Posted on 03/28/2020 6:12:38 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Jung’s has shortened hours at the Garden Centers and you can also call ahead and they will pull an order for you for curb-side pick up.
I’ve ordered a few seed orders on line: Baker Creek came fast enough, as did Jung’s. I’m still waiting on Botanical Interests.
I have roses, perennial grasses and sedum coming from Jung’s too, but it’s way too early to plant them now anyway, so they’re a few weeks out, I’m sure.
I was going to go to Springfield, MO to a steel yard to get some used fiberglass sucker rod. One inch diameter fiberglass to use as intermediate line posts and battens for the high tensile electric fence I’m putting up. Checked the company’s website this morning and they’re closed until Apr 13th, starting today. It was the last component needed to finish the fence. Had I known, I would have gone there yesterday but it was supposed to rain today so I went in the other direction for compost. Damn virus.
Did some digging on a future root cellar yesterday morning. Picked up a truck load of compost and got it tilled into the garden yesterday afternoon. Not going to rain today like they thought. No rain tomorrow or the next day so I might be able to set the last 8 wood posts for the perimeter fence Thurs. Guess I’ll plant some greens and brassicas and do some more digging on the root cellar today. Still need to move the persimmon and wild plum trees out of the garden plot to their permanent spots. More digging. The persimmon are already leafing out but they’ll survive. My taters are going where they are right now and I need to get them in before the seed taters shrivel up.
Getting too old for this manual labor.
My peach trees might be overly optimistic. Flowering now but frost free date isn’t for another couple of weeks.
This is a cake.....but it looks like a freshly-planted garden.
Takes some skill to frost the cake, to make the little seed packets and the marzipan vegetables....but fun work.
This is a cake.....but it looks like a freshly-planted garden.
Takes some skill to frost the cake, to make the little seed packets and the marzipan vegetables....but fun work.
You did that?
You should cater.
My skill level for this kind of stuff; Easter Butter Lamb:
LOL!
...cute.....
I grew my garden
18 foot longer for a total of 1100 sq ft
Hooray !
A mother wood duck has found a place for her “woodies” in one of my wood duck boxes.
Dad wood duck silently swims back and forth below on the lakefront.
A blessed event (with feathers) awaits.
Exciting! You’ll make a great Duck Grandpa, LOL!
The Curse of the Honeycrisp Apple
Bite into a Honeycrisp apple and you understand why consumers are willing to pay so much for a piece of fruit: the crunch.
That’s no accident. In the pre-Honeycrisp era, apples had just two textures: “soft and mealy (that nobody liked), and then we had the good apples, the hard, crisp and dense,” said David Bedford, one of the original breeders of the Honeycrisp.
Unlike the vast majority of modern commercial produce, the Honeycrisp apple wasn’t bred to grow, store or ship well. It was bred for taste: crisp, with balanced sweetness and acidity. Though it succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, along the way it became a nightmare for some producers, forcing small Northeastern growers to compete with their massive, climatically advantaged counterparts on the West Coast.
The Honeycrisp wasn’t an immediate success. The original tree, known officially as MN1711, was discarded in 1977 over concerns about its winter hardiness. But Bedford, who joined the team in 1979, found four small clones that had miraculously escaped the garbage and decided to see if they’d yield fruit. “In 1983,” Bedford wrote in an email, “those small trees bore a few amazing fruit and the rest is history.”
The Honeycrisp variety is now so popular, consumers will spend three times the cost of other apples to experience it.
Continues:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-curse-of-the-honeycrisp-apple?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Diana Here: Proving that no good deed goes unpunished! ;)
Then I found this recipe. Tasty Honeycrisp Apple Cider is the perfect fall drink------in a Moscow Mule.
INGREDIENTS 1.5 oz vodka 3 oz Litehouse® Honeycrisp Apple Cider 2 oz ginger beer ½ lime cinnamon stick.
DIRECTIONS Fill a copper mug or tall glass with ice. Add vodka, apple cider, ginger beer and lime juice.
SERVE Stir to combine and garnish with a cinnamon stick.
What’s up with this Botanical Interest thing?
Btw.....my 10 & 11 year old Johnny’s seeds that I found in a closet are sprouting (cucumber, Tomatoes, and Hungarian sweet peppers.....have a few others I have not yet tried.
These Frankenmaters look scary! I wonder what they taste like? (Black Sea Man Heirloom Tomato I saw on Amazon)
Glad to hear your older seeds are sprouting!
Botanical Interests has good seed and good varieties. I usually order a few things from them:
https://www.botanicalinterests.com/
Hudson Valley Seed Company really does an amazing job with the artwork on their select seed packets. I gave a gift certificate, a catalog and tied on a pretty packet of seeds for birthday gifts last year - well received!
Having been in ‘The Seed Biz’ for 18 years, trust me - we were selling the SIZZLE, not necessarily the STEAK! ;) You guys would be amazed at the mark-up on seed. And mail-order is such a lucrative way to sell them, it’s ridiculous!
I should’ve started my own seed company decades ago.
When it’s available by me, I always buy Honeycrisp cider. And donuts! And...anything else they are selling, LOL!
We have ONE Honeycrisp apple tree, but she’s only produced a few apples so far.
If we don’t have a late freeze, it should be a good apple year for us a all of our apple trees are ‘at that age’ when they start to produce. :)
They’re tasty - a novelty. I’ve grown them along the way - not much disease resistance for me, though.
Nothing prettier than a rainbow platter of ‘maters! :)
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