3 Flowers Blooming
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
So far three of the buds have opened up from the Paddle Plant. Maybe they will all open by Christmas day.
They look like peppers when closed and tulips when opened. The petals are thick and look almost fake, like wax flowers.
I’m not sure what type of succulent this is, but probably from the Kalanchoe family. The leaves remind me of Jade plant, except these leaves are much bigger. These leaves are thick and juicy and it does look like a big paddle for playing Ping Pong. Therefore it could be a “Paddle Plant.”
I’ve had this plant for almost four years. And this winter it has these flower buds. They’ve look like this for a month now and have not opened up yet.
Possible it could be called “Desert Cabbage, Paddle Plant, Flapjack Plant, Ice Sculpture, Kalanchoe thyrsiflora or Kalanchoe luciae.”
Moss are interesting little plants. Little patches of bright green in an otherwise dark corner of the forest. Moss are different than plants because they do not have flowers, leaves, or seed. But reproduce with pores.
There are also many different type of moss. Here I’ll break down the differences.
Photo below are one of the many uses of moss. These are really nice ones from “Twig Terrariums.” Photo from flickr.
Sphagnum Moss - Comes in dried form used in floral arrangements. Bonsai hobbyists also use them for air layering. The live Sphagnum moss is used in terrariums or miniature indoor garden.
Spanish Moss: Found growing on large trees in the SE United States, where it’s warm and humid. Not related to moss, but part of the bromeliads family. They are “epiphyte” and also called air plants.
Moss: Usually found on damp and shady parts of the forest, or if you’re lucky in your backyard. Also used to decorate gardens and terrariums.
The Georgia Gardner had this tip about propagating moss.
“You can “propagate” moss by taking a handful of moss adding about one cup of buttermilk and one cup of water and mixing it in the blender. Take the concoction and pour or paint it onto the surfaces that you want to grow moss.”
Sphagnum Peat Moss: The dead material that accumulates in the lower levels of a bog. There are peat moss bogs found in Ireland and Canada. Used in garden beds and for growing grass.
I got Sphagnum peat moss to grow catgrass and got this within 2 weeks. Sphagnum peat moss is also great for growing lawn seeds. Just spread out the seeds and apply the Sphagnum Peat moss as a top layer.
Cranberries come around for a short period this time of year. People like making cranberry sauce to eat with their turkey for Thanksgiving. A good thing since cranberries are one of the most healthiest fruits available.
I like to eat them this way, mixed with salt, sugar, and pepper. I also tossed in some dried cranberries because the fresh cranberries are very tangy.
Dried cranberries are a favorite with trail mixes. I also like them in granola. It keeps the granola from being too boring.
In 2005, researchers found that cranberries are also good for your teeth and gum. This is from the University of Rochester press release on November 23, 2005.
“Koo’s team also found evidence that cranberry juice disrupts the formation of the building block of plaque, known as a glucan.
Like a mason using cement to build a wall brick by brick, bacteria use enzymes known as glucosyltransferases to build dental plaque piece by piece, quickly forming a gunky fortress that covers the tooth and gives bacteria a safe haven to munch on sugar, thrive, and churn out acid.
Koo’s team found that cranberry juice prevents bacteria from forming plaque by inhibiting those enzymes and by stopping additional bacteria from glomming on to the ever-growing goo.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
I used to get my chaga from a health food supplier out of Florida, but they have been out of stock for some time now. So I did a search for “wildcrafted chaga mushroom” and found many on Ebay. I chose the chaga from Maine.
Chaga (scientific name: Inonotus obliquus) also known as cinder cork. It’s a unique fungus that grows especially on the wounds of birch trees. But it can also be found growing on ironwood, elm, alder, beech and other hardwood species.
To prepare chaga, it has to be dried. Some advise simmering the dried chaga for a few hours. Just to be on the safe side, I let mine simmer on high in the crock pot for 10 hours. I used 2 small pieces along with 3 quart of water. The color was very intense, looked very much like coffee. The smell was pleasant, very fresh and woodsy.
This is 1/2 chaga extract with 1/2 water. It taste very pleasant and no bitterness at all.
Chaga has the highest antioxidant concentration of any known natural food. When made into tea (and no sweetener added), the taste is suppose to be slightly bitter. Like many herbal medicines, the bitterness seems to be a common factor.
Due to chaga’s health benefits, it’s been referred to as “King of Herbs” and “Nature’s Silver Bullet”. Chaga has been researched as an antiviral, anti-tumor for breast and uterine and other cancers, and diabetes.
Cheers to Chaga!
Note: Survival Topics has a neat post on how to harvest and prepare wild chaga.
Some advise to boil while others say to simmer for hours. For best result, take 30 minutes on empty stomach before a meal.
Apple season is coming to an end out west. Many “U-Pick” orchards are closing their doors this weekend. Luckily we made it just in time to pick the last few apples left on the tree.
Gala apple hanging on a branch.
Clearview orchard is open only during the weekends. Located in Watsonville, just a few miles from Santa Cruz. The apples are grown in rows on a steep hill. When picking the apples, you have to be careful and not get your eyes poked by the branches.
