Hi Gardeners
Well the last month is here.
Late Saturday night thunder announced a warm front, fog rising in the
dawn giving way to the rarely seen sun and temperatures warming into the high
50’s. The snow vanished, then thunder
announced the rain and approaching cold front and it was gone, the illusive
glimpse of spring swept away. Monday, I
awoke to a dusting of snow and the old dreariness of winter was back. Today it’s
sunny, but quite cold.
It’s hard to remain cheerful when the days are short and
gray, the elusive sun weak and useless when it appears. How does anyone survive it without
surrounding themselves with plants, flowers, singing birds and the smell of
something good cooking? How can you not
have plants inside?
When the sun is shining, I can often forget the cold. I opened up the barn around noon today and
let the chickens out. They all rushed
out and immediately found a place in the sun to sunbathe. I have 11 hens left and one dinky rooster.
They are old hens, but I decided to let them live out their lives here rather
sending them to be someone’s soup. I’m not going to replace them as they die
though. Currently I average 2 eggs a
day, which means I need to buy eggs as well as chicken feed.
The good thing about December is that the end of the year is
near. On solstice the sun starts to
climb back up in the sky instead of sinking.
In a couple months the hens will start laying a bit better. I’ll be outside planning and pruning, if not
planting. Hurry spring.
December Almanac
This
month’s full moon is called the Full Cold or Long Nights moon and it occurs on
December 22nd. Moon perigee
is the 24th and moon apogee is the 12th. For those who wish to see Santa and his sled
against a full moon this year may be the one, since the moon will be 95% full
on Christmas eve. It should also look
larger since it’s near perigee.
There
are two meteor displays that may be visible in December. On the 13th and 14th there is the peak of the
best regular meteor event, the Geminids meteor shower. Some meteors may be
visible from the 4th through the 17th.
But on the peak days around 120 meteors or shooting stars may be seen
per hour. The best viewing is after
midnight, peaking about 2 am. If it’s not cloudy it will be a good year to
watch for meteors as the moon will set before the peak. Look toward the
northwest.
On
December 21st – 23rd will be the peak of a lesser meteor shower, the Ursids
meteor shower, which typically produces about 10 meteors per hour at its
peak. This one will largely be obscured
by the full moon.
Wednesday,
December 21, 2017 is the winter solstice. It marks the longest night of the
year and the beginning of winter. At
this time the sun is at its farthest point in the southern sky and lowest point
on the horizon. (For an interesting site
that will show you where the sun and moon are in the sky at the exact time you
access the site go to this site and choose your closest city) http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa/
You’ll
notice that the earliest sunset and the shortest day are not the same. The earliest sunset occurs December 5th
when the sun sets at 5 pm (in the Flint, MI. area). And the sun will set at that time until
December 14th – when it gains a minute. It’s the time of sunrise that makes the
difference in day length. On the
solstice the sun rises at 8:03 am and sets at 5:03pm in the Flint, Mi. area. Your area may have slightly different sunrise
and sunset times.
December’s
traditional birthstone is turquoise. If
cold December gave you birth, The month of snow and ice and mirth, Place on
your hand a Turquoise blue, Success will bless whate'er you do. – old folk
saying. However, since it is the
month of buying, modern jewelers want you to have lots of choices and they
added zircon and
tanzanite to the birthstone list.
The
December birth flower is oddly enough the narcissus. This may be because it was associated with
death, (its poisonous) by the ancient Romans and Greeks but now it is often
used as a symbol of hope. We are
entering the time of the death of the old year but still, it seems odd as a
flower choice. In flower “language”
narcissus is said to mean “you are the only one” or alternatively faithfulness,
respect and modesty.
Recently
holly has been favored to replace narcissus as the December birth flower and to
me seems more appropriate. Holly is a
symbol of domestic happiness in flower language. Orchids are also listed as the
December flower in some places.
Things
to celebrate in December besides the solstice and Christmas include National
Mutt day the 2nd , Pearl Harbor Day- the
7th and Poinsettia day on the 12th, also
on the 12th its Gingerbread house day and National cocoa day, National Bake
Cookies day, the 18th ( or roast a suckling pig, your choice) , Look
for Evergreens day the 19th Besides
being Christmas Eve the 24th is National Chocolate day and National Egg Nog
day. December 31st is World Peace/ Meditation Day as well as New Year’s eve.
December
is National Bingo month, National AIDS awareness month, National Buckwheat
month and Universal Human Rights month.
Do you know why your kids don’t like broccoli?
Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, collard
greens and cauliflower are all the same plant genetically, Brassica oleracea. Different
parts of the plant have been selected for over time, so we have what looks like
different plants. In one type or
cultivar we have a big “crown” of folded leaves, a cabbage. In brussels sprouts we have a long stem with
little crowns of leaves along it.
In broccoli we have multiple stems with clusters of buds and
few leaves. in cauliflower we have a
short stem with a big white flower bud cluster. Kale has larger leaves,
kohlrabi has a lump of stems with leaves on stalks protruding from it. Collard greens are a loose collection of
large leaves with little stalk. There
are other variations of this plant also, such as the brightly colored ornamental
kales and the walking stick cabbage.
