Tuesday, November 26, 2019

November 26, 2019 trees and turkeys


This time of year, the weather can be very variable.  We have had mild weather in the 50’s the last few days and are supposed to get thunderstorms tonight. Then by the weekend we are back to snow.  Everyone who is going to be traveling this Thanksgiving holiday needs to keep a close eye of the weather forecast.

I went out walking yesterday with my dogs and the grass was so green it looked like spring. I saw dandelions in bloom and also found some snapdragons and pansies still blooming. I noticed the willows, the chestnut and some maples still had dead leaves clinging to them. Many people are talking about this, trees with dead leaves still clinging to them. The regular abscission process was cut short by the cold and snow we had earlier so that’s why some leaves are still clinging. They will drop soon and it’s not a problem for the tree.

In weather that smells and looks like spring my mind starts jumping ahead to that wonderful season. Seed and plant catalogs are filling my mailbox. I am already looking at pictures of my garden in July and August and trying to decide where I can put new plants in the spring. I hope you take pictures of your garden beds so you can enjoy them deep in winter.

I spend some dreary winter days sorting through my pictures, choosing the best and deleting the rest, so to speak. (It’s hard for me to delete.) I take a lot of plant pictures, sometimes I look at a picture I took this year of a beautiful lily in sunlight for example, and then find out I took the almost exact same picture the year before. Even then I spend many minutes deciding which picture to keep.

Some day after I am gone someone will look at all the pictures I took of flowers and wonder why I did it. I hope someone will appreciate them as much as I do. In previous times it was harder and much more expensive to take a lot of pictures. You had to think about whether a shot you wanted to take was worth wasting film on and you only had so many pictures on each roll of film.  Now you just click and shoot, sometimes taking many, many shots of the same thing, hoping to get that perfect angle.  You simply delete the ones you don’t want to keep. Well you should delete some of the shots anyway.  I always wonder if I am keeping the best one, second guessing my own judgement so I keep 2 or 3.  I just checked, and I have over 13,000 picture files in 98 folders. I need to really start deleting.

Don’t get me wrong, I have pictures of family and pets, but a lot of my pictures are of plants and gardens. I think of someone looking at my pictures after I’m gone and saying, “why would anyone want 30 pictures of the same tulips”?  Or “why was she taking pictures of spotted tomatoes and dead grass?” (I take pictures of plant problems for writing purposes). And undoubtedly they will delete most of them. But for now, I take pleasure in sitting and looking at moments of time captured.

I have boxes of slides my father and uncle took and boxes of pictures I took before the digital age. Many of those I have scanned into digital files to preserve them but even so, they had deteriorated over time in storage and aren’t as clear and colorful as they once were.  I hope the digital files I make now and I that I made of their pictures last longer in better condition than slides and paper photos. I put the files I make on flash drives and in cloud storage so maybe they’ll outlast me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Christmas tree shortage and how to get an inexpensive tree

Because of weather in previous years, the 2012 drought for example, and weather this year, your choice of a live Christmas tree could be curtailed this year. Some Christmas tree farmers are also turning to easier, faster maturing crops like hemp. Across the nation a shortage of Christmas trees, especially larger ones, is predicted.

Most Christmas trees for retail sale have already been harvested, so as soon as you see them at lots and stores in your area you may want to buy one.  You can expect that prices will be higher than last year. You can wait until prices go down just before Christmas but this year you may be left with a very poor selection of small trees if you delay purchase. If you like cutting down your own tree you may want to do that early this year too.

If you don’t want to set up the tree yet- and really, you shouldn’t, you can store it outside in a cool area.  If it’s above freezing, you may want to store it with the trunk in a bucket of water.  Make a fresh cut across the stump about 2 inches wide before putting it in the bucket.  Keep the bucket filled.

Store Christmas trees where dogs and cats can’t pee on them and deer can’t munch on them.  Deer usually avoid spruce, but may eat pines and firs. It’s best not to bring trees inside until 10 days before Christmas.

How to get a low-cost Christmas tree

If you live near a National Forest, you may be able to cut a Christmas tree down free or for a small fee for personal use.  You must visit the nearest National Forest Service office and get a permit and tree tag first. You will need a park passport to be in the park and those of course cost money, prices vary. If you already have a recreation passport you are all set. The park office will issue you maps to areas approved for cutting and give you additional guidelines or rules for that area.

Tip- if you have a fourth grade/ 10-year-old child they may be able to get a special park passport for free, that you can use to get into the national forest. Check with the park or a public school 4th grade teacher. Also, senior citizen (over 62) park passports are less expensive than others.

Tag prices and rules vary from park to park.  In the Huron-Manistee National forest near me tags cost $5 and each household may purchase up to three tags. You need a tag for each tree you remove. I have seen other National Forests charge different fees. You cannot sell any tree you cut from a National Forest. (By the way, most National Forests will also sell you permits to cut/gather firewood. These are separate from Christmas tree permits.)

