November 22, 2016, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter

 © Kim Willis - no parts of this newsletter may be used without permission.

Hi Gardeners

Turkey Time

Winter appears to be here, brrr.   I still see green grass here and there but no more flowers are blooming outside.  We had temps in the 20’s at night and about an inch of snow over the last few days.  A small warm up is coming but garden season is over here.  I still have a few lawn chairs to put away but basically I am ready for winter.

My garden focus has turned to inside gardening.  I am working to control an aphid outbreak that is affecting my hibiscus primarily.  They are still blooming however.  I am amazed that the two canna plants I brought inside to the porch are still nice looking and even growing.  The tuberous begonias are dying back however, soon they’ll be just corms in a pot and dormant.  One coleus I brought inside is doing great; the other was dying so I cut off the tips to start cuttings and discarded the plant.  I am also rooting cuttings from a cane begonia that isn’t doing well inside.

I am seeing all these beautiful pictures of Thanksgiving cacti in bloom.  My Christmas cacti are setting buds but it will be Christmas or later before they bloom.  I may have messed up their bloom cycle by adding more artificial lights this year for the other plants.  My husband has been good natured about all the lights I have going but complained to me this week that the lights in one window in the living room were coming on at 4:30 am.  I have them on timers and sure enough I checked and it had been bumped and was coming on very early.  I am wondering if the aphid problem has something to do with the light cycle being messed up. (See the article on do plants need sleep? below.)

I am getting garden catalogs for the 2017 season already.  Such temptations.  But I do love to read the catalogs, and see what’s new. I will also be revising and adding to the list of links to plant catalogs and on line garden stores. (Page on right side of blog.)  If you have the name of a great garden store/nursery please send it to me so I can include that information.

My hose to the barn is frozen, at least in the morning and I have to carry buckets of water to the barn, which I hate.  In afternoons where it gets above freezing I go out and fill a couple 5 gallon buckets out there.  I have the hose suspended on fence posts so it warms up in the sun.  I am culling the older hens and some ducks tomorrow so there is less to feed and water.  People are coming to get the birds, I spent part of today out in the cold chasing the ducks around, trying to get them penned up.  I succeeded but next year the ducks are being sold when they are still little ducklings.

We didn’t raise turkeys this year for Thanksgiving but I still have a pair of pet turkeys.  It’s too late for you to raise turkeys this year but if you are interested in how to do it I have an article on the right side of this blog on the page titled “chickens, ducks, turkeys”.  

There are a few small changes to the formatting of the blog I’d like to mention.  Garden events for Michigan will no longer be posted here but you can find them on the Lapeer Gardening Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/118847598146598/

There will also be links there for various greenhouses and nature centers which hold classes in Michigan.  It will be a pinned post at the top of the Facebook page. Garden events that are national or international in scope will still be listed.

Take a moment to check out the pages listed to the right of this blog post.  There are articles from older posts and from other places that I have written for posted there in alphabetical order that will make it easier to find older articles if you want to read them again.  Just click on the title.  I am still adding titles as I have time so keep checking for more good reading.

Feeding the birds

I feed the birds all year but for some people late fall is the time to start feeding the birds.  I am seeing some of the winter birds at my feeder now, junco’s, tree sparrows, and rose breasted grosbeaks.  I feed two main things, small oil type sunflower seeds and suet cakes.  I used to also feed thistle (nyger) seed, but the price of it has become too much for me- and I find most birds are just as happy with sunflower seed.  The goldfinches, which turn dull but do stay for winter, love sunflower as well as thistle seed.

I have inside birds and I save the seed I empty from their dishes and share this waste with my chickens.  There is lots of good seed that the spoiled indoor birds leave in that waste that chickens love.  This year I have set up a tray feeder where I can share some of this finer seed with the wild birds.

Mixed bird seed can be quite cheap but a lot of what goes in cheap mixes is not really liked by birds and they push a lot of it out of the feeder onto the ground for the mice and rabbits. Squirrels also empty feeders out looking for the sunflowers in the mix. Wild bird feeds containing cracked corn, milo, wheat, buckwheat and some other grains are cheap but not really a great attractor for wild birds, except maybe pigeons and house sparrows. 

