Penny Lane? Nah Purselane!

Welcome back to another terribly late episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This time honestly the lateness has to do with the new job suddenly going from being part time (30 or less hours) to me suddenly having to do the work of several people and it being 40 plus hours. Since overtime is involved I cannot complain but besides that I had a plan for the two July episodes and decided to scrap both. The fact is in retrospect I noticed that the late July post wasn’t fully researched and the early one was flat boring. Honestly if any of you readers out there wanted to be bored you could just listen to grass grow or you know try to win a staring contest with your compost. I kid of course, we all know compost never blinks, you can’t win that one no matter what you do.

Portulaca oleracea - Common Purslane

This month’s topic however is one I've touched on quite a bit and I’m coming back to in light of some good photos of specimens in the wild.  The topic of course is weeds, but more so today we are going to talk about one very common weed that is completely edible with a nonexistent chance of ill side effects and no poisonous look-alikes. Surprisingly the cultivated form of this weed is often known by the scientific first name of the species and is also fully edible and remarkably drought tolerant. The plant in its cultivated form is called Portulaca, but in its ‘weed’ forms it is called Purslane. The differences between the two summarize with the leaf shape and flower colors and that the cultivated types have been bred for double flowers. but otherwise they have negligible differences. In both cases pieces of the plant can be propagated in water or the ultra-fine powder like seed can be harvested which has a high germination rate if you protect the seed from excessive moisture in storage. But of course, the real question is why should you eat Purslane? Well Purslane is a strong source of Vitamin A, enough such that 100 grams (3.53 ounces) provides 44% of your daily recommended amount. It also is rich in Vitamin C, a number of complex b-vitamins and it is noted to have dietary minerals like iron, magnesium calcium potassium and manganese. Additional research by [Proc. West. Pharmacol. Soc. 45: 101-103 (2002] indicates that Purslane contains two types of Betalain alkaloid pigments; the yellow b-xanthins and the reddish b-cyanins which have been found to have anti-mutagenic properties in lab tests.

Portulaca amilis - Broadleaf Pink Purselane

This does come with some not-so good news as it’s been noted that Purslane’s foliage bears naturally occurring oxalic acid which can give it a tart flavor. 100 grams of fresh leaves can contain 1.31 grams of oxalic acid which is more than spinach or cassava and thus those with the risk of oxalate urinary tract stones should avoid purslane. I should also note that if you heard the word oxalic acid, and thought it sounded familiar otherwise you are right to think so. When it comes to house plants some plants use oxalic acid as a defense to prevent grazing. The most common is the Dumb cane (Dieffenbachia sp.) which when chewed causes oxalate crystals to lodge in the tongue and throat causing you to lose the ability to speak and general discomfort. However, the Dieffenbachia isn’t the plant with the highest oxalate content in common cultivation, that title goes to Parsley (yes, the biennial in the carrot family), which by volume is 1.7% oxalic acid and can be eaten with no real side effects. If anything, the combination of organic chemical compounds in parsley makes it suited for flavoring and for the use as a breath freshener that can even nullify garlic.

Sources used for researching this article:
    1.    Stanford School of Medicine, Cancer Information Page: https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-clinics/cancer-nutrition-services/reducing-cancer-risk.html
    2.    Proc. West. Pharmacol. Soc. 45: 101-103 (2002) http://fikrat0.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/procwest.pdf
    3.    USDA National Nutrient Database

For note this is where the advertising starts because it keeps the Test Garden’s supplied and running tests so you don’t have to. If you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Barring bad weather, I’ll be there selling the following summer offerings.

Plants Available Now:

Peppers, Ghost – $3.00

Peppers, Aji Limon - $3.00

Peppers, Pepperoncini - $3.00

Basil, Sweet – $3.00

Sage, Common - $3.00

Stevia - $3.00

Santolina - $3.00

Tarragon, Texas - $3.00

Toothache Plant - $3.00

Coneflower, Pow Wow Mix - $4.00

Milkweed – $3.00

Milkweed, Whorled - $3.00

Oregano, 6” pot - $5.00

Hops, 6” pot - $10.00

Aloe Vera, Large - $7.00

Dancing Bones Cactus - $3.00

Polka Dot Plant - $4.00

Coming Soon:

Flowering Maple

Ornamental – Coneflower, Cheyenne Spirit

More To Be Announced

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

            This brings to a close the thirteenth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 1st of August which is next Wednesday. As a bit of a spoiler, next week you are going to see first hand what kind of hot peppers I am trading to Fowler’s Restaurant on 723 West Roan Street In Fayetteville North Carolina, and this means the first pictures of the vaunted hybrid pepper I’ve bred and been talking about. Oh, the spoiler here isn’t what I’ve just said, it’s that said hybrid pepper is now being used in a hot sauce called “X-Man” because it’s so hot that you need to have super powers to endure it. I’ve taste tested it and it’s good, but even a few drops will burn for upwards of 48 minutes.