You will be responsible for finding a tree in the cutting area and bringing supplies to cut the tree down and transport it to your car. Most parks require the trees be cut at least 200 feet from a road.  It can be hard work to get through deep snow and transport a tree back to your car.

Here’s a link to a map of National Forest Areas.  Click on the park nearest you and it will take you to a page where you can find out about tree permits for that park and where to go to get them. 


Those “Christmas” cacti

About this time of year stores everywhere will be putting out the Christmas plants and one of the first to appear is what we fondly call “Thanksgiving or Christmas” cacti.  There is so much confusing and even false information given out at this time of year about their care that I’d like to take a moment to share some information.

First, the leaf segments on these cacti don’t really determine when they will bloom, despite the charts people like to point to. The cacti commonly called Thanksgiving or Christmas cacti are easily manipulated to be in bloom when growers want them to be.  While there are two common species; Schlumbergera bridgesii, (or Schlumbergera russelliana), and Schlumbergera truncate, these species are often hybridized and will have blooming habits intermediate between the species.
 
Notice the smooth edges on the leaf segments? 
This one blooms around Thanksgiving and not later in the year, contrary to popular lore.
There are now dozens of Schlumbergera hybrid varieties on the market. Most often the cacti you buy in stores will not be labeled by species or even the variety name. You can buy them by the variety name in specialty nurseries and catalogs.

Even in your home under natural conditions these cacti may bloom at various times not necessarily coordinated with the shape of the leaf segments. While leaf segments with sharper points and jagged sides tend to bloom first, it’s not a hard and fast rule.  Growing conditions, cool nights and shortening daylight affect bloom time. Each home has different conditions, the same cacti in different homes will bloom at different times. These cacti should really be named Holiday cacti.

(Easter cacti, Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri, do bloom much later in spring and have much more rounded leaf segments but they also aren’t as common in the market as the other two species. Sometimes the other holiday cacti are manipulated so that they bloom at Easter also.)

Second, while they are in the cacti family these Schlumbergera cacti are not from a desert, they are from cool rainforests in Brazil. They should not be treated like other cacti. One of the biggest mistakes new gardeners make with these plants is to let them get too dry. They also need a decent amount of humidity to keep their buds.

For an article on caring for these forest cacti please go here;

I love the holiday cacti and I have several color varieties.  They are in bloom in my house from early November way into spring.  I strongly recommend them to new gardeners, but make sure you learn the right way to care for them.

This one blooms around Christmas and has pointed edges on leaf segments.

Light pollution and what you can do

I like to look at the radar pictures from GOES EAST, which shows the country in real time, and in real color.  (You can see it by going to the National Weather Service:

It’s fascinating to see the lights at night around areas of the country from space. Some areas, like along the east and west coast and around Chicago, are lit up brightly all night long. As darkness sweeps from east to west you can watch the lights come on across the country. Even in the dead of night the lights shine brightly in many places.

Science has confirmed that lighting at night disrupts the natural cycles of life in almost every species from man to maple trees. Every species, including plants, needs darkness in its life.  Every species has a preferred cycle of light and dark, a rhythm that sets the internal clock and regulates metabolism. 

Light pollution is contributing to the decline of many species. It can directly kill, like the insects killed when they are attracted to a light or birds and sea turtles lured off their migration tracks dying from exhaustion. Or it can indirectly kill, when hormones and life cycles are disrupted with night lighting. Even animals that are active at night prefer the night be dark and they need that distinction between day and night.

There are many things that we can’t do a lot about, but we can do our part to reduce light pollution. And when we cut down on lighting the night, we can also cut down on energy production, which is another way to help the planet. There are several things everyone can do.

First, we can reduce outdoor lighting to what is really needed. Instead of a porch light left on all night, use a motion detector to turn on lights when they are needed. Use shades on light bulbs to focus the light downward or directly on the spot it’s needed. The shape of a bare light bulb mimics the moon and stars and can be confusing for birds and insects. Light scattered to the sky is wasted.

Eliminate unnecessary lights. Using a high sodium vapor light on a pole to light up the yard all night isn’t a good use of light. Remote switches to turn on lights if needed are better than leaving lights on all night. Timers on lights could also be used. Reflectors at the edge of driveways may be better than lights.

Second, we need to rethink things like lighting statues and flags at night. Your garden fountain doesn’t need night lighting. We should stop lighting signs that aren’t vital and billboards.  Empty parking lots should not be lit up.  People relate light to safety, in some cases that’s true but in other cases it has dubious value. Wherever there is no great increase in safety we should eliminate lights at night.

The color and intensity of light can also make a difference to the preservation of species. Humans and many other species have their health affected by blue light on at night. Intense white light is also more harmful than other light. Green light has also been shown to be harmful to many species at night. Amber and red light seem to have the least effect on health for most species.  Bats will show few behavioral effects from red light on at night for example. 

If you must use outdoor lighting at night, use amber or yellow lights. Many cities are switching their white/blue tone streetlights to amber toned lights. Research has proven that white or blue light does not lead to better vision or safety than amber light. Many people already know that few insects are attracted to yellow light at night.

