it must be summer

The gardens are really going to town right now. It is still shocking to me to be putting plants in as this is our usual time to be planting, but all around the perennials are making it seem like I missed the boat - like that time a few years ago, when I planted before the frost date, and had to do it all over around Memorial Day.
The valerian is in full flower. The fragrance is heavenly, and last year I found that tincturing the flowers rather than the roots made for a pretty good medicine. It is milder than the action of the root, but very relaxing. It doesn't require that the plant be dug up, either. That's one of the best parts.
Here is my Papaw tree. It is 3 years old. It needs some new soil, and I just happen to have a couple of scoops from deep in the woods. We'll see if that doesn't help, but seriously, this isn't Papaw country. Putting some coffee grounds in with the soil around the blueberries this year really helped them grow, so we'll add some here too for the acid.
This little weed is Herb Robert, one of the wild geraniums. The flowers are perhaps 1/2" in diameter, but they are massed in front of one of the flower beds. They should come out, but are so pretty that they may stay during their bloom. Certainly they will reseed and return next spring, so I won't feel too bad about that.
The elderflowers are coming right along. These are from an early variety, but the other bushes of canadensis or nigra have tight little buds now too. Elderflowers are edible. You can dip the whole umbel into crepe or pancake batter, and make fritters with them. They can be made into a cordial, and they can be used in teas and skin preparations. It takes a lot of flowers to amount to anything when dried, and that means less berries. This early variety is not as tasty, so I don't mind losing the berries and using the flowers.
The cinquefoil (aka five-finger grass) is already in bloom. Yesterday afternoon I noticed buds, but they were open last evening. This is usually a late June bloom around here. It is a noxious field weed with roots that can apparently withstand the magma beneath the earth's outer crust, but the flowers look so innocent. I need to do some research on this plant, and find uses. It is so tenacious; that in itself tells me to look into it.
There are mint patches in various places throughout the property, and this is the chocolate mint. It yields a spectacular essential oil and hydrosol. Delicious in both cooking and tea, it is close to peppermint without the same bite. Mints can be hard to tell apart, but the stems and veins of the chocolate mint - along with the vague chocolate scent - makes this one unique. It creeps slowly out into the yard, so as I sat weeding it last night, the mint beneath me filled the air with its scent.
Chive blossoms are just lovely. They are one of the first herbal flowers of the season, and they wave gaily, their delicate blooms hoisted aloft on sturdy blue-green stems. The blossoms make a beautiful pink vinegar, and they can be torn into pieces and scattered on a salad. This bee seems to agree with me.
Lastly, the St Johnswort. It is blooming already! Typically it blooms around June 21st, as it was named for St John, who is honored on June 21. I've mentioned before that having blogged for 5 years, I can look back and see where things were at this time in years past. SJW, I don't need to check. This is early.
There are 5 patches of SJW scattered around the gardens here. 3 are in bud, 2 close behind. The buds and tips of this plant can be used both internally and externally. Internally, it is often used for mild depression and nervous conditions. Externally it works especially well on sores that are caused by the various herpes viruses - like cold sores, chicken pox, shingles, and genital herpes. The nerve endings in our skin respond well to SJW.
It is well preserved in alcohol for tincture and in oil for external uses. It can also be dried for teas.
There is so much going on outside, and we're still busily putting the finishing touches on the upcoming issue before sending it off to the printer. It is somewhat strange to be looking at all this beauty while thinking about the oil being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico. Even at this distance, I can't help wondering how this will affect us all.

More Autumn in PA

Since we started doing color covers, it has almost given me new eyes. Now the beauty of every bud, berry, bean, and blossom is even more apparent. Our brother also has a long history of photo manipulation with different computer programs, and he's toying with some small business ideas he can do from home. We are really happy to see him excited about something, btw.
With those things in mind, we set off in search of beautiful things yesterday. This clear yellow is spectacular. Sometimes the maple out back glows this particular color into my sunporch, and it changes my mood. This year the weather wasn't right. So the larger shot of this might become a screensaver.For some reason mushrooms are just so darned cute sometimes. I don't forage or identify them, I just look at them and enjoy the way they look.Looking up through the trees, this struck me as an amazing vision. All the colors and the sky, and the size of the trees, it took my breath away.The churchyard at the Mount Hope church. I'm thinking that at dusk on a foggy night, this could be pretty darned spooky.Eeyore in the flesh! This is a very young little burro. S/he headed over to the fence right away, and I hurried away so that there would be no electric fence accident to repay the friendliness.We sat on a little one lane bridge while I snapped this out the window, with my siblings squawking about oncoming traffic.Still some firey leaves across a new crop of soybeans.One of the larger farms in our part of the county, just over the crest on the other side of a field.
And if you stayed this long, here is a luscious yet simple dessert from Michele Brown of Possum Creek Herbs, published in the Nov/Dec '06 issue of The Essential Herbal.
Baked Apple with Vanilla Bean Crème
You can make as many of these as you like. They taste best fresh from the oven.
Core a large, crispy apple and peel the top portion of the apple.
Set the apples firmly on their bottoms in a baking pan with sides.
Sprinkle cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar over the tops of the apples and add a little bit of water around the bottom of the apples.
Bake in a 325 degree oven until tender. This usually takes 30-40 minutes.
While the apples are baking, whip up some heavy cream and add one vanilla bean (scrape the inside of the bean for the delicious meat).
Stop whipping the cream before it gets stiff peaks. You want to be able to pour the thick cream over the hot apples after they come out of the oven.
Bring the apples out of the oven and let them sit for a moment or two.
Put an apple on a pretty plate and pour the cream mixture over the top.
Take some of the spice drippings from the baking pan and drizzle over the cream.
Enjoy.