Feeds with corn in them also attract deer to your feeder at night.  You do not want deer, mice and rabbits attracted to your yard if you are a gardener. I suggest avoiding wild bird feeds with these grains in them.  A mix with some millet and hulled oats, but a large percentage of safflower and sunflower is ok, but plain oil sunflowers, the small black ones, will attract just as many birds.  Yes, mice like these seeds but there is less wasted on the ground for them to find.  I have little trouble with squirrels eating them, but chipmunks have been a problem from time to time.

Some mixes also advertise that they have dried fruit or vegetables in them but these attract people more than birds.  They are expensive and they tend to get moldy more frequently than plain seed.  There is really no advantage to buying and feeding them. 

Peanuts and peanut pieces are liked by some birds but attract squirrels and they mold quickly in wet weather and moldy peanuts can be deadly. I would put them out separately from other seed and in small quantities.

Suet cakes will attract the woodpeckers, nuthatches and a few other birds.  Starlings also like suet but if the suet is in a cage suspended by a chain they have a harder time eating it.  If the suet isn’t in a suspended cage raccoons may steal the whole cake.

Save yourself some money and attract just as many birds with less waste by feeding just oil type sunflower seed and suet. 

The science of watering houseplants

Northern winters just cry out for homes and offices to be filled with the restful, cheerful green of houseplants.  But some people just can’t seem to keep houseplants thriving in the home or office and a great deal of the problems can be traced to improper watering. Learning to water your houseplants correctly can turn brown thumbs into green ones.

First- don’t water on a schedule.  Don’t say that every Wednesday you will water the plants.  You might schedule a day to check the plants to see if they need water but don’t just automatically go around and water each pot.  Some plants won’t need water on the same day each week, and some may need it more often to remain healthy.

Plants may need less water in the winter when temperatures are cooler, the light is less and plants slow down their growth.  When warm weather arrives and the light is strong and growth vigorous they will need additional water.   Plants in plastic or metal pots usually need less water than those in porous clay or ceramic pots.

Symptoms of watering problems

The symptoms of over watering and under watering are often the same – wilting.  Wilting can happen because the soil is dry and the top parts of the plant don’t get enough water.  Or it can mean that the soil in the pot is saturated with water, the plants roots have rotted, and the top of the plant isn’t getting any water through those rotted roots. Feel the soil to see if it feels dry.  Don’t just touch the top- push your finger in the soil about an inch- or more for deep pots.

When a plant looks wilted you should immediately feel the planting soil to see if it feels dry.  Don’t let the plant wilt on a regular basis just so you know when it needs water.  Some plants recover pretty well each time but it takes its toll on the plants health and disease and insect resistance will be reduced.  If you touch the soil and it feels very wet, then the pot needs draining and drying, not more water, even if the plant is wilted.

Signs that the plant is suffering from dry soil other than wilting include yellowing and dropping leaves, dry leaf tips and poor flowering. On the other hand if you notice a swampy smell from your flower pots you are probably keeping them too wet. Yellowing and dying leaves can also be a sign of too much water.

If you don’t trust your sense of touch to let you know if a plant needs water, there are many inexpensive tools on the market that will tell you if the soil is too dry.  And remember that each species of plant has a different requirement for water.  Some like to dry out between watering or even prefer to remain on the dry side. 

The type of water

If a plant needs water use room temperature water.  Rain water and distilled water are best for house plants but city water, well water, or plain bottled water can be used. Both softened city water and most well water have “salts” in them that can build up in the planting soil.  (More about that in a minute.)

It used to be true that letting chlorinated city water sit for 24 hours would let the chlorine dissipate into the air. Now many cities use a type of chlorine that does not do that. Some plants are sensitive to chemicals like fluoride which are added to city water supplies.   You can install filters to remove chlorine and fluoride on a tap or buy bottled water for your plants.  Most houseplants will do alright with the treated water if you leach the pots occasionally. 

Recent studies have shown that for some reason, several popular brands of bottled drinking water are very acidic.  For some plants this could be a problem.  You may want to buy some simple pH test strips to test the bottled water you want to use.  A pH value of 7 is neutral and good for most plants.  Below a value of 7 the water is acidic and above it alkaline.  Some plants like acidic conditions and for them a pH value of 5.5 to 7 would be ok.  For most plants a pH of 6.5 would be ok but avoid lower values.  Water would be too alkaline for some plants at a value of 8 or higher.

