Morning, noon and night
Three random things I learned, or remembered, todayArchive for Plants
Organic products are better?
MORNING
Up till now, as far as I know, evidence that organic food is higher in nutritional value has been lacking. It has rather been a “lifestyle choice.”
Apparently, this is beginning to change. It has been shown that organic fruit and vegetables contain 40% more antioxidants which are thought to cut the risk of cancer and heart disease. The antioxidants in organic milk were shown to be 90% more in this study.
The food Standards Agency will consider this research and if necessary review their current advice.
Carving a Halloween pumpkin
NOON
There is a site dedicated to pumpkins.
It gives a bit on pumpkin carving history, choosing your pumpkins, carving tools, traditional carving, carving with stencils, lighting your pumpkins, life-span of a pumpkin, photographing, and growing your own pumpkin.
Its even suggested how to give your pumpkin a good burial once halloween is over.
Blueberries
MORNING
I have never seen blueberries cultivated in Scotland and wondered why. Maybe the Scots just don’t like them much.
Apparently they need very acid soil. Almost pure peat some say. We have that in the highlands.
There needs to be more than one bush for pollination.
And should never be allowed to dry out.
I’ll bet it’s too cold up here.
Love-in-a-mist
MORNING
Most summers I plant seeds of Love-in-a-mist in the garden for their seed pods as much as their delicate flowers and foliage.
Love-in-a-mist or Nigella damascena is a close relative of Nigella savita. Both are members of the buttercup family – (Ranunculaceae). The seeds of Nigella sativa are used as a spice. There seems to be a lot of confusion over the name of this spice. Sometimes, it is loosely called “black cumin” or “black caraway” or “black onion seed” “black sesame seed” but it is none of these. There is no botanical relationship between any of these plants.
In the USA, it is often known as “chernushka” and in Indian recipes, the seeds are referred to as “ajwain” but I don’t think they are that either.
All very confusing.
Kalonji seed may be a more accurate name. Peshawari naan bread is generally topped with these seeds.
More legumes
NIGHT
I was a bit fascinated by the fact that lupin flour (lupin or lupine being a legume) could cross react with people who have peanut allergy (peanut being another legume).
Here are some more legumes. I wonder how many of them cross react too.
Peas
Beans
Soya beans
Lentils
Fenugreek
Senna
Licorice.
Acacia
Carob
Guar
Tragacanth
I wonder if there are any more that we eat.
I wonder if an individual who has peanut allergy might react after handling lupins or sweet peas?
All the more reason to wash your hands after handling any kind of flower or plant, I suppose.
And to cover any cuts on the hands too.
What’s wrong with wild flowers?
NOON
I love orchids at my kitchen window. I love wild harebells by the roadside or in my garden.
But the two don’t mix well.
Sometimes I get so, so mad at people!
The Scottish countryside is beautiful. Some of the less invasive native wild flowers are now becoming well established at the side of the country roads again as farming becomes gentler.
But there is a new kind of herbicide. The wealthy townsfolk, the “incomers” who buy up the country cottages and farms and turn them into manicured mansions, take over the roadside also.
I saw this happening this morning. The wild verges up and down the road outside the new ostentatious gate of the cottage-come-mansion had been claimed by the incomer. Not owned by the incomer. Just claimed. “I am a wealthy man, therfore I have a right to claim the roadside too!” The bluebells, the wild roses, the meadowsweet, the thistles were all hacked out. Kerbs were being put in place, grass was being sown, garish plants all in full bloom were being put in by a posse of workmen. No expense was spared.
Many of these plants will not survive the frosts.
No taste, no sensitivity, no knowledge of nature.
The arrogance of the the incomer.
I think I might gather dandelion clocks and thistledown and willow herb seeds and sprinkle them all around this travesty of a roadside in the middle of the night.
Neglected orchids
MORNING
Here are some of my orchids that have been living at the kitchen window fifteen years or so. They flower year after year.
I tidied them up a bit today, because they were a bit of a mess.
None of my friends can get their orchids to re-flower again.
They just throw them out after the first flowering now, because they have had so little success.
This is because they don’t believe me when they ask me how I get mine to flower year after year.
I tell them: “Put them at the kitchen window near the kettle and then leave them.”
They never follow my advice.
They water them, feed them, prod them, trim them, stake them.
Their orchids die.
You see, they have not yet learned that sometimes neglect can be kinder than nurture.
Ayrshire potatoes
MORNING
All summer I have been yearning for a plate of tiny Ayrshire potatoes smothered in butter.