Riders On the Storm!

Welcome back to another Thunderstorm-Straddling episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market. As you can tell the heat is on and summer officially begins on Saturday, More so the 4^th of July occurs the following Saturday so I hope all of you are prepared for a super-happy Fun time week because between those two events it’s going to be off the charts. For today’s topic first I have this image as taken through my office window at the headquarters.

This thunderstorm was an on and off affair lasting a little over an hour and was full of the expected thunder and lightning. But some of you may be wondering what the fuss over a thunderstorm is and that is a simple question to answer. From a basic perspective thunderstorms occur when a mass of cold air meats a mass of warm air causing the fronts to mix and respond with precipitation and of course thunder and lightning. But one other advantage is that the Atmospheric pressure creates both wind and extracts nitrogen from the atmosphere which is delivered to the fields and garden in a soluble form in rain. This alone makes thunderstorms important because they basically both water and fertilize the land. After a series of thunderstorms everything looks super green because all the plants have gotten a nitrogen boost and nitrogen causes a growth spurt and intense greening in plants. Too much nitrogen can cause a plant’s cells to burn out, where as too little causes most plants to become pale and lack vigor. The problem is that nitrogen is capricious, in that it never stays in the soil and thus even the USDA doesn’t bother testing soil samples for it because they know there will be no accuracy in the readings.

Typically we apply nitrogen in a water-soluble form known as Urea nitrogen, which is called urea because we first identified it as a chemical in *drum roll* urine. Fish in a fish tank exchange their urea through their gills which is why when you change the water in your aquariums the water makes for a decent fertilizer. Other creatures exude urea through the skin (amphibians) and in their bodily wastes (birds). If you’ve ever been to a place like Flow & Grow in town, you might see some of the Sunleaves brand bird guano and bat guano fertilizer products. In this case both often have high nitrogen levels but also respectable potassium and phosphorous content. This is because of those two animal’s particular diets. Sea birds eat fish, and fish inherently have a fair amount of urea in their systems. Likewise bats often eat insects and from their chitin exoskeletons calcium, phosphorous and potassium can be extracted through digestion.  In order for these wastes to be processed into fertilizers often they are dried and sterilized so that no pathogens are passed to the user. This leads to one thing that has to be said.

I do not recommend any of you out there using your own bodily wastes as fertilizer or compost due to the risk of transmitting communicable diseases such as typhoid and cholera and or parasites. There are systems like the Bio-toilet out there that allow you to compost your own bodily wastes but if you are going to embark on this I really, suggest you do thorough research first. Oh and make sure you wash your hands…seriously it’s gross.  Moving along there is one happy side effect of having a thunderstorm and that is that frequent but non-drenching rains promotes what I like to call advantageous volunteers. In the new bed that is still under construction a bumper crop of crab grass has appeared and is helping hold the soil in place but in between it a number of edibles have emerged.

This is red Calaloo or a type of amaranth. It volunteered in the new bed from last years seed no doubt. Some see amaranth as a weed, I see it as an edible forage plant with many native edible relatives plus it’s a useful drought tolerant garden plant with an interesting color.

Check this out, of all the rotted sweet potatoes, one somehow survived the winter to sprout in the new bed from the compost I used to build this bed up. I doubt I’ll get anything out of it but it’s still cool to see a success story.

  

I don’t know the species but I like that some form of squash or gourd is creeping out of the new bed purely on a volunteer basis, this is the most developed out of several examples of volunteering squash in the bed.

This wraps up this week’s post, the market report for this Saturday’s market is on the prior post and this Saturday marks the first Saturday that I am offering Medicinal Aloes for sale. So stop on by and get your instant herbal burn relief.

June so soon?

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmer’s market. This is the first episode of the summer season where it actually is acting like summer should. We ended a week or two of virtually no precipitation with rising temperatures and humidity. Fortunately we had at least 1.5” of rain to counteract the mini-drought and should be back on schedule for all things agricultural and garden. In the middle of this some great snapshots from the garden were taken and we’ll start the first real post of the summer with those.

Hemerocallis fulva - Tawny Daylily

The true common day lily if there is one has to be this guy right here. They popup in the late spring and persist as foliage all summer. The happy orange flowers of these guys can stand at 2-3 feet tall which makes them ideal for enjoying in a natural setting and for photographing.