Pots are important

The type of pot that you use for houseplants is crucial to their health.  It must have good drainage.  Do not use a pot without drainage holes even if you add gravel or broken pot pieces to the bottom.  After a while soil washes between the pieces and the small reservoir you created is lost.  If you have a pretty pot without drain holes that you want to use, find a slightly smaller pot with good drainage that will fit inside the pretty pot. Then put your plant into the smaller pot. 

It’s good to put some small things like small rocks, bottle caps, even rubber washers on the inside of the outer pots bottom so the inner pots bottom does not fit too snuggly.  You’ll need to be able to pull up the inner pot so you can empty water from the outer pot if needed. A pot that sits tightly may not drain well also.

Pots should neither be too small or large for the plant.  Large pots are hard to water correctly, the water moves down out of the reach of the plants roots or the top layer remains dry and the bottom is saturated and damaging plant roots. Don’t put small plants in huge pots, thinking they will eventually grow into them. Pots that are too small and are filled with roots will need watering much more often than people realize and it may be impossible to keep them watered as often as they need it.  These plants will need to be re-potted.

Clay pots dry out faster than plastic or metal pots.  For some plants that can be a good thing. Check plants in clay pots more frequently to see if they need water.

Self-watering pots have become popular for houseplants but they don’t always work well.  You do have to remember to fill the water reservoir and this often gets forgotten because people aren’t in the habit of checking the plants as they are when they hand water them.  I think these pots should only be used if you regularly have to be gone for long periods and no one can water the plants. And they still have limitations, for many plants even a month would be too long for the plant to remain watered. They are also not good for plants that need to dry out between watering.

Plants that need to dry out between watering, especially in winter, include geraniums, succulents, cacti, sansevieria, lithops, peperomia, poinsettia, pomegranate, euphorbia, crassula, kalanchoe,and potted roses.  These may require and tolerate more water in summer. Don’t let them wilt or shrivel, that’s too dry.

Some plants require moist soil at all times.  Boston ferns are one example. Dracaena, Erica, most ferns, gardenia, gloxinia, jasmines, philodendron, plectranthus, selaginella, solanum, and peace lily are others.  Remember moist doesn’t mean water logged.  The pots must drain well.

Most houseplants fall somewhere in between.  The top of the soil can dry a bit but the whole pot shouldn’t dry out. When flowering or in warm dry conditions plants require more water.  In cool damp conditions, or when dormant or partially dormant plants require less water. Plants near a heating vent in winter will dry out very quickly and should be checked often. Your eyes and a finger should be the judge of when plants need water.

Crassula

Applying the water

When a plant is allowed to get very dry, the planting medium may shrink away from the sides of the pot.  This creates a small gap between the soil and the pot and when you water the water goes right through the gap without soaking the soil.  If you notice water pouring out the drainage holes as soon as you pour water on the plant that is usually what is happening.  To fix this place the pot in a larger container of water and let it soak or put it in the tub and let water drip on it for a couple of hours.  The soil should saturate and expand.  Make sure the pot drains well after a couple of hours.  Then try not to let the pot get that dry again.

Sometimes a crust forms on top of the potting medium and water doesn’t sink in well. Use something like a fork to break up the crust.  You may want to re-pot the plant with a better potting soil.

When watering the plant from above don’t just pour it on top of leaves.  Some plants have leaves that will deflect the water away from the planting medium – right on to your floor.  Part the leaves and try to get your water on the surface of the planting medium. Some plants do not like water in the center of foliage clumps and it will cause rotting.  The sansevierias are in this group, especially the “birds nest” types.

Some plants have leaves that will spot if you get water on them.  These are generally plants with fuzzy or hairy leaves, such as African Violets.  This doesn’t kill the plant as some believe, but it can make them less attractive. Water these plants carefully at the soil surface or put water in a saucer, set the pot in it and let the plant absorb it.  Remove the pot after an hour or two and dump the saucer. 

Some specialized plants such as some bromeliads need to be watered by pouring water into the cup or vase like depressions formed by leaves in the center of the plant.  Air plants like tilliandsias are not planted in potting medium and they need to be briefly dipped in water or heavily misted instead of watered.

Reducing salt build up

Both hard and soft water have chemical salts that get into the potting soil when we water plants.  Fertilizers also contain chemical salts.  Outdoors excess salts usually move through the soil and out of the range of plant roots, but in a pot they have nowhere to go.  They end up burning the plants roots and stunting its growth or even killing it.  Often a whitish-yellow crusty build up on top of the soil or even on the outside of the pot will be noticed.

