paletteable

Remember a few months back, the saga of Wingie? Well, see Spotty? She is one of Wingie's chicks (sired by Blackie), all grown up. She lays a beautiful brown egg, every day. Spotty lives with Red in a little compound of their own. They share the digs with George, aka Garden Roo. Their "compound" started when Red and another young hen, Blue, were injured. I took them out of the main flock so they could heal without being pestered by the roosters, and made a run for them in one of the big gardens. We built a little coop right in the middle. Wingie and the chicks later moved into the compound. Now, "the compound" is down to the two hens and their rooster buddy. They are separated from the rest of the RI Red flock by chicken fence...so they see each other, but they don't compete for food...or anything else.

Look at how the plant has matured. The blossoms (and their calyces)started along the main center stems. Now, every stem, branch, and branchlet is loaded. I picked one of those lovely red things the other day, trying to gauge seedpod maturity. After 3 days, the pod had dried and popped open, and I shook 30 perfectly beautiful black seeds out. So...I could start harvesting anytime I want.

My first purpose in growing this plant was to grow a gorgeous plant. Second purpose was to grow a useful plant...thinking JELLY!!! But, then, I found out all of the other uses roselle has. Well, I grew several of these gorgeous plants. Now, I'm up for making jelly...but my old Florida recipe calls for orange pectin. So, I am on a mission to find some organically grown oranges. Orange pectin is made from dried pith.

There's a farmers market this afternoon. I'm gonna be asking around. Please let me know if you know of anyone with unsprayed orange trees.

Roselle - "Florida Cranberry"

This picture was taken exactly one month ago. I can’t seem to get myself in synch. Here you can see the hibiscus-like flowers and little buds rising from the stem. Wait’ll you see how the plant looks now!

This plant is, officially, my favorite plant. Here are things you can do with this plant: 1) eat the leaves – in France, this plant is called sorrel; in fact, the leaves taste just like sorrel, 2) make tea with the calyces – just like rose hip tea, 3) make jelly with the calyces – yum yum, 4) make a jellied “sauce” like cranberry sauce with the calyces, 5) make dye with the spent flowers, 6) make fiber – yes roselle is a bast plant! Quite a lot of bang for the ol’ buck, yes?



Kurogoma - "Black Sesame"

Back in August, TT gave me some seeds at the downtown farmers market. They were black sesame seeds. Of course, we couldn’t wait. Planted 6 of them. The all germinated. A month ago, this is how Miss Sesame looked. Great little flowers! Now…well. The seedpods are – well…I have to take more pictures tomorrow.

Right now, though, we're off to the 4th farmers market of the week...our very own! in beautiful downtown Trenton. Later on, we will be playing for dancers at the Kickin' Devil Cafe in Gainesville. Show starts at 7. Here's a pic from last month...

[Heads up...Cross Post: This was posted on dancingwoolymasters.wordpress.com]

This is a colander full of beautyberries. Pretty intense color. I’ve been cutting them and making wild bouquets with goldenrod. For years. Well, this year, I heard tell of a jelly made from beautyberry. Lenore, daring wench that she is, went first. She found “the mother lode” on her 10 acres. She was so daring she even added wine. Well. I tasted her jelly. I tasted the berries. I knew I had to make some.

Lenore the Enabler showed up at the farmers market with a big fat bag of berries. Almost enough for the “recipe.” On one of Smitty’s morning sojourns, I picked enough to make enough jelly for the Western World. I didn’t add wine. Just berries, pectin, and sugar.



Here you go. Five half-pints of jelly. Scarlet jelly. Now, how did that happen? The violet berries produced an amber colored juice. When the pectin hit...instant color change! I'd never used pectin before, so I didn't know what to expect. The jelly set right up...ka-boom! Heck in a handbasket, it's just like store-bought. Except it tastes herbal, wild, and like nothing that Publix would ever carry. Yum.

Thanks Lenore!

Oh...and the recipe...should anyone out there care to dare:

1 1/2 qts beautyberries
2 qts water
1 pkt pectin
4 1/2 c sugar

Start a boiling water canner rolling. Prepare 5 1/2 pt jars, lids, and bands.

Rinse and pick over berries. Ditch the stems. Cover the berries with the water. Bring to a boil...let boil for 20 minutes. Mash the berries a bit. Strain.

Use 3 c of the berry juice. (You'll have another 3 c left to refrigerate to make more at a later date.) Bring the juice to a boil. Whisk in an envelope of pectin. (I used Ball brand.) As it boils, whisk in the sugar (all at once) and bring a 2nd boil. Let it boil hard for a minute.

Remove from heat. Skim off the "stuff" on top. Pour into sterilized 1/2 pt jars with 1/4" headspace. Process for 10 minutes.

Holly Hogan is a funny one. I came out to feed the chickens, and there she was, head between two poles, looking at me. I fed the chickens, walked around, talked to her. And there she stood, with her head between two poles, looking at me. I went in the house, got the camera, and there she was. Yes. I really think she thought she was hiding, and being a Peeping Holly.



After about 10 minutes, Sally decided to walk through the frame.