Use the lowest intensity of light that is effective. A small dim light can be quite effective in many situations. Less is better when it comes to light at night.

While Christmas lights are pretty, our use of them is wasteful and harmful to the environment, plants and animals.  I can hear people howling about this, but it may be time to limit the amount of Christmas lights and the hours people can use them. Certainly no one needs to leave Christmas lights on all night, and they don’t need to be lit up more than a couple weeks around the holiday, a few hours an evening. And no one needs thousands of lights.

Darkness is needed at night for every living thing. Do your part.  Keep the night dark.



Turkey tips

Did you know you can cook a frozen turkey safely?  If you didn’t get it defrosted, you can still have your turkey as long as you have plenty of time on Thanksgiving Day.  Depending on how frozen the turkey is it can take twice as long or longer to cook it than if it was defrosted. Unless you have a really small turkey it’s going to take 8 hours or more so get up early.

Put a frozen turkey, breast up, on a shallow tray instead of a deep roasting pan.  A broiler pan can work. Remove all the plastic wrapper of course. If you can get the giblet package and neck out of the turkey do so, but if you can’t get them out now, you can do it later. Tent the turkey loosely with foil.  Put in the oven at 350 degrees.

After an hour or so check to see if you can remove the giblet package and neck yet if you didn’t get them out. Butter or oil the turkey skin.  Continue cooking at 350 degrees for at least 3 more hours. 

After 4 hours you could transfer the turkey to a roasting pan. You could put stuffing around it but don’t stuff the cavity. Baste the turkey with juices or broth or melted butter or olive oil.  Add your favorite spices. Tent with foil or cover the pan and continue cooking until the turkey tests done. This can take another 3-5 hours depending on the turkey size. During the last hour of cooking remove the foil tent or cover to let the turkey brown.

If you started with a frozen turkey don’t rely on a pop-up timer to tell when the turkey is done. Instead use a meat thermometer. The correct internal temperature to ensure a safely cooked turkey is 165 degrees. Place a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast to test but don’t let the thermometer touch bone.  Also test the turkey at the thickest point of the inner side of a thigh. There are thermometers that can be left in place while the bird is cooking but most are inserted to take the temperature and then removed.  When the temperature is 165 degrees the turkey is done.

If you added stuffing, it’s a good idea to stick your meat thermometer into the center of the stuffing and see if it has reached 165 degrees.  If not and the turkey is done, heat the stuffing in a pan in the oven until it reaches 165 degrees.

If you don’t have a meat thermometer the other way to tell if a turkey is done is to poke the center of the breast with a knife or meat fork.  If the juices are clear instead of pink, it’s probably done. The legs will fall away from the sides easily. A slice cut down by the breastbone will show no signs of pink flesh and the flesh will be white and firm.

Let the turkey sit 15 minutes before you try to carve it. Leftover turkey should be cut off the bone and placed in tightly sealed bags or containers.   Refrigerate or freeze the meat. Use unfrozen meat with a week.

Turkey tip two

The day before Thanksgiving arrange all the empty pans for cooking your side dishes with the empty turkey roaster to get a feel for how many items can cook in your oven at the same time. To cook correctly pans need a little space around them for air to circulate.  You may have to cook side dishes and desserts in shifts or after the turkey is removed.

If oven space is tight, you could partially cook the side dishes in the microwave, then finish cooking them in the oven when the turkey is removed. You should have about 15-20 minutes after removing the turkey since turkeys should be “rested” about 15 minutes before carving. Or you can cook some side dishes the day before and just reheat them.  Pies and cakes, bread, rolls and biscuits, sweet potatoes, green bean cassorole and stuffing are dishes that reheat well.

Here are two of my favorite biscuit recipes if you want to serve biscuits at your holiday meal.

Beer Biscuits

These biscuits, made with beer, have a yeasty flavor like good homemade bread. They can become your signature side dish. They are quick and easy to make. Serve them with jam or honey or add some sausage gravy for a yummy breakfast. They freeze well so make a batch or two on the weekends for school day breakfast during the week.

        3 cups flour
        3 teaspoons baking powder
        1-1/2 teaspoon salt
        3 Tablespoons sugar
        1 cup beer, any kind

Grease a cookie sheet.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix all the ingredients together, kneading with floured hands right in the pan until the dough feels smooth.
Pick out a small ball of dough and flatten it on the greased pan.   The size can be any biscuit size that appeals to you.   The recipe will make about 18 medium biscuits.
Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown.


Cheddar and onion biscuits

These are a more traditional biscuit with a flavor kick.  Use chopped frozen onion for the best results.  These are a great dinner biscuit and will be gobbled right up. Just right for serving with turkey, steak, baked chicken or fish.  Makes 12-18 biscuits.

        2 cups Bisquick or other baking mix
        2/3 cup milk
        1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
        1/2 cup finely chopped onion
        1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together except butter.  Dough will be sticky. 
Drop by spoonfuls on a ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.  Serve warm.


"May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty, may hope forever wipe away your tears, and, above all, may silence make you strong."

- Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without permission.

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