Pictures and future additions

I was cruising around in the yard the other day and took some pictures, including some pictures of things I hope to add to my etsy store in the future. I uploaded the pictures to my flickr account after I took them, but I shall present them to you now. :)

Here is Gomphrena 'Strawberry Fields'. It's a globe Amaranth, and a native of the south Texas and Mexico. What I love about it is that it's easy to grow, drought tolerant, and absolutely stunning. It gets about a height of about 20-24". I will be offering seeds, hopefully, in a few weeks.

Another thing I took a picture of is my frog cave. I made this as a 'what can you do with this?' from my guy out of hypertufa. I have it sitting in the back of one of my flower beds, with the inside dug out and filled with a comfy bed of moist sand. Frogs (and the occasional garden snake!) are often holed up in it in the hottest summer months. I'll probably make a few of these and post them on etsy to see if anyone is interested in a little garden whimsy.

The lettuce is getting taller and taller and...

I'm leaving a head of lettuce to bolt, so I can collect the seeds from it. I love how they look when they're working towards flowering, though! They get taller and taller and the leaves stretch apart from each other and then, poof! A little flower appears on top.

Mine is at about 25", currently, and growing up noticeably every day.

Here's a picture of it next to a 1.5 gallon jug:

Another stray orchid

Here is my Epicat. El Hatillo 'Pinta'. It, too, survived the Great Orchid Roast of 2006; but, being the weed that it is, has made a full recovery. It decided that it would bloom this year, and now has three honey-scented flowers. It's actually more mead-like than just honey, but I think more people know what honey smells like.

This is the second largest plant I own, topping out at a whopping 18". It has thick pseudobulbs and long, floppy leaves. It's not a bad plant to look at out of bloom.

The flowers start out a yellowy-green with a pure white and purple lip. The petals and sepals slowly turn white, as well. This flower doesn't have the best form, but I'm still very pleased with it.

Gluten-free diets and the Amaranth

The Amaranth has been treasured as a food plant across the globe. It's not a grain, but it is versatile enough to be used successfully as a grain. It's also prized as a leaf vegetable.

A few years ago, my doctor was concerned that my allergy/upper respiratory issues were caused by a gluten intolerance. I decided that a gluten-free diet was worth the effort, if it would help me breathe again! Sad to say, it wasn't a gluten intolerance causing the problems, but I learned a lot and picked up some tricks.

One of those was the Amaranth. Most people haven't heard of it; and, if they have, they don't know how to use it. You can pop it and use it like cereal (Rice Crispies, anyone?), grind it into a flour and make pasta and bread out of it, or just take the leaves and use them in stir fries.

However, it's hard to find and pretty expensive, if you manage to find it. BUT! it's really, really, really easy to grow. It's a pretty plant, as well as a tasty one, and very productive. One plant can produce pounds of 'grain'. A few years ago, I grew about thirty plants and ground, shared, ate tons of it. It's got a delicious, almost nutty flavor. Sadly, this year my seedlings all died when I fell ill. :(

At the request of SapphireChild, here's a recipe for an amaranth bread that I experimented with last year. It's a modified version of a recipe from Nu World Amaranth.

Wheatless Amaranth Bread

3/4 cup warm water (you can also use soy or nutmilks, but I'd recommend using a bit less than if you use water)
2 1/4 cups amaranth flour, divided
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons oil (I like grapeseed oil for baking)
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 teaspoons baking soda
-You can mix this up with seeds (I like to add sesame, sunflower, milo, chopped walnuts...)
-You can also mix this up with dried fruit (dried apricots and dried pineapple were some of our faves)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine and mix 2-1/4 cups of the flour with the starch, salt, and whatever extras you want. Add ¾ of warm water (or milks) and oil to the flour mixture and mix well. Comine the boiling water and baking soda and add to the dough. Stir until water incorporates and turn the dough onto floured board or kneading surface.

Coat the dough in flour and knead for 2-3 minutes. Pull dough into a ball and place on floured baking sheet. Score the top of the bread and reduce temperature to 325F as you're putting the bread into the oven. Bake for about an hour and crack the loaf to test for doneness. If there are any gooey spots, put it back in for another couple of minutes.

Here's a link to the Amaranth in my shop. :)

Treasury!

greenthing put together this awesome treasury for us plant folks!

Here are some screen shots!



And the Treasury West!

Mmm, more tomato flowers!

I can't wait until we have fresh tomatoes! All of my tomato plants have flowers all over them, and it'll be soooo nice to have a tomato with taste again.

Here's a monster flower from one of my Brandywine plants:



I don't think I've ever had a single flower on my Brandywines, but this one has the most multiple flower I've ever seen, I think. It looks like a little monster, but it's pretty cool. The tomato is probably going to be a big, ugly, fused thing!

Garden dog!

I went out this morning to take some pictures, and my dog decided she didn't like the wet grass. For her morning sunning, she laid down in an empty spot in my flower bed...and hammed it up when I brought out the camera.

She posed and I took probably 30 glamour shots of her. Can you tell I don't have kids? :D

Here's one of my favorites. The unimpressed look is a classic.




I also started a new flickr account for the 'hair talk' thread and that'll be my etsy flickr.