Hi Gardeners
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| Akebia flower |
Since the weather has been wet and gloomy, I’ve been
finding things to do inside. I get a lot of magazines; the mailperson must hate
me even though it’s job security. Some of those magazines are garden magazines,
or at least they claim to be garden magazines. Many of them should be
classified as catalogs for fancy garden supplies with a few words sandwiched between
them.
I get one magazine called Flower. It does have
a few flowers in the photos of fancy homes here and there. And it always gives
you directions for creating a very fancy floral arrangement in each issue. But
mostly it features outlandishly expensive floral wallpaper or a crystal vase with
gold inlay that you can buy for only $600. It may show you the home of a famous
person and look, there on the mantel is a bouget of roses, in an unusual shade
that just matches everything in the room so perfectly.
Guns and Roses
is a similar magazine. Not much about guns or roses, but a lot about expensive
patio chairs. Better Homes and
Gardens occasionally has a very general article about gardening but it’s
mostly about homes, although it’s not quite as boring as the others. I get a
lot of these magazines free or at very low cost, and after looking through
them, I’d never subscribe at the regular price.
I also get Martha Stewart Living. It doesn’t
claim to be a gardening magazine, so I can’t complain about that. This month’s issue
promised to talk about Martha’s gardens. Martha has 4 gardens actually, at 4
different homes scattered around the country. Some of them have relatively small
acreage some are large estates. Martha is seen in pictures planting bulbs or
walking along a path in some of the garden pictures.
But there is no mention anywhere about the gardeners
who must maintain these gardens of Martha. Because she surely doesn’t, even
though the article makes it sound like Martha is the sole caretaker. She’s not
even at some of the homes more than a couple weeks a year. And besides, she has
all that glitter to glue on place cards and cupcakes to decorate.
It’s no wonder new gardeners often feel frustrated
and overwhelmed when they look at gardens like Martha’s, professionally
designed, planted and maintained and then at their garden. They wonder why they
don’t have a green thumb and why they can’t manage their time better. Because
they haven’t been gardening long, they don’t realize the extent of the help
those gardens like Martha’s have.
I don’t think it’s wrong for gardeners to hire help,
if you can afford to and want to. Many people make a good living being someone
else’s gardener. I also enjoy looking at those beautiful professionally
designed and meticulously groomed gardens. I just wish when people like Martha
show off their gardens, they would acknowledge the work that someone else, or
many someone else’s do.
Would it hurt Martha to mention the hard work of this
or that person? Would it hurt to explain the labor and time involved in some of
those gardens? If Martha really wants to instruct and inspire people, she
should be honest about her own gardening involvement and what it truly takes to
have gardens like hers. And telling us
about the real gardeners would be an interesting story, at least to me.
Don’t even get me started on AARP Magazine,
which mentioned in a column this month that people should grow lavender in
their bedroom to help them relax. Not put lavender in their bedroom but grow
it. Lavender doesn’t grow well indoors. There were some other silly suggestions
about herbal plants too. I guess I need to write a letter. Okay, I’ll move on
from my rant about magazines.
What do you have blooming inside? I have holiday cactus,
pomegranate, hibiscus, begonias, gerbera daisy and geraniums. My amaryllis
blooms have faded but another pot is putting out shoots so I will have more
blooms in about a month. Having blooming plants inside in the winter makes
everything seem more cheerful.
It’s a good time to shop for houseplants and there
are many houseplants that can provide you with blooms. African violets,
orchids, the “holiday cacti”, anthuriums, azaleas, bromeliads, cyclamen, gloxinia,
and kalanchoe are common blooming plants sold at this time of the year.
Food plants lost in time
When we picture early people living in North America
growing food, we often think about corn, sunflowers, beans and squash. But
before North American people began growing corn or maize, which was
domesticated in South or Central America and worked its way north, they were
growing at least 5 other types of plants that we classify as grain crops.
Over 4 thousand years ago the archeological record
shows us that people in North America were growing crops that provided them
with seeds (grain) that could be stored. These crops allowed many cultures that
practiced agriculture to flourish and establish larger villages and towns.
Ethno-botanists have proven that at least 4 of these
grain crops were selected over time or domesticated, to produce larger seeds
and more productive plants. Unfortunately, the domesticated versions of these
crops have been lost to time. Once corn became widespread in agricultural societies
and especially after European grains arrived, these crops were no longer grown.
Although these plants are no longer grown as crops,
you probably know some of them. Indeed, you may consider them weeds in your
garden. And researchers are studying these ancient grains to see if they could
once again feed people in a changing climate. You might want to experiment with
them yourself, or forage some of them.
Goosefoot, or Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album)
will probably be the plant most familiar to gardeners across the US and in many
other places of the world. It’s a common annual garden weed. Known as wild
spinach, the young leaves and plant tops are still eaten by foragers. While it
is thought that early indigenous people may also have eaten it as a green, they
also grew it for its seeds. They developed several domesticated varieties with
larger and more nutritious seeds. There are several species of Chenopodium and
species may have crossbred to form the domesticated varieties.
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| Lambsquarter flowering |
Lambsquarters gets its Latin name album, meaning
white, because it’s young leaves and seed heads appear to be dusted in white.
It produces seeds in mid to late summer. Some plants produce a later fall crop
also. Seeds range from round and black to brown and more oval in shape. The
seeds found in archaeological sites are larger than the seeds of wild
varieties.
Lambsquarter seeds were boiled, roasted or dried and
ground into a flour that was used to thicken stews or make primitive breads.
They are a good source of carbohydrates and a minor source of fat and protein.
About 50-90% of seeds found stored in early archeological sites were from Chenopodium
seeds. This plant probably has the best chance to once again become domesticated
as a grain crop.
The second most important and most often grown plant
in early indigenous cultures was Polygonum erectum or erect
knotweed. Gardeners may know several species of knotweed as weeds, although
the species once domesticated for grain P. erectum is not as common as
other species. There are also knotweeds that have been turned into ornamental
plants.
Knotweeds are known for their “knotted” stem nodes,
which are often red or purple shaded. The flowers on a “wand” at the top of the
plant also look somewhat like knots, or balls. They can be pink, red, green or
yellow. The seeds of P.erectum are produced throughout summer and are
variable in shape and color.
The domesticated knotweed of earlier times produced
smoother and larger seeds than the wild type and it was thought that they were
selected to produce a more concentrated harvest time in late summer. Early
people used the seeds as a starchy grain in the same way as Chenopodium seeds.
The seeds and plants also had medicinal uses, they were used as a dye, and some
species of knotweed may have been smoked.
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| This is a knotweed planted in my yard that is supposed to be P. erectum. Since ID is difficult I won't swear that it is. |
A recent study published in the Journal of
Ethnobiology, found that when lambsquarters and knotweed were grown
together the yield of both was improved. They produced as much food value as a
crop of maize of similar size grown in that time would have produced. Since the
seeds are often found together at archeological sites this may be how they were
grown.
The other plants that were grown for their grain by
early Americans were maygrass, little barley and sumpweed. Researchers have had
a hard time growing these as crops in our time, but the plants do still exist
in the wild.
Maygrass,
Phalaris caroliniana is an annual grass that produces
starchy seeds in late spring- early summer when other food is scarce. It is very similar to Canary Reed Grass, a weedy
grass of crop fields that is more common now than maygrass. It has more protein
than many other grains and is high in vitamins and minerals. It was quite
commonly grown in the central Mississippi River valley by the Cahokia culture. It
will grow in moist and flooded areas.
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| Maygrass |
Sumpweed,
or Marshelder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa) was
another plant that grew in floodplains. The domesticated species no longer
exists but there is a wild species left in some places. The plant has seeds
similar to wheat. The extinct domesticated species had seeds 1000 times larger
than seeds on modern wild types.
Sumpweed matures in fall. The seeds are oily and high
in protein, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, niacin, and
B-complex vitamins. They would have provided a good, concentrated nutritional
food source. However, sumpweed has some draw backs. Like a relative, ragweed, sumpweed
is highly allergenic. It also has an odor, which at least to people today, is
unpleasant. It may have been harder to process and use than other grains. It
was probably the first early grain crop to be lost when corn was introduced
into its growing areas.
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| Sumpweed |
The last of the ancient grains, little barley Hordeum pusillum causes
some dissention among archeologists. Some believe it was not domesticated but
just foraged and stored. Others believe it would have to be cultivated in
concentrated plots to be worth gathering, since the seeds were small. Like Maygrass
it forms seeds in late spring when food is scarce. It was nutritious and would
have been an important food source.
While a few differences have been found in seeds
recovered at archeological sites compared to today’s wild grown seeds, the
differences do not seem large or consistent. In the wild today dense stands of this
plant can be found so it’s possible this plant was just foraged.
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| Little Barley University of Missouri photo |
We can’t know for sure how the earliest farmers and
gardeners in North America grew these grain crops, since there is no written record.
And when corn and then European grains were introduced into North America,
these crops were slowly abandoned, and we have no surviving cultures growing
them. Were the new crops easier to grow? More productive? Tastier? We have no
way to know.
It is interesting that to think that we have food
crops growing all around us that we might be able to utilize as the environment
changes. Gardeners may look at weeds a bit differently when you think of them
as domesticated crops gone wild.
More
reading
Should soy oil should be taken off the
market?
I am of the age when I remember margarine as
something fairly new to the public. It was being touted as preventing heart
disease and I remember my mother nagging my grandparents to give up butter and
lard and use margarine and shortening. Those products were being made from soy
oil and corn oil. Early margarines were white, and you mixed in a little tube
of yellow food coloring when you bought it. They also did not taste like
butter. I grew up eating margarine and had to reeducate my taste when I found
out how unhealthy margarine was.
What is alarming is that we now know margarine is not
better for us than butter, and we know that soy oil is widely suspected to be a
contributor to, perhaps even a cause of, several deadly diseases. Research has
linked soy oil products to obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and now
genetic changes in the brain. Research is pointing to a conclusion that humans
should not consume soy oil. Yet soy oil
is still in American diets.
Five years or so ago several research reports linked
soybean oil to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity and fatty liver disease.
We also know that people who are around soybean oil being used to fry foods
have a higher risk of lung cancer and restaurants are no longer allowed to deep
fry with it. Now new research has found
that consumption of soy oil cause changes to the genes in the brains of animals,
changes that in humans correspond to Alzheimer’s Disease, autism, Parkinson’s
disease and even anxiety and depression.
Research done at UC Riverside, California and
published in the journal Endocrinology, found that mice fed a diet
high in soybean oil had the functioning of over 100 genes in the hypothalamus
changed. The changes did not occur when mice were fed diets high in other fats,
like coconut oil.
The hypothalamus is a part of the brain that controls
many important brain and nervous system functions, and the reproductive system.
It regulates metabolism, growth, body temperature, reproductive hormones, the
body’s reaction to stress, and a number of other things. The changes in gene
functioning corresponded to changes researchers find in human conditions such
as autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other conditions related to stress and
anxiety.
Researchers are trying to find out what chemicals in
soy oil are responsible for the gene damage. They know it isn’t linoleic acid,
the chemical in soy oil found to be what causes metabolic syndrome and
diabetes. Since those early findings came out crop researchers developed low
linoleic acid soy varieties. But when researchers used those varieties in a
study they found no difference in how the brain was affected than when normal
soy oil was used.
Researchers can’t say definitively yet that soy oil
consumption causes autism, Alzheimer’s and so on, but the suspicion is strong
that it is at least a contributing cause to those brain disorders. More
research studies are being done. Anytime something that is consumed alters
genetic expression it is of great concern.
Soy oil may be genetically modifying you.
Researchers say they believe tofu and fermented soy
sauce would be safe to consume, although no research confirms that. But they
urge people to consume as little soy oil as possible. It is especially unwise
to consume soy oil in the first 3 months of pregnancy when genes are more
easily damaged in the fetus. Drinks made from soy, frequently called soy “milk”,
have not been tested yet to see if they could contribute to disease.
Soy oil is the most common oil sold in the US. It’s a highly refined product, you can’t just
squeeze the beans, they have to be heated and chemically treated. Soybean oil
was first manufactured to be a lubricant, not an edible oil. It was a new cash
crop for farmers and supply outstripped demand, so clever people did things
like add flavoring to hardened soy oil and sell it to us as margarine. They
told us to take the lubricant and fry our potatoes in it.
But while research in the last 10 years is pointing
to the fact that soy oil has harmful effects on the human body it’s still in
all kinds of food products, in things you wouldn’t even expect oil was needed.
It’s cheap and plentiful, especially now that the foreign market for soybeans
has been drastically reduced because of the trade war. Even if you don’t use
soy oil in your kitchen, you are probably still eating it every day.
Try finding a salad dressing without soy oil. You may
get lucky but unless you make your own, most salad dressings contain soy oil. Soy
oil is used to roast peanuts and put in peanut butter. It’s still used to fry
chips and other snack foods. It’s in bakery items, condiments, frozen dinners, even
some canned goods. Read the labels on things in your cupboards and
refrigerator, you’ll be amazed. I just found soy oil listed as an ingredient in
a cocoa mix.
I think it’s time the government regulates the use of
soy, banning it from most food products. Nutritional research is tricky, you don’t want
to feed people things that will harm them, and outside a lab it’s really hard
to control what people eat in long term studies. If there’s scientific evidence
that soy oil may be causing or contributing to metabolic disorders and
modifying genes in the brain, even just in animal studies, we should ban the
product from the market until independent studies prove that it isn’t harming
humans.
I think soy oil is more harmful to humans than trace
amounts of pesticides on food that people get worked up over. I avoid soy oil
containing products as much as possible, and you may want to do the same. It
may be too late for a generation that grew up consuming tons of it, but we may
be able to reduce its damage to future generations. What do you think?