Right on by. You think?



Ahem. No. Here we go. Sally is trying to knock down the telephone pole - so Holly can't hide any more. Didn't work. Good try, though.

Three sisters garden, late August...corn is spent, Seminole punkins have crawled out of the garden and are running through the lawn, blooming, and setting fruit. Sky is loaded with color and that strange dark light that comes right after a rain when the sun peeks through.



Along the fence, behind the 3 sisters, grapes ramble. This is a vine of muscadines, the type of grape that grows here. Not many grapes left on this young vine. This picture is for my northern gang who thinks of bunches of blue concords when I say "The grapes are coming in."



The reason for the camera in my basket was this stand of black crowder peas. They've gone all gorgeous on me. They are late season, 100 day black peas. When they're boiled, the water turns - well, black. Not for those folks who want clear pea water. But, a great treat for black bean lovers. Negros y moros made with these peas is a perfect quick treat. And the vines! Look at these vines!

Well, when I was studying these peas, I heard crashing behind me. And then I saw the plants along the fence line moving and shaking. More crashing noises. I was fairly trapped against a pretty tall fence, and all I could think of was "snake."



Not a snake - but a turtle in the peas. She's a biggie, she is. In beautiful shape, too. Kept trying to crawl through the field fence, and failing. Made her way the entire length of the field, until she banged up against the chicken fence in the pea patch. I put her in my basket and dropped her over the fence, into the next field, where she'll have fewer gardeners to worry about, and more bunnies, turtles, and birds to hang with.

Here's a summer basket. Eggs from the RI Red hens, a handful of muscadines, and the first pickings of Floriani flint corn.

The hens have been laying eggs long enough to be pros. But, the muscadines are just coming in...our bronze grapes produced many many sweet juicy fruits, and the purple grapes bore only a few. Oh, wait! There's more...

Look at that corn. That is a red flint corn - a grinding corn. This variety is a native American corn that was carted to Italy many moons ago. In it's Italian tenure, this humble corn became the famous pink polenta corn of the Valsugana Valley. Recently, Floriani was brought back to the States, and we've turned our corn fields over from last year's Hickory King dent corn to this beautiful red stuff.



This is what Floriani looks like ground into meal. It's a beautiful red flecked warm yellow corn meal. These ears are still drying, but they ground easily, and almost completely. Still, there was a little bit of tough stuff left for the hens.



And here is our first pan of Floriani corn bread: it's very yellow, very corny, with a nice crumb. This wasn't a high rising bread. My guess is that the moist meal made a heavier than normal batter. What a flavor, though! Where the Hickory King has an almost peanut-buttery flavor, the Floriani is the corniest corn around. Delicious and beautiful.

This variety grew very well here, outperforming projected growth rates. Supposedly a medium sized corn, our plants grew to 10 feet tall and better. We are seeing one ear per stalk for the most part, with some carrying two ears. Pollenation was easily achieved with Tom's "3-sisters" planting. Even with staggered planting (we have some rows just tasselling this week) production has been consistently high. We're leaning towards choosing Floriani for next year's corn.

This is our famous Riesentraube, the cherry tomato with the biggest cluster of blossoms I've ever seen. "Up to 350 flowers," says the seedman. Looks like more than that to me. These tomatoes seem to be resistant to the bad things that come along in midsummer in the Florida garden. I will knot speak their names.

Our early tomatoes are spent...Brandywine, Eva, and Roma, so the Riesentraubes, sturdy German heirlooms, rule the next few weeks. Tom's been transplanting flats of Evas to be ready for the garden at the end of the month, but, they'll be moving into a different plot. Framed by Genovese and Purple Ruffles basil and old fashioned vining petunias, Riesentraube, the "giant bunch of grapes," is the darling of the midsummer garden - and the farmers markets.

The wild red bird moved stealthily through the stand of dog fennel. He paused to admire his reflection in the blossom of a red cosmos. He pecked at a young green Seminole punkin. He hunkered down and waited. When the food bringer lady bent down to pull an overgrown pusley from the base of a basil plant, his eyes twinkled. He took a deep breath, threw his head back, and let loose a trumpeting crow that sent the food bringer lady flying back onto her butt. She nearly crushed a Roselle - that old Florida cranberry - but managed to land on soft sand between the rows, instead.

Later that week, as she decided which red boys to send to heaven (also known as the big cold white box in the spare room) she thought of the Garden Roo. Nope. A big red bird with a sense of humor was more than welcome in her garden.

We grow cotton. Not a lot. But we do grow some cotton. This year, I've planted 2nd generation long staple green cotton.

When we had our nursery field inspection, dum da dum dum...we were told to apply for a permit. I did. We are now legal. But part of the deal is regular monitoring by the Div of Plant Industry...for boll weevils.

So, in this picture, you can see my beautiful, healthy, joyously abundant cotton plants, some crazy red cosmos, lots of our own wild marigold, and a lime green plastic baited weevil trap - the perfect tacky summer accessory.

So far...no weevils, and the bolls are multitudinous. Last year, we had no pesky weevils. We're keeping our fingers crossed.