Kale was probably the first domesticated Brassica oleracea. Cabbage was second. Wild cabbage is native to the south and west
coasts of Europe and tolerates salty soil and alkaline soil high in lime
because of its coastline beginnings. The
genus name is Crucifera, which
refers to the flowers- which are yellow with 4 petals and said to resemble a
cross. The whole group of cultivars is often referred to as cruciferous
vegetables.
Now
about that taste
Whether you like the taste of Brassica
oleracea depends on whether or not you have the gene (TAS2R8,) that allows
you to taste the Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), which are in these plants. In about 70% of people (98% of indigenous
Americans), PTC tastes bitter. Many
people dislike cruciferous vegetables for this reason. That’s why many children are being honest
when they say that broccoli tastes awful.
With age and smoking, which dull the taste buds, and getting used to the
taste because of cultural pressures to eat “healthy” many people who can taste PTC
learn to tolerate or even like it. People
who drink tea and coffee regularly, also bitter in taste, tolerate PTC better.
While most cruciferous vegetables won’t harm you if you eat normal
amounts, PTC is a plant chemical that is toxic.
The bitter taste is to warn you of that and over millions of years
people who lived where the plant grew passed along the gene that protected them
from the plants. If even one of your
parents dislikes the taste of PTC you probably will too, it’s a dominant
trait.
At one time, before we had genetic testing, the ability to taste PTC was
used as a crude paternity test. (In one lab test I found amusing a Swiss
woman’s 3 children were accidentally found not to be her husbands, confirmed by
blood group testing, after a taste test.) Asking students to taste a piece of
paper with PTC on it was often the prelude to a class on genetics.
Since the discovery of this genetic trait in 1931 we have learned that
the taste preference inheritance is a bit more complicated than one simple
gene. There are some people that do have
a reduced ability to taste PTC rather than a simple I do or I don’t scenario,
although this is rarer. In some cases, identical twins have differing tastes so
it’s more complicated than we once thought. We are still learning more about the trait.
If people are hungry or maybe “just because they want to” they devise
all sorts of ways to remove plant toxins, so they can eat them or they learn
what their body can tolerate before they get sick. Lots of cheese on top of these bitter plants
also helps. So, the cruciferous vegetables become part of the diet even though
many people don’t like the taste – at least at first. If it’s part of your culture you often
develop a tolerance for it.
But be nice to your children and don’t force them to eat things they
really find nasty tasting. There are
equally nutritious foods that don’t have the bitter taste. Be kind and let them
eat those foods. As for me, I don’t mind
raw cabbage, but I dislike it cooked and you won’t find me munching on broccoli
or cauliflower. I still think it tastes
awful even though my taste buds are getting old.
More reading
Did you know? - poinsettia
facts
Poinsettias fill the stores this time of year. (In Spain
they are sold at Easter.) They’re no longer just red, poinsettias now come in a
variety of colors. But did you know the
colorful part of the plant isn’t actually it’s flowers? The colored parts of the poinsettia are “bracts”
which are modified leaves. They surround
the small, yellow, barrel shaped true flowers at the top of the plant stems.
The bracts change of color is triggered by shorter days and
cooler nights. Growers manipulate the light potted plants receive so that they
have plants in color by the beginning of December all through the holiday.
Plant height and bushiness can also be manipulated to suit a variety of tastes. Most poinsettias are shorter and wider than
they were 30 years ago.
While some poinsettias may have glitter sprinkled on them
the colors you see on many plants now are natural and achieved through
breeding. There are over a hundred named cultivars of poinsettia. Many times you won’t see a name tag on store
plants but if you are looking for specific colors other than red here are some
varieties you might look for.
‘Polar Bear’ is white with beautiful green veins. ‘White Glitter’ is red with white
flecks. ‘Ice Crystal’ is white with red edges. ‘Picasso’ is red with cream streaking. ‘Maren’
is peach colored. ‘Ice Punch’ is bright pink with cream
centers. ‘Christmas Lights’ is a bright
true pink. ‘Luv U Soft Pink’ has deep pink veins against a pale pink bract, ‘Christmas Feelings Red Cinnamon’ has deep pink
bracts with red flecks, ‘Envy’ has chartreuse green bracts.
About 70% of the poinsettias sold at Christmas are produced
in California, although local greenhouses often produce small crops. One large
business, the Agribio Group, formerly the Paul Ecke Ranch, has the lions share
of the market.
The scientific name for poinsettia is Euphorbia
pulcherrima. Other common names for the plant include "Crown of the Andes",
lobster flower and the flame-leaf flower.
The name poinsettia comes from a botanist named Poinsett who sent the
plants to the US when he was the US ambassador to Mexicao. In the wilds of Mexico poinsettia is a large,
up to 15 feet high, weedy shrub.
Are poinsettias poisonous?
