your_comforting_company
05-28-2011, 02:40 PM
Starting to harvest the fruits of my labors (and fruits that I had no labor involved in). Just thought I'd share some of the goodies. The entire album is here (http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/).
Today's tater dig and taters from this past week of harvesting
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6524.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6526.jpg
Today's okra pickin's. I roofed a fella's house who is going to teach me how to "flash boil" it in the jar for pickling so they stay crisp and juicy. I can't wait till I get enough to put up some of the delicious treats!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6525.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6528.jpg
Progress on the peas.. seems like there were no blooms only two days ago, and now every plant has flowers! yay!!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6529.jpg
Cucumbers
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6530.jpg
Squash
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6532.jpg
Yep.. That's my beehive in the background.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6536.jpg
Blueberries
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6537.jpg
Figs.. I couldn't resist eating a few. They are so sweet and delicious. Grandma is going to show me how to make fig preserves using her old recipe in the next few days.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6540.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6542.jpg
Transplanted some bird's eye peppers and they appear to be surviving the trauma. These little jewels are good and hot and make some of my favorite peppersauce!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6549.jpg
The peppers are planted among several gardenia bushes. I love the sweet fragrance of the flowers, and they house lots of little ladybug larvae (or whatever stage this is), which will help with pests like aphids and thrips.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6552.jpg
What's this? Eastern Black Nightshade. Why do I keep it around? So I can show people to keep their kids safe from it. The flowers look to be exactly the same size and color as the flowers on my birds-eye peppers. If not for the difference in leaf shape, they could pass as twins. The green berries of nightshade can kill you and strongly resemble the small fruits of the birds-eye peppers. Please pay attention when you are foraging ANY Solanacea plant.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6556.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6557.jpg
One of the Stevia plants that I ordered from Gardener's Choice. Gave the other one to my mother.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6558.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6560.jpg
A leaf this big has the sweet taste equivalent (IMO) to a teaspoon of sugar.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6561.jpg
An olive tree that I still need to set out. Nice and thorny for primitive endeavors, and will have fruits that I can get cooking oil from, or brine the way grrlscout did (which is something I'm eager to try too!). It was given to me by the same gentleman who is going to teach me to pickle okra.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6563.jpg
Peaches that we thought were all but gone since the birds love them so much
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6565.jpg
We saved a pit last year and it sprouted. This is the resulting sapling. I'm so proud of it!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6566.jpg
Garlic is in bloom, so if anyone would like some seeds just let me know. I have two heads that will be seed in a few more days, and my friend up the road also has two heads he said I could get. Extremely pretty in bloom and delicious in deer-spaghetti!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6568.jpg
Maters making some progress. Hoping the thrips don't find 'em and give them the wilt virus.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6569.jpg
I thought that I would express the resemblance of ALL solonacea plants. Tomato, potato, pepper, and eastern black nightshade, all have these type flowers with the swollen anthers and backward curving flower petals. Size and color vary by plant.. Just be careful what you pick!!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6570.jpg
One of my Yucca filamentosa is putting on a flower stalk this year. I hope to make use of much of this plant, adding the fruits and flowers to salads, using the stalk for friction fire materials, and the leaves as cordage material. Don't forget that the root and leaf scrapings make excellent soap (which can also be used as a pesticide for aphids!)
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6573.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6574.jpg
It's been forming blooms for about 3 weeks now. It's a very slow bloomer
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6575.jpg
We had thought that the recent storms had blown away all the plum blooms. Much to my surprise I found these babies today!!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6576.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6577.jpg
Every year we have to prop up the limbs on this pear tree. It's only about 15' high and 15' wide, but it bears so much fruit every year that it will literally break itself. We take what doesn't get eaten to our hunting land for wildlife, and donate the over-ripe fruits that fall on the ground to a hog farming in-law. Hoping to learn to make pear butter this year and I can't wait for some more of the wife's pear tarts!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6579.jpg
Our fig haul for the day. Jay birds keep getting most of them before I get home at night. If anyone knows a better remedy for this than a piece of tin-foil in the tree, please let me know!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6581.jpg
Lots of good stuff to eat and most of it required no labor on my part, with the exception of what's in the garden. Hope you enjoyed!
Today's tater dig and taters from this past week of harvesting
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6524.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6526.jpg
Today's okra pickin's. I roofed a fella's house who is going to teach me how to "flash boil" it in the jar for pickling so they stay crisp and juicy. I can't wait till I get enough to put up some of the delicious treats!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6525.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6528.jpg
Progress on the peas.. seems like there were no blooms only two days ago, and now every plant has flowers! yay!!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6529.jpg
Cucumbers
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6530.jpg
Squash
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6532.jpg
Yep.. That's my beehive in the background.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6536.jpg
Blueberries
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6537.jpg
Figs.. I couldn't resist eating a few. They are so sweet and delicious. Grandma is going to show me how to make fig preserves using her old recipe in the next few days.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6540.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6542.jpg
Transplanted some bird's eye peppers and they appear to be surviving the trauma. These little jewels are good and hot and make some of my favorite peppersauce!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6549.jpg
The peppers are planted among several gardenia bushes. I love the sweet fragrance of the flowers, and they house lots of little ladybug larvae (or whatever stage this is), which will help with pests like aphids and thrips.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6552.jpg
What's this? Eastern Black Nightshade. Why do I keep it around? So I can show people to keep their kids safe from it. The flowers look to be exactly the same size and color as the flowers on my birds-eye peppers. If not for the difference in leaf shape, they could pass as twins. The green berries of nightshade can kill you and strongly resemble the small fruits of the birds-eye peppers. Please pay attention when you are foraging ANY Solanacea plant.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6556.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6557.jpg
One of the Stevia plants that I ordered from Gardener's Choice. Gave the other one to my mother.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6558.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6560.jpg
A leaf this big has the sweet taste equivalent (IMO) to a teaspoon of sugar.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6561.jpg
An olive tree that I still need to set out. Nice and thorny for primitive endeavors, and will have fruits that I can get cooking oil from, or brine the way grrlscout did (which is something I'm eager to try too!). It was given to me by the same gentleman who is going to teach me to pickle okra.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6563.jpg
Peaches that we thought were all but gone since the birds love them so much
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6565.jpg
We saved a pit last year and it sprouted. This is the resulting sapling. I'm so proud of it!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6566.jpg
Garlic is in bloom, so if anyone would like some seeds just let me know. I have two heads that will be seed in a few more days, and my friend up the road also has two heads he said I could get. Extremely pretty in bloom and delicious in deer-spaghetti!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6568.jpg
Maters making some progress. Hoping the thrips don't find 'em and give them the wilt virus.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6569.jpg
I thought that I would express the resemblance of ALL solonacea plants. Tomato, potato, pepper, and eastern black nightshade, all have these type flowers with the swollen anthers and backward curving flower petals. Size and color vary by plant.. Just be careful what you pick!!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6570.jpg
One of my Yucca filamentosa is putting on a flower stalk this year. I hope to make use of much of this plant, adding the fruits and flowers to salads, using the stalk for friction fire materials, and the leaves as cordage material. Don't forget that the root and leaf scrapings make excellent soap (which can also be used as a pesticide for aphids!)
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6573.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6574.jpg
It's been forming blooms for about 3 weeks now. It's a very slow bloomer
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6575.jpg
We had thought that the recent storms had blown away all the plum blooms. Much to my surprise I found these babies today!!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6576.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6577.jpg
Every year we have to prop up the limbs on this pear tree. It's only about 15' high and 15' wide, but it bears so much fruit every year that it will literally break itself. We take what doesn't get eaten to our hunting land for wildlife, and donate the over-ripe fruits that fall on the ground to a hog farming in-law. Hoping to learn to make pear butter this year and I can't wait for some more of the wife's pear tarts!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6579.jpg
Our fig haul for the day. Jay birds keep getting most of them before I get home at night. If anyone knows a better remedy for this than a piece of tin-foil in the tree, please let me know!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Natures%20Bounty%202011/DSCN6581.jpg
Lots of good stuff to eat and most of it required no labor on my part, with the exception of what's in the garden. Hope you enjoyed!