Bloom-tastic!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. First off, I would like to thank everyone who attended the garden tour on the 19^th. Getting the gardens ready for the tour was quite a challenge and it was wonderful to have all of you on site. I know that it was abnormally warm, and if you missed the tour I am still planning another one in October, when the temperatures hopefully will be cooler and you all get to see the progress made since the spring. It’s perhaps ironic now that we didn’t get any real rainfall since the tour, and the temperatures have broken 100 degrees several times in the last two weeks. While your lawn will survive this, I would recommend considering additional irrigation for your fruit-bearing trees and shrubs to ensure good productivity. Now, I did promise a photographic tour of the gardens for those who missed the spring tour but before we get to that (the next post), I’d like to dedicate this post to blooming plants in general.

 

Echinacea purpurea 'Cheyenne Spirit'

Alright, you know I remember this cultivar being way redder than it is, but the bright fuschia colored blooms are plenty welcome in my garden any day of the week.

Hypericum perforatum 'Hypearls' - Saint John's Wort

Most dont know that St John's Wort is a evergreen garden perennial with some of the most bright-yellow flowers on the block. This specimen was rescued from the woodland part of my gardens and has made an impressive recovery.

 

Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Weed/ Pleurisy Root

 Butterfly weed is a herbaceous perennial that normally blooms in a showy shade of orange ans produces large quantities of nectar which the butterflies love.

 

Portulaca grandiflora - Happy Hour Peppermint Purselane

 What's not to love about a succulent garden flower that while being annual is utterly immune to heat and drought? Peppermint Happy hour and it's erratic broken flower colors liven up any planting imaginable and it may come back from seed too.

 

Hemerocallus fulva - Tawny Daylily

 Although it does vary in shades of orange from tuber to tuber, tawny daylily can take care of itself and needs very little gardener intervention. You normally see these plants used as part of plantings on the interstate, fortunately I had a colony of them on the property that I used to make this planting as seen.

 

Lilium hybrid - 'Serious Blacko' Lily

 Yes, I bought this lily because the name was so hilarious and I got to say 'serious blacko' in a funny action movie actor voice without it sounding racist. Just you wait until the 'Rio Negro' lilies bloom!

Monarda didymus 'Purification' - BeeBalm

This odd variety of beebalm is immune to most drought, seems not to get diseases and blooms light pink, the down side is that it's eating a sector of the garden.

Lantana camara - West Indian Lantana

This plant is a volunteer that just happened to volunteer in an area that badly needed color. You can see two differing species of butterfly lapping up it's nectar.

Opuntia cacanapa 'Ellisiana' - Spineless Prickly Pear

Ah, cactus flowers, you've got to love how something so unapproachable and rugged can produce such a pretty delicate flower and more so that the prickly pear flower in terms of physical anatomy is identical to those on the purselane, just way bigger. It's as if certain cactus and succulents said 'nah, we've got a good thing going, no weird flower stuff!'

Datura metel 'White Ballerina' - Angel's Trumpet

The white flower is stunning, but the dark blue-green foliage just makes it stand out even more. Datura as noted in my last post are evening/night bloomers so this big trumpet flower is there to bring in the moths. For note Datura is poisonous.

Oenothera biennis - Common Evening Primrose

This is one of the few times I've attempted a night time photograph but since evening primroses dont open until the mid-late evening this was necessary. This specific plant is about three and a half feet tall and has just started to bloom, a few flowers will bloom per day. It takes two years for a plant to get to this point as this specific species of primrose is a biennial. I should also note these plants have deep taproots and should not be transplanted in the second year as the shock may kill the plant. Common Evening Primrose will resow itself from seed though not necessarily in the same place as it's seed seems to travel.

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, 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. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

Herbs:

Basil, Sweet: 3” - $3.00

Basil, Thai: 3” - $3.00

Etruscan Santolina: 3” - $4.00

Lavender, ‘Elegance Purple’: 3” - $3.00

Lavender, ‘Elegance Pink’: 3” - $3.00

Rue, Marbled: 3" - $4.00

Tansy, (Feverfew): 3" - $3.00

Tobacco, Night-Scented: 3” - $3.00

Tobacco, Lime Tree: 3” - $3.00

Flowers:

Balloon Flower, Astra Blue: 3” - $4.00

Balloon Flower, Astra Pink: 3” - $4.00

Balloon Flower, Astra White: 3” - $4.00

Datura, Black Currant Swirl: 3” - $4.00

Datura, White Ballerina: 3” - $4.00

Lily, Formosa: 3” - $4.00

Fruiting Shrubs:

Pomegranate, Dwarf: 6" – $8.00

Fruits & Vegetables:

Peppers, Tabasco: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Thai Dragon: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Sweet Marconi: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Ghost: 3” - $4.00

Tomato, Black Cherry: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Carolina Gold: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Chocolate Cherry: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gardener’s Delight: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gold Nugget: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gold Millions: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Paul Robeson: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, San Marzano: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Sungold: 3” - $3.00

Garden Perennials:

Salvia, New Dimension Blue: 3” - $3.00

Coming Soon:

Basil, Cinnamon

Basil, Mirihani

Coneflower, CheyenneSpirit

Cotton, Mississippi Brown

Okra, Red-Burgundy

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 eleventh LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 14th of June. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

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.