Signs of excess salt damage include stunted growth, sometimes reddish or yellow discoloration of foliage, dry, browned leaf tips and loss of lower leaves and wilting from burned root tips. 

To keep salts from building up use distilled water or rainwater to water plants if possible.  If not water the plants and then empty the saucers that collect the excess water after an hour or so.  Salt that is washed through the pot when you water won’t then be absorbed back into the pot as the soil dries out again.  This is usually not enough to totally stop salt build up, especially if you regularly fertilize your houseplants. 

Every few months pots watered with soft city water or hard well water should be leached.  The pot needs to be placed in tub or sink with drainage and flooded with water continuously for a couple hours.  Let the water run slowly through the pot so soil doesn’t get washed away too. In some cases of heavy salt build up it may be better to repot the plant with fresh potting soil.  In the case of very large pots you may want to do this when you move the plants outside in the spring, if you don’t leave them outside  at least it makes the job easier.

Specialize

In cases where more than one person is interested in the indoor plants it is a good idea to agree to let one person be responsible for watering plants in the home or office.  At the least everyone should care only for the plants in their personal space and one person waters the plants in common spaces.  Too many people watering isn’t always great for the plants and one regular caretaker gets a better feel for when a plant needs water.

Properly watering your houseplants along with choosing the right plants for the conditions will result in beautiful lush plants you will be proud to display.

Do plants need sleep?

We all know that if animals don’t sleep for long periods of time they become disorientated, hallucinate and then die.  Different animals have different needs for sleep but all animals need to sleep to be healthy. While we sleep our bodies do different things than when we are awake. We seem to be resting but actually there are a lot of crucial processes going on.  So what about the plant kingdom?  Do plants sleep?  How much “nighttime” do plants need?

Well plants don’t sleep in the sense that animals do but in darkness they do enter a period of different cellular activity than when they are in light.  As we know when plants are exposed to light they photosynthesize, that is they create simple sugars from sunlight, water, and CO2. This process happens in little green “factories” (called chloroplasts) in some surface plant cells.  In the process of creating food for the entire planet oxygen is released as a by–product, which is quite lucky for us.

At night the process of photosynthesis ends and the plants go through the process of respiration. (All living things and all living cells must go through this process.)  In plant respiration the simple sugars made by photosynthesis are broken down to repair and grow plant cells and tissues and to create reproductive parts like flowers and seeds.  A by-product of this process is CO2.  So you would think that a period of darkness – let’s call it sleep- would be crucial to plants. And in general it is.

Evening primrose in the evening.

However respiration can and does occur in light too, especially if there is no period of darkness. But respiration in most plants is most efficient when photosynthesis has ended for the day. This is the time when the plant can put energy into growing new tissues, repairing cell damage, and eliminating waste products.  

Plant families vary widely in how much darkness they need to be healthy. Some plants grow naturally in areas where there is little light, some grow where there is little dark time and others grow in areas with various degrees of light and darkness which change through the year. So if we want to have healthy plants we need to understand their requirements for dark periods or rest (or sleep).

In plants that are cultivated for food, or medicine we often know a lot about their needs for darkness.  We know how to manipulate the length of darkness so we can get them to flower and fruit when we need them. We also know a lot about certain ornamental plants like mums, poinsettias and Christmas cacti.  But in other plants we need to look at the dark-light cycles in their native environment to get an idea of what they need.

Plants have photoreceptor proteins in some cells that prompt the plant to begin or end certain plant processes depending on how much light the photoreceptors receive.  In long day plants a lengthening of daylight or days longer than 12 hours tell the plant that they should complete the reproductive process, make flowers and grow fruit and seeds or produce things like bulbs.  Short day plants work on the opposite time table, they need longer nights to start producing flowers and fruit.  Shorter daylight periods also tells some plants that winter dormancy is near and that they need to get rid of leaves, and store food in the root systems.  Day neutral plants don’t need a difference between the hours of dark and light to produce flowers and fruit.  But they may still need some darkness to remain healthy.

