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Post by macmex on Feb 26, 2024 0:19:41 GMT -6
LOL! I think I grew up in the dandelion capital of the world. Dandelion was one of the larger honey crops every year. I was amazed, coming to Oklahoma, to see so few. Our Italian friends at the greens but I never before today heard of eating the blossoms. They do have a fair number on the University campus. I might pick some, on break and give them a try. When growing up we did try the greens and frankly, they were so bitter we only tried once.
My mom and dad experimented with making home made wine over the years. One year they made dandelion wine. Dad couldn't wait for the fermentation process to finish before checking on the crock of fermenting blossoms. WHEW! When he opened the lid, he caused the whole family to evacuate the house! Quickly he covered it up and left it for some time, afraid of what would happen when he did open it, but when he did, they found a beautiful, clear wine. I have no recollection of what it tasted like, probably because I was a kid and wine wasn't o the menu for us kids. I do recall my folks saying it was very good.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 26, 2024 7:39:29 GMT -6
Wow, it's been getting down into the mid to upper 40'sF at night, for a few weeks, now. Last night it was supposed to get down to the low 50'sF, but only got down to 62F. The days have been in the high 70'sF and sometimes in the low 80'sF. I was lazy through this winter and haven't bothered to even start a winter garden. The asparagus is coming on strong. If we get another frost/cold snap, I hope it can handle it. The white and pink dandelions are blooming and even spreading more seed, already.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 28, 2024 8:32:36 GMT -6
75° yesterday and 25° this morning. That's not the kind of dip I like to take. My poor little turnip seedlings ...
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Post by woodeye on Feb 28, 2024 13:16:47 GMT -6
Yep, Old Man Winter sent a not-so-friendly reminder that it's still February. Stood out in a cold northerly wind at a graveside service this morning, the freezing of toes is not one of my favorite activities.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 3, 2024 13:27:44 GMT -6
My sincere condolences Teddy. I had a funeral to attend last week as well, but we were fortunate in that it coincided with warmer weather.
On a much brighter note; what a beautiful weekend this has turned out to be! We helped Hank move his tomato shade frame across the garden from the elderberry plants that plagued them last summer. It was an excellent day to be working in the garden, even if it was someone else's garden. It was 77° here yesterday and is already 77° again today. Our hens are laying like crazy this week, just in time for the wild onions to be in full swing! The wild onions have been holding back ever since that last cold spell that rolled through here on February 18th, but they're happy campers now!
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Post by woodeye on Mar 3, 2024 18:49:01 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 9, 2024 15:25:24 GMT -6
It looks like we'll probably be kissing our peach and pear blossoms goodbye tonight. Our forecast is calling for lows in the high twenties by morning. What got into those trees, setting their blossoms this early in March? Don't they know it's still Winter out there? If they only had a brain ...
Speaking of brains, I could hardly believe my eyes earlier this week when I saw foot-tall tomato and pepper plants in one-gallon pots for sale at Atwoods and Walmart already. They must start those things on Christmas Day to have plants so tall already. It looks like they'd have the common decency to hold off until at least April 1st.
That's akin to seeing their Christmas decorations across the aisle from the Halloween decorations in mid-October. By the time Christmas finally rolls around, I'm already too burned out to enjoy the actual season. I'm sure glad I'm not the one who has to bring all those plants back indoors on these cold, late-winter nights.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 10, 2024 8:06:39 GMT -6
It was 25° here this morning at 7:00 am. There was deep white frost to the very peak of our brown shingled roof and there was a quarter-inch thick skin of ice in the water troughs at the rabbit pen and the henhouse. Ol' Jack Frost definitely visited here last night. What can I say? "It was a beautiful frost!"
I doubt that our fruit trees and flowers thought much of what it looked like though. There goes another year's summer fruit ...
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Post by macmex on Mar 10, 2024 18:47:06 GMT -6
We no longer have peach trees, for this very reason, but our Keifer pear was in full bloom and appears to have survived.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 10, 2024 20:53:54 GMT -6
The freeze this morning looked pretty bad. Even so, I haven't seen any blossom drop yet, and bees were definitely buzzing them this afternoon in the interim between Church services and the start of the monthly seed savers meeting at 2:00 p.m. The blossoms may have survived, who knows?
Time will tell.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Mar 11, 2024 1:23:26 GMT -6
The wife of one of Bill’s ex co-workers is Asian. She has a successful Asian Pear tree and let us sample some fruits. They’re more like apples in texture and in my opinion taste better than pears with just a hint of pear flavor. It would seem the Asian Pear tree handles the colder dips better than our standard non native fruit varieties. I’m now wondering if it is invasive. Gotta check.
Cold dip or no, yesterday was absolutely Gorgeous. With the ground still wet, many local ranch owners are prescribe burning their cattle fields. At least I’m assuming they are prescribed since these areas seem brush and treeless, the soil still saturated and the fire not looking out of control.
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Post by macmex on Mar 11, 2024 2:28:09 GMT -6
If I recall, the Keifer pear is a cross between and American and an Asian pear. I do know that they grew it extensively in NJ, just before my time and that it has been very popular in our area of Oklahoma, among old timers.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 11, 2024 7:37:48 GMT -6
When I was younger, I had very little appreciation for the Kiefer pears that my grandparents grew and kept in storage, wrapped in paper, in boxes shoved under the beds, but now that I'm older I really admire them for their wonderful storage qualities. Their flavor and texture improve over time, making them have better quality in January than they have in the Autumn when they fall off the trees.
Not to mention the fact that it's hard to beat a good Christmas pear pie. I like those better than apple pie; the pears don't cook down to limp noodles the way apples do.
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Post by rdback on Mar 11, 2024 8:35:09 GMT -6
Received 1.2" of rain Saturday. Ground is pretty saturated. That's ok, I don't plan on tilling anything today anyway, lol.
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Post by woodeye on Mar 11, 2024 15:38:26 GMT -6
I second the motion for pear pie winning versus apple pie, heavyhitterokra . I have a pear pie in the freezer right now that I need to bake, my little sister gave it to me for my birthday last December. Applause for the nice rain & ground saturation, rdback . 👏
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