Note: In PA we'd set the apples on a square of pie dough, bring it up and fasten at the top, and call it an apple dumpling.

bloggerama - coming up!

There's been a lot going on around here, and I've been capturing it all on film but neglecting to transfer it to the blog!

Just to get caught up, it looks like a little bit of blog a day for the next week ought to do it. Hopefully it won't be obnoxious, but there are some really cool things that will be lost to the mists of time, and more coming up real soon. So....

Completely out of order, we'll begin with the past few days. I found myself away - just a couple hours north of home. Outside, was a wonderful little wooded area and we wandered around for a bit before dinner the first evening and wound up spending time there every time we went out. The growth was very "short", barely up to my ankles, and much of it was asters, ragweed, and baby sassafras trees, along with other things I didn't recognize. One bush looked like very small ragged wild blueberry bushes. Tasting a berry, it was quite bitter. Another bush had marble sized round green berries, and I couldn't compare it to anything. I don't believe I tasted that one.

But lower, closer to the ground we found some glossy leaves that bugged me. They looked like something familiar... that way that plants I've studied in field guides over the years do, when they've never actually turned up during any outtings. In other words, those I've yet to find.

Oh! Then there were berries! I reached down and crushed a leaf to sniff...Wintergreen! Ah!!! A Bazillion plants scattered over a few acres! And me without my camera. The berries taste just like wintergreen candy, but not quite as sweet. We dug a few plants, and I brought them home with the intent of getting a patch going here. I wish that I'd picked a lot of the leaves and saved them for tea, but it's not that far to return...

In that little woods, there were trees covered with chrysalises and sort of mud-pack combs. There were huge rock formations and incredible mats of mosses. There were bushes of a rhododendron appearing plant ready to bloom which I now suspect was Labrador tea, and so many really interesting plants. It is amazing to me that traveling 100 or 150 miles can make such a huge difference in the flora. Even the trees were different, with an abundance of birches and beeches compared to our oaks and maples. There were oaks, but different varieties than I am accustomed to. In any case, I want very much to return in the spring to see what emerges from that woods. It was so beautiful, and so full of life.

Not having a camera OR a field guide, I wanted to pinch off a piece of this plant to identify. Does anyone have any idea what it is? This pic is about lifesize. The leaves are about 2" long and then get smaller toward the top, or near the flower bud.As I pinched, the whole thing came up, and the roots are underground runners that were buried lightly under decayed leaves. I hope it survives, as it will be planted out first thing in the morning.

What a great getaway! Walking in the woods was just the icing on the cake - but yummy wintergreen icing :-).

Before the Freeze

These pictures were taken last Friday before winter arrived. It has since turned very cold - our "normal" weather is finally here. I've been reading about the mid-west and south-west with snow and ice, and a friend in Los Angeles wrote about the freezing temps and not having heat in her house! By that, I mean there is no system for heating her house to begin with, not that the power is out. Then there were the 118 mph winds across Europe... a very strange January indeed.
The buds in the picture are from an ornamental cherry tree. Tiny leaves are formed and WERE ready to unfurl. The freezing weather will tuck the tree back into hibernation, and it will re-bud in the spring. I took a walk around to see what else was going on. The rosemary was also getting ready to bloom, and I have no idea what will happen with that. There was lots of plantain and dandelion out there, and as you can see, the lawn has not turned brown yet. It is now covered with a very thin layer of snow.
Miss Molly turned 16 the other day. I can't believe it. I was secretly hoping that she wouldn't be itching to get her driver's license, but no... that is on her to-do list.
What a fast 16 years that was! She no longer thinks I know everything. In fact, I barely know anything! Thank goodness she's patient with me in my dodderage.
She's still a kid enough to be tickled with penguins on the cake, and she scooped up the candles as a keepsake. As a salute to her "herbal heritage" she requested pasta with pesto for her birthday dinner. I snuck some of the chickweed into the pesto because I just couldn't resist all of that lush growth outside. Lots of basil and garlic, with just a handful of chickweed. The adults were suspicious, but cousin Rob liked it. He even asked for instructions so he could make it himself.

Daylily buds and berries!

Everything is just a little bit early here. I've been picking berries like crazy, because they are two weeks early and took me by surprise. Usually by now I've got the stands all staked out and am keeping an eye on them. This year, they exploded without warning. They are plump, juicy, and BIG!
The daylily buds are in the midst of their own fleeting season, as well. If you've never had the pleasure of tasting a daylily bud, don't wait another year! My favorites are the small ones with little to no orange - just green. They taste a lot like beans to me, but "more". I like to add them to salads, munch them raw when I find them in the woods, or throw them into a stir fry. I've read that some people can get a bit of an upset stomach from them... I think it was Peter Gail who mentioned that possibility in his book about daylilies. It has never been an issue for me, but bears mentioning. All parts of the daylily plant are edible, and the flowers are dried and used in some Asian dishes. Peter was kind enough to send several dandelion recipes for the Wild Foods for Every Table book. We've been getting lots of reviews for the book since it hit the mail on this past Monday. So far, it has all been good and they are flying out of here.