This is the first time I’ve been to a “u-pick” farm and wasn’t used to paying for fruits that I picked myself. I guess I’ve always been lucky to get FREE fruits, whether it’s from a friend’s yard or our own.
We found out about Clearview Orchard from a Groupon deal, 10 lb for $10, normally it’s $2 per pound of organic apples. We easily picked 14 lbs in no time! And it was well worth it for fresh crisp apple right off the tree.
Bumper crop of Fuji apples.
On the down side I wish they had more varieties of apples such as Granny Smith. There seem to be only two types, the Gala and Fuji apples. Another downside was that there weren’t any animals around like goats or chickens. It would be fun to have a petting zoo.
But next time I want to try a different orchard, one with a working farm and red barn too. Gizdich Ranch is also located in the same area and sounds like fun.
Hoyas are commonly called wax plants. This is probably because the leaves feel almost like wax, or at least to me more like plastic.
There are many variety of hoyas with many different shaped leaves and flowers. They are tropical vines that make great houseplants and require little water.
The one I have pictured here is “Carnosa Tricolor”.
With some care and proper watering, it will reward you with attractive flowers. Be careful to not over water, as wet soils can kill a Hoya fast.
The flower is the real prize of this plant. I have yet to see the real flower and am looking forward to it. It’s been described that Hoya flowers are very fragrant and some species even smell like chocolate.
Care for your hoya plants by putting them near bright light but not direct sunlight. Let the soil dry between watering.
They don’t like big pots and bloom when root bound. This little plant I have is root bound and there are now 2 buds. I’m not sure when it will bloom, maybe in a few months.
More info about hoyas:
They are epiphytes (like orchids) and like well draining and porous growing medium such as chopped coconut husk or sphengnum moss. A good mix is about 1/3 of an orchid mix (bark, perlite, charcoal.)
Fertilization is average. And once the Hoyas start to bloom, they will continue blooming from spring to summer.
A popular variety is Hoya kerrii:
Belongs in the frangipani family, apocynaceae.
It is best to propagate any type of cuttings or seeds in a mixture of moist peat and perlite.
These little green guys are tomatillos. Pronounced “toe-ma-tee-yohs”. They are related to tomatoes and are in the nightshade family of plants.
I’ve eaten salsa verde (green sauce) many times at Mexican restaurants and really like them. So I thought it was about time I made my own version. And I’m glad I did as it’s very simple and easy to make.
Before cooking, wash the fruit with soap and water to remove the film left by the husk.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb of tomatillos
1 Jalepeno pepper (chopped)
1 garlic
onions
cilantro
2 tbs of fresh lime juice
Sea salt
Wash and cut the tomatillos in half. You can roast or boil them lightly. I find boiling them is much easier.
Cook until it’s soft then put all the ingredients in a food processor. Blend away along with all the other ingredients. Add a pinch of sea salt to taste. If you don’t have a food processor, just chopped everything and mix it up with a fork.
Two leaves & a bud is one of my favorite tea company. The latest tea from their line that I’ve tried is Organic White Peony.
The white tea is minimally processed, gently sun-dried to preserve the mellow, smooth and savory flavor of the tea. So it’s a very light tea with a floral note.
White tea is prized for it’s high levels of antioxidant and other health promoting properties. It gets the name white tea from the silvery bud that forms along with the two leaves of the tip of the plant.
Tea Notes:
* Caffeine: LIGHT
* Top note: Smooth
* Middle Note: Robust and sweet
* Finish: Complex texture
I like how this tea never gets bitter after steeping. I can also steep it 2 or 3 times before tossing it out.
This tea is also easy to drink with any meal. A cup of White Peony is perfect for this time of year.
Comes in an eco-friendly cylinder holding 50 grams of loose tea. Makes 25 cups.
The company is also on a mission to support all Fair Trade teas. Their teas come from small farmers.
We need more small family farms and should do our best to support them. Both at home and around the world.
“Our journeys to the gardens show us time and time again that great growers deserve to be rewarded for great tea. As a result, we pay more for premium whole leaf teas, ensuring that more money makes it back to the source.” - two leaves & a bud.
This Kalanchoe Tubiflora is from one of the many easy to care succulents from my collection. It’s a type of kalanchoe that requires almost no care, except for some sun, water and soil.
My mom’s friend had given her the plant years ago. This is probably the 6th generation. Some say it’s used as medicinal tea for maintaining a healthy liver. I have not tried making any tea with it, but heard it’s very bitter.
Kalanchoe Tubiflora is also known as “Chandelier plant, Mother-of-Thousands Plant and Maternity Plant”. The names do suit it well as this plant can have many offsprings. They are the little plantlets growing off the leaves.
If the little plantlets fall off to the ground it will grow like mad. It’s a very invasive plant, so best to keep it as a container plant. It can grow almost 5 feet tall.
As for the name “chandelier plant”, it gets that name from it’s pretty pink bunches of bloom which hang like a chandelier. They seem to bloom a few times a year, usually in winter and spring. It’s probably the nicest thing about this very odd looking plant.
Check out the plantlets (babies)! Once they drop they will start growing as a new plant.
There happens to be many variety of this plant, many are listed in Plants of Hawaii.
