the salt and set the colander over a bowl. 

As usual, I set a flat thing (a lid from a big yogurt container) on top of the slices and then set the canister of sugar on top of that. 

I set colander rig aside for 30 minutes. While the eggplant was sitting, I made the potato curry and Philip started the rice (and made the salad).

After the eggplant spent 30 minutes under pressure, I put a tea towel on the counter and poured the eggplant slices onto half of the towel and pressed the slices with the other half of the towel. 

Salting eggplant brings moisture to the surface. Not like salting cucumbers, which makes them limp. Salting eggplant dries it out some and seasons it.

 

Next I put a big non-stick skillet on the stove and heated up about 1/3 cup oil (maybe a bit more oil). When the oil was hot, I started putting eggplant slices into the oil.

I let the slices cook for about 3 or 4 minutes (on medium-high heat). Then I started peeking at the slicies and as they turned golden-orangey brown, I flipped them over. As they got golden-orangey brown on both sides, I scooped them out onto a paper-towel-lined plate. 

I filled the skillet with eggplant slices twice, with a few extra for a third round of frying. 

After the eggplant was all cooked, I poured out some of the oil, leaving maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons. I turned the heat down and added the panchpuran which popped and sizzled. I immediately added the onion.

After the onion had begun to brown, I added the sugar and the cayenne and the lemon juice and finally, the eggplant slices. 

I cooked the whole mixture for a few minutes to let the flavors mingle. In the background of this picture and the one above, you can see the big skillet with the potato curry and the pot of rice. 

When the mixture was hot, I poured it into a nice serving dish and sprinkled it with the sesame seeds. 

This dish is a nice complement to yogurt-and-curry-powder dishes, which includes several different potato curries. 

We make our own peach chutney, and fruity chutney (from whatever source) is terrific with yogurt-y curries and this eggplant dish. 

 

Odds and Ends

Still no rain in Iowa City. I let the sprinkler run in the front yard for several hours before we left. I was watering in the pansies, the ornamental kale and the newly planted fall crocuses.

Here is the neighborhood creek.

As part of the plant migration the little airplant globe is back over the kitchen sink. I like it there. It sort of belongs. If you live in Iowa plants have to come inside. That is just the way it is.

It is almost 6am, Saturday morning. I do not think there was a frost in Iowa. I am the only one up. It is dark out. I just heard the patter of tiny feet. Later today we will go to the Portland farmer's market. Then Christopher has a soccer event. 

We are somewhere different.

Be careful out there in the world. Sometimes you have to be brave. Think of the school girls who leave their school to march without their veils towards the thugs that are down the street. 

Think of voting in a month. 

Think of doing what you can to make things better.

Dawn is coming.

Philip