Nothing else.
Or maybe with some mince.
Mince and potatoes.
I have been yearning for this dish of my childhood for many, many summers now.
I loved Ayrshire potatoes so much, that I would buy myself a little plot of land in Ayrshire so I could plant my potatoes in the sandy soil and nourish them with seaweed, so that my children could taste the wonderful flavour.
They have never tasted proper Ayrshire potatoes.
Oh, I know, there are Ayrshire potatoes in Scotland in early summer. But they are not the ones they used to be.
They are too big. They do not have the Ayrshire flavour.
Doubtless these “New Age” Ayrshires are grown there. But that’s all.
Are they forced? Have they changed the variety? Are they not using seaweed any more?
Most people who grow and sell these modern “Ayrshire potatoes” are too young to remember the “Real Ayrshires”
If there’s an old farmer out there who was born a very long time ago and used to grow the “real” Ayrshire potatoes, please let me know the secret.
Please.
Please.
Please.
Crunchy strawberries
NOON
When I was a child, strawberries were seasonal, a luxury, soft, had a magnificent flavour and did not last.
At some stage, everlasting, crunchy strawberries for all seasons appeared.
I can’t remember when.
I must tell those that come after me that crunchy strawberries are a freak of mankind.
Have they crossed them with turnips, maybe?
Morning, noon and night plant
MORNING
There is a plant called “Morning, noon and night.” Or sometimes known as “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” Brunfelsia pauciflora
It is a shrub with white and purple flowers that change colour as they age. It has a sweet Jasmine-like perfume. In suitable climates (not the UK) it can be planted as a fragrant hedge.
It needs a warm, sheltered position and rich soil. Once established it will tolerate drought.
Wild bergamot
NOON
This is wild bergamot Monarda fistulosa
Nothing to do with Oil of Bergamot used in Earl Gray Tea.
I know something else that’s important about Oil of Bergamot, but I can’t for the life of me think what it is.
Oil of Bergamot
NIGHT
Oil of Bergamot is the favouring agent used in Earl Grey Tea
Yes, I knew that.
What I didn’t know was that it comes from the peel of a non-edible citrus plant citrus aurantium var bergamia which is grown in southern Italy.
Bergamot oil is also used extensively in perfumery.
Here is a really interesting Website for chemists or would be perfumiers.
A SMALL GUIDE TO NATURES FRAGRANCES
I remember once visiting a wonderful perfumery in Capri many years ago. I wonder if they have a Website now. I’ll check tomorrow.
Peanut allergy and lupin flour
NIGHT
As a child, I was always told never, never to eat the seeds from the pods of lupins because although they look like pea-pods they are poisonous.
It came as a surprise, therefore to find that lupin flour was widely used in the continent. Lupin seeds are an excellent source of protein. Lupins don’t seem to be poisonous any more? Or were my parents wrong with their advice.
So, I’ve been looking into this. Apparently the seeds ARE toxic. They contain an alkaloid. They must be soaked thoroughly to get rid of this before making into flour. However lupins are now being bred that are low in alkaloids.
Lupins are the same family as peas and beans – other pod bearing plants – the leguminosae.
What is interesting is that they are also related to peanuts. Peanuts are not nuts at all, but legumes. Individuals who have peanut allergy may also have an allergic reaction if they eat products containing lupin flour because of cross reactivity. The reaction can be very severe and even fatal.
So my parents were correct, although they probably didn’t know the reason. Lupin seed ARE toxic AND can cause severe allergies.
But I still love to have lupins in the garden, and I adore their peppery scent.
Caffeine benefits plants
NOON
Apparently coffee helps some plant seedlings survive.
Caffeine is found in many plants, with particularly high levels of this chemical being found in some seedlings at a time they are still devloping and lacking in mechanical protection from damaging insects which may feed on them. High caffeine levels from the plant kills some insects by paralysing them.
So, caffeine didn’t evolve with humans in mind. It is a naturally occuring insecticide.
Observation. We humans are addicted to a pesticide?
Making jam
MORNING
I really knew this but had forgotten.
Some fruits such as strawberries make runny jam because they lack pectin. Other fruits are high in pectin so the jam or marmalade thickens easily. Citrous fruits are high in pectin, so adding lemon juice will stop strawberry jam becoming runny.
Now, my mother didn’t do this. She always stirred her jam with a stick of rhubarb. She told me as a child that this was because rhubarb was rich in pectin. Nevertheless, the strawberry jam was still runny, sometimes.
Here’s a rhubarb link:
