Notes from Turtle Ridge: May 2012

By Jill Henderson

The hands of time seem to spin faster during spring than during any other time of year.  This May has been disconcertingly warm, which  brought about the early bloom and fruiting of many trees and plants, including this Red Mulberry tree (Morus rubra), which normally ripens its fruit in mid-summer.   Every other day, Dean hiked up the hill, bucket in hand,  to pick the

Grow Your Own Ginger

By Birgit ‘B’ Bradtke – Guest Contributor

When I began growing ginger I expected it to be difficult, but it’s not.  I’ve been growing ginger at home for years and it is a serious contender for the title of “most neglected plant” in my garden. In fact, I look at my ginger plants exactly once a year at harvest time. I harvest them, replant them and then forget about them for another year.  I easily grow a year’s supply of ginger and have plenty left over to give away. You can grow your own ginger using store-bought ginger root and you can easily grow it in pots or tubs.  On this page I tell you everything you need to know about growing ginger, so you can grow your own fresh ginger, too.

The Ozarks Sustainability Festival

The 5th Annual Ozarks Sustainability Festival will be held this Sunday, May 20th from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM in West Plains, MO.

As always, the festival will be a free, fun-filled day of learning for the entire family with a focus on sustainable skills, homesteading, small farming self-sufficiency, natural health, alternative energy and much, much more!   This year’s festival is again chock-full of live demonstrations, hands-on workshops and just-for-kids activities.  There’s even going to be a native plant walk right on the grounds!  Keynote speakers will present discuss topics such as urban homesteading, transportation, emergency preparedness, natural remedies, seed saving, aquaponics, making tinctures and alternative energy for the home, just to mention a few!  See the full list of speakers and demonstrators below.

At Home in the Kitchen: Herbal Vinegars and Oils

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz

Summer’s harvest is never complete until a few bottles of garlic chili oil are tucked away in the pantry and a handful of spicy golden vinegars grace the windowsill.  Both oils and vinegars add a lot of flavor to almost any dish and are ready when you need them as dressings and marinades.  Herbed oil is great stir-frying,   sautéing or braising meats, tofu and vegetables.  Some herbed oils are best made with dry ingredients, while others require the crispness found only in freshly-picked ingredients.  So, while the height of summer is still a way off, now is the best time to begin gathering materials and deciding which blends will work best for your style of cooking.

Herbal Tea: Just Plain Good

By Jill Henderson

Mention the word tea, and most thoughts turn to a strong hot cup of Earl Gray or a tall glass of sweet iced pekoe. But these days tea is more than black—it is green, or herbal, or something akin to hot chocolate. Regardless of how you have thought of it in the past, one thing is certain: tea is medicinal.  And now, with the spring season swinging into early summer, many of the kitchen herbs in my garden are rapidly reaching their flowering stage.  Of course, leafy herbs are at their  peak of perfection just as the flowers begin to open, but I like to allow a few stems to bloom, as well.  The flowers of most herbs are not only flavorful when used fresh or dried, but they also can have medicinal properties themselves and are excellent additions to many herbal tea blends.

Notes from Turtle Ridge – April 2012

By Jill Henderson

This week’s article is the  first in a new series  I’m calling Notes from Turtle Ridge.  This series is definitely more personal and less academic than my regular weekly column, but hopefully, just as informative and entertaining.

Hanging Out With Spiders

Jill Henderson

Anyone who lives in or visits the Ozarks invariably notices that we have a lot of spiders.  They’re  in our gardens, fields, meadows, pastures and woodlands; and sometimes, they’re even in our homes.  Love them or hate them, life in the Ozarks just wouldn’t be the same without  a few wispy strands of spider silk brushing across your face on a woodland walk or the sight of a dewy meadow strung with thousands of glistening hammock-like webs strung by the Sheet-web spider (Linyphiidae).  Of course,  living in Missouri provides plenty of opportunities to encounter and learn about at least a few of the 300 species of spiders that call the Ozarks home.

Pokeweed: Good Green or Toxic Weed?

By Jill Henderson – - – Show Me Oz

Spring in the Ozarks wouldn’t be the same without gathering and preparing at least one pot of poke.  At our house, this leafy perennial ranks right up there with other spring edibles such as asparagus.  This week I was planning on writing an article on how to prepare poke for consumption, when  a colleague pointed out an article written by Dr. Jean Weese, a Food Scientist with the  Alabama Cooperative Extension Service entitled, Don’t Eat Poke Salad.  As the title suggests, Dr. Weese attempts to dissuade people from eating poke in any form, noting that it contains “at least three different types of poison”.  The controversy over whether poke’s is toxic or edible has been going on for a very long time, but who is right?  Is poke poisonous or is it safe to eat?  Fodder for this week’s Show Me Oz.

Wrens, Tree Frogs and Rain Gardens

Here in our little slice of Ozarks heaven, we are most fortunate to be granted the privilege of greeting every new day with a lyrical symphony of sound that has the ability take our breath away.  Yet, there are those rare occasions when the sweet symphony becomes more like a raucous cat fight.  Take the Carolina wren for example. Earlier in the week I spotted a male wren among the brushy edges of the woods, bobbing and flicking his tail up and down.  I’ve always found wrens interesting enough, but to be honest, they never really made any enduring impression on me – just a nice little brown bird that flicks its tail a lot.   I would soon be proven wrong.

Native Spring Flowers

Jill Henderson – -  Show Me Oz

With the recent passing of the vernal equinox and the end of the Great Sleep, Spring has asserted herself firmly in the Heart of the Ozarks.  The rising intensity of the sun has enticed all living things to join in a brief, but joyous celebration of new beginnings that humans often associate with love.  And love is definitely what I feel when I stumble upon any newly emerged plant, from a tiny perfect flower in the grass or a forest filled with flowering redbud and dogwood.  Big or small, spring provides the perfect opportunity to  search for new and interesting native plants.

A Beeline for Spring

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz
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Today is the Vernal Equinox, the celestial event that marks the point in time when day and night become equal in length and spring officially begins.  Of course, here in the Ozarks, spring has been well under way for several weeks now.  Even before the first daffodil bloomed, the signs were all around us, especially winged kind.  I always know spring has arrived when  the moths begin beating against the windows at night and when sleep-drunk wasp queens drift on the breeze and buzzing bees begin searching for the first flowers of the season.

A Successful Community Seed Swap

On March 1st, the community of West Plains, Missouri, held their first-ever community seed swap!  It was a fun and busy day with over 35 people in attendance.  Dubbed the Ozarks Pot Luck & Seed Swap, my dream was to bring together area gardeners to share their knowledge and experience with other gardeners and to promote the concept of saving one’s own seed.   I was understandably nervous in the hours leading up to the swap, but all that quickly flew out of the window when I walked into the facility to find a room full of friends who had arrived early and were already setting up the tables! 

Start Your Own Sweet Slips

By Jill Henderson -  Show Me Oz
. . . .
Last week we learned quite a bit about the history and uses of the deliciously edible and  nutritiously dense sweet potato.  With a surge in popularity among homesteaders and gourmet chefs alike, this homely root with the pumpkin-colored flesh is being grown in home gardens in quantities not seen for decades.   And it’s no wonder; for sweet potatoes cover a lot of ground.  They’re easy to grow, relatively care-free and beautiful to look at.  The roots pack a nutritional punch, taste great, are low in fat, and will fill you up every time.  Sweet potatoes are a dream to cook with partly because of their uncanny ability to be prepared in so many ways.  They can be baked, boiled, steamed, mashed or fried and added to a myriad of dishes with flavors ranging from sweet to savory.  No matter how you prepare this wonderful root, it always tastes good.  In this week’s article I’ll cover everything you need to know so you can grow your own sweet potatoes from start to finish!

Rooting for Sweet Potatoes

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz
. . . .
Sweet potatoes are an ancient food crop; a staple that has sustained and nourished mankind for thousands of years.   Highly nutritious, sweet potatoes are the seventh most important food crop in the world.  Throughout the ages these sweet, orange, red and sometimes golden roots were valued so highly by early man, that they were often used as a form currency and as a token of friendship between cultures.  Today, this weirdly-shaped “potato” is making a comeback with home gardeners – and for good reason. 

Share the Seed: How a Seed Swap Works

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz

Swapping seeds is both fun and addictive. I remember the first time I began swapping seeds with other seed-junkies in 1999, using a then obscure method of communication known as the internet.  Back then, most of the people I knew did not have or even know what email was.  Finding a group of people who loved to trade and talk seed was like finding a long-lost friend.  I was instantly hooked, both with seed swapping and the internet!

Bald Eagles on the Rise

By Jill Henderson

Winter is one of the best times to see bald eagles in Missouri.  These dazzling giants often congregate around large bodies of water where fish are abundant.  A few years ago, on a day much like today,  Dean and I spotted a pair of adult bald eagles circling lazily on the warm, rising thermals of a mid-winter day.  Their white head and tail feathers shone brightly against the sky.  We watched the pair with excitement.  Within minutes, a darker sub-adult eagle joined them.  We were thrilled to get a rare glimpse of this eagle family, especially since we were so far from the large lakes and rivers where the eagles prefer to congregate.

Seed Saving: Beans & Peas

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz
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If you are planning on saving some of your own seeds this coming summer, the very best time to start is before a single seed goes in the ground.  In fact, saving seed should begin with that catalog you’ve been perusing all winter.  Seed catalogs are often filled to the brim with valuable information on the crops you want to grow, including germination times, growth characteristics, suggested planting dates and so on.  But the best part is that many catalogs now list each vegetable’s Latin botanical name, as well.  For the seed saver, those two little words written in italics and perched between parenthesis can mean the difference between seed saving success or seed saving failure.

Essential Herbs: Lemon Balm

By Jill Henderson

Lemon balm is one of my favorite herbs for many reasons.  To start, it is by far one of the easiest herbs to grow and it’s beautiful to look at, as well.  I particularly like the way lemon balm attracts beneficial insects and butterflies  to my garden.  Occasionally, even the hummingbirds find it intriguing.  I am also partial to lemon balm tea, especially on a cold winter night.  It’s deep earthy lemony flavor brings back a touch of summer sunshine and its soothing and calming properties make it a valuable medicinal herb.

America’s Native Bamboo: Identification & Culture

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz

In last week’s article, America’s Native Bamboo: History and Ecology, we learned that America was once home to massive colonies of native bamboo, better known as canebrakes. These lush cane forests played a critical role in the ecology of the regions they inhabited by filtering sediments, controlling erosion and providing food and shelter for many native animal and bird species. Cane also played an important role in the lives of the earliest inhabitants who valued it as a nutritional food plant and an important material used to fashion tools, weapons and lodging. In the early days of settlement, America’s native cane fields were first used to fatten cattle and then cleared for farmland. Today, a whopping 98% of America’s once-abundant native bamboo has been extirpated from the landscape. This week, I will discuss the ways in which native bamboos are being used in restoration projects and how we can help return them to their rightful place in nature and beautify the home landscape, all at the same time.

Winter Landscapes in the Ozarks

We’ve been offline all week as we waited for our new computer.  Since I was not able to finish the second installment of America’s Native Bamboo in time for this week’s post, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite winter scenes.

I’ll be back next week with a healthy article entitled: America’s Native Bamboo: Identification & Culture.  I hope to see you then.