Lemon Grass

Sorry for the lack of entries in the past two weeks. I just feel settled after the move from SOCal to Berkeley.

Today's plant is Lemon Grass, or Andropogon or Cymbopogon Citratus, depending on if your use is medicinal (Andropogon) or culinary (Cymbopogon).

It's great in Thai dishes and Indonesian plates. The maintenance manager at the Hoyt Cooperative states that this herb is growing in our garden for use in cooking, but I have not yet taken the time to spot it. I will search it out today and most likely include it in my meal if the plant is established. One must harvest it from the bulb, not leaf, so finding a plant that is healthy with multiple shoots is essential to continual harvest.





images are from:
http://www.holistic-online.com/Herbal-Med/images/lemongrass.JPG
and http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/pictures/cymb_03.jpg This website also provided delicious recipe tips for lemongrass.

Mustard

Good day.
training at Starbucks for 4 hours this morning.
relaxing afternoon, in spite of the heat. joe's birthday, so it was fun to spend time with him and tom and alan and jessie. yep. enjoyable time.

Going to sleep well tonight.
hopefully others are having a good weekend!

Feature plant of the week: Mustard!

It's all over our hillsides this time of the year. And some grocery stores sell mustard greens, which add a pleasant kick to a pasta salad.




Photo is from: http://www.steveshamesphotos.com/

Here's the website that helped me find recipes with mustard greens, and helped me understand the massive nutrition behind this delicious leaf:
http://www.whfoods.com/recipestoc.php

Garden Mini-Onion

more hours devoted to a corporation
less-than desireable compensation
friendships aplenty
summer of incredible potential
THWARTED.
waiting on inefficient systems
for answers to unrealistic wishes.

what more can one do?
one can only break the mold if they do not want a positive end goal.

Plant of the day: Allium Lacunosum. This plant is a terrible weed that has infested my backyard. Tom asked what it was yesterday morning while he was in my backyard. He said it wasn't particularly ugly, and asked why I called it a pest. I said it was related to an onion and complained of how, no matter what, it is impossible to remove from the soil in a certain planter. Its bulb can be so tiny and prolific that even if soil is removed from the planter and sifted, the plant will thrive again the next year. The foliage is narrow and looks enough like grass that if it pops up in a planter with other flowers (daylilies, violets, and miniature carnations in my case) it creates an untidy look. Recent efforts have left stems with flowers and no grass-like foliage. Such a result is better in appearance than any previous efforts. I have a strong desire to thwart this hearty bulb, though I am tempted to attempt to use it as a poignant little onion in cooking.


Photo is from Barbara Collins' CLU plant webiste: http://www.callutheran.edu/Academic_Programs/Departments/Biology/Wildflowers/index.htm

Artichokes

no work today
awoke at 8am
beautiful weather
able to work more outside, at least this morning.

We have had artichokes growing in my backyard since I can remember. My parents never tried to cook them. But last month, I finally bit the bullet and put those delicious artichoke buds in a pressure cooker. The result was a more poignant artichoke than one you can find at the market. All sorts of delicious. I couldn't believe it: all of this untapped potential hanging out in my backyard year after year. Unfortunately the fruit is small enough that it's a lot of effort to peel and eat, for only a little reward of potent, incredibly delicious artichoke-yums.

I learned a lot about artichokes from the California Artichoke Advisory Board: http://www.artichokes.org/


The pretty artichoke picture is from UCSB's life science website: http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~wallenstein/photos/pages/artichoke%20flower.htm

Now, don't confuse the artichoke with the Jerusalem Artichoke, which is a SUNFLOWER root ball! Described as a "lumpy root vegetable with a nutty, crunchy, sweet flesh" (from: http://kitchen.apartmenttherapy.com/food). It's like a potato, but with insulin instead of starch. Some produce companies market them as a "sunchoke."


Check out this website for more information on Sunchokes, including leafing patterns: http://www.slugsandsalal.com/06/artichoke/artichokeJerusalem.html