While poinsettias might be toxic if enough is eaten most
people don’t need to worry about having the plants in homes with children and
pets. A small pet would need to eat an
entire large plant – actually swallow it – to get any serious reaction. And
they probably wouldn’t do that because the plant tastes bad. Lab tests where
animals ate over 500 leaves produced very few symptoms. A child would need to eat several large plants
to get more than a stomach ache. If your
child is doing that you have a problem larger than poinsettia eating.
Eating poinsettia leaves may cause drooling, even vomiting
if a lot is eaten, but that’s about the extent of the poisoning symptoms. A child or pet is in far more danger from
alcoholic beverages left in glasses, cigarette butts and pills found in grandma’s
purse.
When stems of poinsettia are broken, they leak a white
sticky sap. Some people are allergic to
this sap and will get a rash from handling the plants. Poinsettia sap was used
to cure fevers by the Aztecs. The Aztecs
also made a reddish purple dye from the red colored bracts of wild poinsettias.
Can poinsettias be saved?
Poinsettias can be saved from year to year although they
rarely look as pretty at future Christmas’s as they did when they came from the
greenhouse. A summer outside and being
exposed only to natural daylight through fall and winter will help the plant to
“flower” again.
A poinsettia can make a decent houseplant even when it isn’t
colored up. It needs bright light, and moderate
watering through winter. Make sure to
take those foil pot covers off, so the pot can drain well.
If you like to rescue plants poinsettias are often very cheap
after the New Year. Some may have dropped
a lot of leaves but can be revived in a warm sunny window with proper watering.
Frosty Ferns
A pretty little plant that looks like a fern tipped in white
is often sold in stores around Christmas, many times with a red fake bird stuck
in the pot. Frosty fern, Selaginiela
krausianna variegatus is actually a club moss, a fern relative. There’s also
a variety that has golden tipped leaves. Frosty fern native to the Azores and
parts of Africa. It is also common in
New Zealand, where it has naturalized and is considered a pest plant. But with
the right care it can make a nice houseplant.
This plant has attributes of both mosses and ferns, but club
mosses are technically neither. The leaves
are flat overlapping scales with a fork at the end. Each leaf has a single
vein. In Frosty ferns the leaf tips are creamy white. The plant doesn’t grow
too tall, 6-8 inches high and could be trimmed if that’s too high for you. Unlike
mosses it has roots, although they grow shallowly. Club mosses reproduce by both spores and from
rooting plant stems near the tip.
Frosty fern isn’t the easiest houseplant to grow, but why
should everything be easy? If you do
manage to get it right it is a lovely plant and something a bit different.
Despite the frosty name this plant must be kept warm. The ideal temperature is 70-75 degrees F. Temperatures should not fall below 50
degrees. Keep it out of drafts and cover
it well when going from store to car in the winter.
The biggest need of Frosty fern however, is a relatively
high humidity level. Humidity levels
should be above 50%. This can be achieved
by growing the plants near a humidifier, on a humidity tray or in a terrarium.
Do not mist them, this often causes fungal disease. Sometimes plants near
aquariums will do well. One of those “rain forest” shower stalls with good
lighting would probably be like heaven for it.
Place the plant in bright light, but never in direct
sun. Keep it a few feet from windows,
even across the room from a southern exposure.
It will do well in rooms brightly lit with artificial light.
Frosty fern doesn’t need a deep pot, the roots are shallow. It spreads horizontally so a pot with some
width is better than depth. Use a rich
organic soil, a sphagnum peat-based soil is ideal. Fertilize once every other week spring
through summer with a basic houseplant fertilizer.
Water Frosty ferns so that they stay moist at all times, but
the pot must drain well and not get waterlogged. Be careful not to overwater in terrariums. Browning,
crispy leaves can be a sign of low humidity or improper watering.
You can propagate frosty fern by cutting off stem tips and
rooting them in damp potting medium.
They root easily.
Snails and slugs will eat Frosty fern if they are put
outside but they have few other pests.
Cool temperatures favor fungal disease but that is rare indoors unless
the plants are being misted. If you do
put them outside in summer after danger of frost has passed make sure they are
in the shade and don’t forget to water them if it’s dry.
If you like challenging plants that are unusual, the frosty
fern may be right for you.
Easiest Cookies Ever- peanut butter blossoms without flour
Do you need a gluten free dessert? Are you craving a cookie but have no
flour? These cookies are a snap to throw
together. This recipe makes a small
batch so feel free to double or triple it.
Usually they are topped with a chocolate kiss but feel free to sub other
candy.
Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar + a little more for rolling
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla
12 chocolate kisses
Directions
Blend all the ingredients together except the chocolate
kisses.
Chill the dough 1 hour in the refrigerator
Roll dough into 12 balls, then roll them in white sugar
Place balls on a cookie sheet with parchment paper liner or
copper sheet liner, flatten slightly with a spoon.
Bake at 350 degrees F about 7 minutes. They should be lightly browned but still soft
to the touch. Don’t overbake.
Remove from oven and push a chocolate kiss into each
cookie. Cool for several minutes before
removing from sheet.
A variation- make a thumbprint in the cookie before
baking. After baking fill with your
choice of jelly.
“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And
sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a
bird sing in the dark of December.”
― Oliver Herford
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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