Plant producers have learned how to manipulate dark and light periods to get garden plants in bloom for when consumers want them.  Poinsettias at Christmas, mums for the florist trade at all times of the year, perennial plants that normally bloom in late summer in bloom for spring sales at nurseries are examples.

Most plants will be healthier and will flower and fruit for us much better if we give them the period of darkness that species prefers.  Some species need that “sleep” period much more than others and will not function well for long without it. The tomato and its relatives are an example of a plant that really prefers a set period of darkness, and if not given it, will soon decline and die. Tomatoes decline rapidly if there is less than 6 hours of darkness in a 24 hour period.  When they are seedlings this is not as important, but as the plants near maturity they will not be able to set flowers and fruit and keep up with replacing leaves and other tissues without a night rest and will eventually die from stress.

Lettuce however is often grown in continuous light.  We don’t want it to flower anyway, unless we are growing it for seeds.  Marihuana growers often use continuous light to get stocky, bushy plants.  Vegetative growth can actually be speeded up by continuous light and in plants that we are going to harvest before they age very much some respond quite well ( at least for our purposes) to continuous light.  But when we want plants to last for several years or produce flowers and fruit we need to give them some dark time in a 24 hour period.

Some tropical houseplants that are mostly grown for foliage seem to survive very well for years in continuous light such as in 24 hour office environments. But when growing plants in the home it’s probably better to make sure they get at least 6 hours of darkness.  If they are flowering plants you need to do some research to see if they need increasing or decreasing light/dark periods to flower. Some will also need a certain number of daylight hours to flower whether or not there is a slow increase or decrease in the light or dark periods.  Most day neutral flowering plants actually prefer a 12-16 hour light period and a 12-8 hour dark period.

If plants need bright light conditions that you are unable to provide inside longer hours of lower light may compensate in some species.  Seedlings can be grown under continuous light to get them growing more rapidly without harm. Once they well established though, regular periods of darkness should begin.  Night lights and other dim lights in homes only rarely affect a plant.

Outside plants can suffer “sleep deprivation” too, thanks to our habit of lighting up the night with powerful halogen or sodium lights.  Studies have found that trees under high intensity street/yard lamps lose their leaves more slowly in fall than trees which have darker nights.  This signifies they are delaying “hardening off” or preparing for winter, because they have not received the proper decrease in daylight that signals dormancy.  It can result in increased winter damage to the trees and cause some stress on the trees. Stressed trees are more likely to suffer from drought, disease and insects.

Sweet autumn clematis at night

In your garden these powerful lights can cause delayed or absent bloom in plants like mums or cause plants to bloom early and lose the blooms to freezing. It can effect hardening off and make plants less likely to survive winter.  Smaller, dimmer lights like solar lights along paths seem to have much less effect.  But gardeners should avoid planting perennials under high intensity lights. Annuals may do alright depending on the species.  A compromise for safety would be to have lights that come on when motion is detected or that are on timers so some darkness can be preserved.

So the short answer to do plants need sleep? Plants don’t sleep in the way animals do but they do, in most cases, need a period of darkness to optimize some plant functions for plant health.  Plant species vary in their need for darkness but to keep your plants healthy in the long term it’s best to give them some period of darkness.

Sage, a wise plant for gardeners

Its Thanksgiving time and one of the flavors I associate with Thanksgiving dinner is sage.  A turkey seasoned with sage and stuffed with sage dressing was part of the holiday traditions of my youth.  I still use sage when cooking turkey, usually basting it with melted butter with dried sage blended in.  I find sage also goes well with pork dishes. 

Sage is one of the most ancient medicinal and culinary herbs known, sacred to the Romans, and revered by the Chinese. Sage was said to cure almost anything that ailed you, improve your brain function and bring you immortality. A wise person is often called a sage.  You can grow this miracle herb in your garden so that you are never without it.

Sage has silver-green, oval shaped leaves with a rough texture and square stems. There are some varieties of culinary sage that have purple or golden leaves or variegated leaves.  When crushed the smell of sage is distinctive. Sage is a short lived perennial in most areas, becoming a semi-woody plant about 3 feet high.  

There are many plants in the salvia family to which culinary sage belongs, but the plant gardeners want for cooking and most medicinal uses is Salvia officinallis.  ‘Bergarten’, ‘Holt’s Mammoth’, ‘Extrakta’ and ‘White Dalmation’ are all good culinary sages of this species. 