More reading
Cruising through the catalogs
Korean Angelica Angelica
gigas
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| Korean Angelica Photo by White Flower farm |
Here’s another plant that can liven up pollinator or
native grass gardens. Pollinators of all
sorts are highly attracted to it. Korean angelica has 6 feet tall stems with a
purple tinge, and large umbels of deep purple flowers. It is quite impressive
in the back of perennial borders too. It’s also an herb garden subject, because
the plant has many herbal uses also.
This plant is a biennial, it makes a rosette of
foliage the first year and produces the tall bloom stems in the second. For
that reason and because it can be tricky to germinate the seeds gardeners may
want to start with plants. It will reseed in the garden. This plant will even
bloom in partial shade. The seed heads
are attractive when dried. It’s hardy in zones 5-9 and deer resistant.
You can get this plant at these places
Mexican Sour Gherkin Melothria
scabra
This plant also has the cute common name of Mouse
melon. It could be an interesting and tasty addition to your veggie garden.
It’s a vining plant with small leaves and is grown much like a cucumber. It
produces loads of small striped, melon like fruits which are picked when they
are the size of a large grape. They can be eaten fresh or pickled. The taste is
like a sour, slightly salty cucumber.
Mexican Sour Gherkins can be easily grown in
containers with a trellis and kids will find them interesting and easy to grow.
Seeds should be started indoors a month before the last frost and transplanted
outside.
You can find the seeds at;
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| Mexican Sour Gherkin Photo by Baker Creek |
Hummingbird
Trumpet, Zauschneria canum var. arizonica 'Sky
Island Orange'
This is a cultivated selection of a western
wildflower also known as California Fuchsia, or Fire Chalice. It grows about 3
feet high and in late fall is covered with tubular bright orange flowers that
hummingbirds adore. It’s a great plant to help feed hummingbirds just before
they migrate. It also brightens up the fall landscape.
This plant should not be confused with trumpet vine. This
is not a vining plant. Hummingbird Trumpet is a perennial plant hardy in zones
5-8. It will sucker to form patches of color and is often used as a ground
cover or a filler. It prefers well drained soil in full sun. Plants do like
shady feet and their tops in the sun. If you like hummingbirds this plant is a
great addition to the garden.
You can get plants at;
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| Zauschneria Photo by High Country Gardens |
Echium wildpretii, "Tower of
Jewels"
Okay, this is not a hardy plant for most of the
country, it’s only hardy in zones 9-10. It’s native to the Canary islands. But
if you are the person who likes the truly unusual and who adores succulent type
plants you may want to try this in a large container on the patio or sunk into
the garden. It’s a biannual plant, the first year it forms a 30-inch-wide clump
of narrow leaved, silvery green foliage that is attractive in its own right.
But the second year is when it will wow you.
Echium wildpretii forms a huge cone of clustered rosy pink
flowers up to 8 feet high. The flowers attract hummingbirds and other
pollinators.
To get it to bloom in northern zones you’ll need to
overwinter first year plants inside. Echium makes a decent houseplant, it needs
strong light inside. Outside it needs well drained soil or containers and full
sun. It’s drought tolerant and deer resistant. I would keep it in a container
the first summer and inside the first winter, then plant in ground the second
summer for bloom. After bloom, it will die, but seeds can be collected, and new
plants started. (In Zone 9 and higher it reseeds in the garden.) It’s well
worth at least one try in colder zones.
Find this plant at;
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Echium wildpretii, Photo by Annies Annuals |
Sauced Meatballs
Here’s a
recipe from my book, Beer, A Cookbook.
It’s a good and easy to prepare recipe for a Superbowl feast or for any
party.
Ingredients
1 ½ cups
grape jelly
1 cup chili
sauce
¾ cup beer,
preferably a chili pepper or Mexican style beer
1 package McCormick
Jalapeno and onion taco seasoning
2 pounds of
prepared, cooked meatballs, thawed if frozen
Instructions
Preheat oven
to 350 degrees F.
Put all the
ingredients except meatballs in a large pot.
Arrange the
meatballs 1 layer thick in a large shallow pan.
Bring the
sauce mixture to boil on the stove top. Stir continuously until the jelly
melts.
Pour the hot
mixture over the meatballs.
With a spoon,
turn over each meatball so all sides are covered in sauce.
Put in the
oven and cook about 20 minutes. The inside of the meatballs should be hot.
Serve
meatballs by putting a toothpick in each one.
Makes about 50-60 meatballs.
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"Bare
branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."
- Nelda
Hartmann, January Morn
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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