Hemerocallis sp. ' Stella' - Stella Day Lily

The day lily is a food forager's ideal plant; it is completely edible but can cause frequent bathroom visits if too much is eaten. Day lilies are named for the fact each bloom unless the temperatures remain cool last for about one full day. Thes are not to be confused with Oriental/ Asiatic lilies which are true lilies (Lilium). Daylilies are actually grouped botanically with leaf-succulents such as aloes and the members of the Red Hot Poker's family (Kniphofia) . Stella is an important variety because it is the daylily that keeps blooming where as traditionally one might get a short bloom season and that was it for the year. As a side note, Daylilies and Oriental Lilies are BOTH poisonous to cats even the pollen can cause acute renal failure so if you have pets be wary.

Delphinum sp. - Larkspur

Good old Larkspur, a plant with a flower almost as complicated in shape as the most exotic orchids. Larkspurs are the late summer blues of the garden and are very adaptable. Common Wildflower seed mixes will have these.

Delphinum sp. - Larkspur

 What's this now? That is a pure white Larkspur who's origins are currently unclear as I only had blue. Not that it's a bad thing to see some random wildflower genes asserting themselves but this single plant was and is quite impressive compared to the one above.

Asclepias curassavica - Scarlet / Swamp/ Tropical Milkweed

I snapped a shot of the scarlet milkweed in the last post, but right after the flowers opened and as you can see they are an epic shade of flamboyant orange and red.

Hypericum sp. - Saint Johns Wort

Saint John's Wort is a herbaceous perennials that  bears incredibly bright yellow blooms followed by what you see above, pearl-like seed capsules which are colorful and almost good enough to be considered a second bloom. However, it should be noted that St. Johns wort is a useful medicinal herb as tinctures and salves made of it's leaves reduce the healing time of bruises and lacerations. Paired with betony which is known as wound wort, the two can be used to accelerate healing.

Lavendula angustifolia ' Lady Anne' - Lady Anne Dwarf Lavender.

Lady Anne was a dwarf variety of lavender I decided to offer this year because of it's tolerance of humidity and it's petite (up to 12") size. This form of English lavender is a better neighbor as it sprawls less and blooms the first year as you can see above.

The bloom of a betony plant.

 The betony family comprises of a large number of herbaceous plants often with the botanical Latin first name of Stachys. You might know it's most famous relative, Lambs Ear, or it's 'weedy' relative Rattlesnake Weed. But as more things bloom you'll see them up here with little tidbits of information and there will be a lot of stuff to talk about as the summer progresses. But I move onward to the market information for this weekend.

For those not in the know; the Fayetteville City Market is open on Wednesdays between the hours of 12:00 to 5:00pm and on Saturdays between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville. We are located on the grounds of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The market is a rain or shine event that persists in all but the worst weather. For note I have resumed service on Wednesday markets so you can come on down and not only get the best local foods, but you can now get your garden plants too. Fortunately June has begun with heat humidity and rain and I am responding by turning up the heat. This month you can expect to see some of the world’s hottest pepper plants and if that doesn’t suit your fancy, June is the first month I am offering for the first time fig bushes. Bordeaux Regional Nursery is proud to present three types of figs for your culinary delight.

LSU Gold

-          Fruit is green-yellow when ripe and they have pale red flesh inside.

-          Bred for our region by Louisiana State University, LSU handles heat and humidity very well.

-          Good general use fig for all purposes.

Negronne

-          Sometimes called Violette du Bordeuax.

-          Fruit is ripe when they are a deep purple-black and have red flesh inside.

-          Comparable to Black Mission in sweetness, and is good for cooking.

White Ischia

- Very fast growing, the mother plant puts on several feet a year.

- The fruit is golden-green when ripe and has a reddish flesh.

- Good for use in breads and brewing.

But of course this is not the only thing because this week’s market list is below.

Vegetable

3x Early Black Egg Eggplant

2x Pepper, Flashpoint Habanero

1x Pepper, Cubanelle

1x Pepper, Trinidad Douglah

1x Pepper, 7-Pot

1x Pepper, Naga Viper

1x Pepper, Naga Jolokia

1x Pepper, Chocolate Scorpion

1x Pepper, Santaka

1x Pepper, Aji Pineapple

1x Pepper, Aji Citro

1x Pepper, Aji Limon

1x Pepper, Aji Chinchi Amarillo

Fruit

2x LSU Gold Fig

2x Negronne

2x White Ischia Fig

3x Ground Cherry, Cossack Pineapple

3x Tomato, Pink Stuffer

3x Tomato, Black Cherry

1x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry

3x Tomato, San Marzano

3x Tomato, Traveler 76

1x Tomato, Underground Rail Road

3x Tomato, Black Krim

3x Tomato, Cherokee Purple

3x Tomato, Brandywine

Herbs

4x Sweet Basil

1x Thai Basil

1x Cinnamon Basil

2x Santolina

2x Rue

2x Artemesia

4x Tumeric