Tri-color sage has variegated leaves of purple, pink and white.  Purple sage has purplish- green leaves. These two are hardy to zone 6.  There is a Gold sage whose leaves are solid gold and a Golden sage, whose leaves have gold edges.  The gold sages are not hardy below zone 7 but may be over wintered in a cool, sunny room.  The colored sages don’t have flavor as strong as the silver-green sages, but can be used in cooking. 

Sage flowering

Be careful that when purchasing sage you intend to use for cooking that you are not getting a purely ornamental variety, such as Pineapple sage or Honey Melon sage.  These are grown for their flowers and scented leaves but have little medicinal or cooking value. 

Growing sage

You can start sage from seeds; sow the seed about 8 weeks before your last frost indoors in flats or pots.  Transplant outside after danger of frost and space about 18 inches apart.

If you are looking for sages with colored or variegated leaves you will probably have to buy plants.  Sage will also start from tip cuttings. 

In northern gardens culinary sage may bloom in late spring and again when we have long, warm falls.  When it blooms you may see pinkish- purple blooms on long spikes.  Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds love the flowers of sage.  Cut the flowers off as they fade so the plant does not put energy into producing seeds. 

Sage needs full sun and well-drained soil to do well.  Most culinary varieties are hardy to zone 5, but check hardiness before purchasing.  In zone 5, some winter protection is advised, especially if the sage plant is in an exposed area.  In the spring, trim off any winter killed branches and lightly fertilize.  After 4 or 5 years you will probably need to replace your sage plant.

Culinary and medicinal uses of sage

Dried sage is often used as a rub for meats.  In earlier days this helped preserve the meat as well as flavor it.   Sage leaves can be fried in butter and used as a sauce for gnocchi or pasta.  Sage is used as a seasoning in sausage and in stuffing mixes for poultry or pork. 

Although sage had a lot of medicinal uses in earlier times, it is seldom used in herbal medicine today.  Like many herbs, sage is high in antioxidants, flavonoids and other beneficial compounds.  Research has shown that sage is indeed helpful to the brain, improving memory in some studies.  Its anti-bacterial properties have led to research using sage to improve the shelf life of cooking oils.  Sage tea is sometimes used to treat colds and bronchial infections and to lower fevers.  Sage tea is also used as a gargle for sore throat and to ease indigestion.

A sage tea that is cooled is used as a rinse for gray hair, darkening it while conditioning it.  Sage is also used to scent soap and perfumes.  Sage used to be a common ingredient in tooth powder, used to heal bleeding gums.  Sage is sometimes burned in religious ceremonies.

 

Harvesting and drying sage

Sage is a very strong herb and if you are not used to it, start with a small amount, especially when using dried sage. Harvest sage leaves at any time until about six weeks before you expect a hard freeze.   This will give the plant time to harden off any shoots it produced in response to your last harvest.

You can harvest fresh young leaves or small sprigs of sage to lay on meats such as chicken, veal and pork while it cooks.  Fresh sage has a slightly different taste than dried sage, lighter, with a lemony zing. Sage loses the citrus undertone when dried and other flavors in it become more prominent. 

You can dry sage by harvesting fresh stems with leaves and hanging them in a warm, dark place, or in a dehydrator, microwave or oven.  Make sure the sage is completely dried, it may take longer than thin leaved herbs, before storing, or it may mold and taste musty.  Store completely dried leaves in a clean glass container in a cool place.  Sage leaves can also be frozen in water and will taste more like fresh sage when used than dried sage.

Easy pumpkin bread

Here’s a nice quick bread recipe for a cold winter day.  Warm the house as well as your belly when you make it.  You only need a small amount of canned or cooked pumpkin for this recipe so if you have to open a jar or can for it, freeze the rest of the pumpkin for another use.

This recipe makes one loaf or a 9 x9 inch pan.

You’ll need:

2 cups self-rising flour, (not all purpose flour)

1 cup of heavy cream (don’t sub milk, the fat is needed)

½ cup sugar

¾ cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 egg lightly beaten

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Mix the flour, sugar and spice together in a large bowl.

Add the egg, pumpkin and cream and stir until well blended.  It makes a thick batter.

Stir in nuts.

Pour into a greased pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted comes out clean.  Cool before slicing.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and finds something to be grateful for.

Kim Willis

 “He who has a garden and a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero

And So On….

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