Scamp's birthday

Scamp is still alive and kicking after last year's ordeal with rupturing a disk and requiring the $7,000 surgery. It was such a melodramatic, emotional, stressful time if you recall!!!  

The vet thinks this good ole boy is oooold.  But probably not yet 9.  Kind of a sucky deal since the rescue said he was 3!!!  I don't think it was intentional though because they have labeled other dogs old - even the younger-looking ones.  Either way, we adore this supersweet, gentle, adorable old guy.  We have just celebrated his first year being a member of our family.  He enjoyed the birthday party planned for him by my 7 year old.  

My father's ducks and geese...and a leafy green treat

Above is one of my father's Chinese geese. Unfortunately, his mate was eaten by some animal despite a loving home and secure habitat.  Below, these happy and pretty little ducks have had their dinner and have gone out to their enclosed portion of the pond for the evening.  In the water, they're safer from night predators who can't swim, but who can certainly dig a hole under the fencing.  The ducks know the drill - eat and then waddle with a quack quack quack out to the water.

Above, the dark green is tatsoi or rosette bok choy.  The light green is a choy - a Taiwanese lettuce that is somewhat similar to romaine - perhaps not as crisp - the texture is a little more like spinach actually.  A choy is often eaten cooked.  Below, the a choy is growing neatly in well-spaced rows.  I asked my father what the packed bed is for then if you're supposed to give them room to grow...

For the ducks of course!!!

He said the ducks love these greens and would come running if I threw some in their enclosure.  I didn't believe it, especially since they'd just eaten and gone straight out to the water.  Well, as he predicted, I threw some of the leafy greens in and they all came running back in from the water!

This is my favorite duck.  He's so goofy with his fluffy mohawk, savoring his a choy.  

GBBD - October 2012

Everywhere...comatose bees...

Visit May Dreams Gardens to see what else is in bloom on this Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!

The Library of Congress Asian Vegetables Talk

This afternoon, I gave a talk at the Library of Congress.  It was a pretty spectacular experience being in these lovely buildings in the city.  We're really close, but don't get to DC nearly enough to take advantage of all the amazing FREE things to see and learn about in the museums and other government buildings.  After a talk (that I think I possibly jammed too much into - but appeared successful nonetheless - I used my "don't look a gift horse in the mouth strategy"), we strolled to the Jefferson building.  In the photo below, there is a peek between the tree and the building at the top of the capital.  Darn camera phones - you probably can't see it, but the photo was a cool one.  

The architecture and ceilings of this building are gorgeous!  Below, a beautiful mosaic section.  

My husband was taking a little tour of the city during my talk.  He was excited to show me what he found at the information center - a digital marquee with the details of my talk!  He said, "You'll never see that again...".  I was like, gee, thanks.  But what I think he really meant was that the opportunity to talk at the Library of Congress was pretty special.  

The Jefferson building was spectacular - and not just because of the Gutenburg and Mainz bibles.  I particularly loved all the portraits and quotes about books throughout this building.  

This is Tsai-Hong.  We went out for some bi bim bop afterwards.  Always seen it, but never tried it.  YUM! YUM!  I met Tsai-Hong today for the first time.  She arranged this 2 part program.  The first part was sort of a gardening 101, my talk was the second in the series.  She is obviously smart to know a gardening program would be successful, but she's also witty, sweet, and warm.  A kindred spirit you recognize upon first glance.  And...

...she's a grower of bitter melon - a WHITE variety!  This is super cool and I can't wait to try it.  My parents will flip over this one too.  This is where, if I weren't so tired, I would wax poetic about heirloom seeds, and the freaking specialness of this white bitter melon which someone saved seeds of, passed along, and scattered throughout the world among friends, and which in fact, could possibly outlive us.  I'm doing a poor job with this explanation, but I'm sure many of you know exactly what I mean.  

The good, the bad, and the ugly

I'm so contrived these days, but seems every year, I do some variation of a good, bad, and ugly post.  

The good - finally, a cute little watermelon.  But too little, too late you little watermelon!!!! It's almost October!

The bad - well, bad meaning good... A frickin' plethora of apples on the trees at the u-pick farm, and after a glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug of triple sec and tequila, some jars of strawberry margarita preserves! 

And the ugly - some one has taken a hole-puncher to this foliage.  Either that or some nasty bug has decided to really piss me off.  And then to add insult to injury, this Sassy cat of mine needs to make my planter a kitty bed.  Ah well, she's 11 years old this October.  Maybe I'll just leave her be.  

A virtual visit to my table at the DC State Fair

It was so fun to host the Asian vegetables demo table as part of the DC State Fair at the Barracks Row Fall Festival. In the top photo, you see clockwise from the top: flowering chives, my cutting board which I used to show people how to prepare these vegetables for cooking, bitter melon peeking into the scene, the long speckled fuzzy melon, the Chinese long bean, kabocha pumpkin, and the little gourds I've been talking about recently. I did have some things to sample, like chrysanthemum tea and winter melon soup (you can see a big wedge of the giant winter melon on the right of the table in the photo with the green shirt guy).  My little one, who ate all day long from the awesome assortment of artisan pie, cupcake, and ethnic food trucks, is sneaking some of the taro chips I had out for sampling in the photo above.  She spent the day tagging along with her older sister and sister's friend, both of whom were very watchful and tolerant today!

Above, people are trying samples, checking out the veggies and the guy in the green is checking out the free seeds basket!  Those went quick!  The visitors were mostly city folk and had lots of container/balcony gardens.  I directed them to the malabar spinach, which vines and does well in containers.  People with community garden plots took home tatsoi (aka rosette bok choy or flat cabbage), to plant now for a fall/winter crop.  Gardeners who took home other seeds have to wait till spring.  Below, I have taro chips and the three brown taro roots underneath.  These don't grow well in our zone but taro is everywhere these days (dim sum, bubble tea, pastries, etc.), so I thought I'd share.  In the middle is lemongrass that I plan to root.  I also demo'd how to actually use lemongrass.  I love that stuff!!!  On the right are luffa gourds.  The shorter, fatter one is a smooth (aka sponge) luffa, at eating size.  The two longer ones are angled luffas.  The pom-pom'd thing is a sponge I made and gifted one year.  It has a luffa sheet on one side and terrycloth on the other.

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In other goings on... above, the DC State Fair peeps are awarding the prizes for the best photograph contest (there were so many fun contests at this fair!!!!).  I think I heard an announcement that Kenneth of DC State Fair and The Indoor Garden(er) made up postcards for the runners up (the guy in yellow in the photo above is happy about that!).  I thought that was such a sweet prize to put together for the runners up.

My daughter and her friend bummed pies off of the DC State Fair's Best Pie leftovers rack.  Michael is an extra happy camper because his shirt is signed with x's and o's by the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.  Rah! Rah! Rah! for a great day at the fair!

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If you've been following my ramblings, you know my father is obsessed with little bottle gourds this year. He's going to freak out when I show him this arrangement I spotted at Whole Foods yesterday with the little bottle gourd anchoring the decor!

How to dry bottle gourds

Though my father typically plants a couple of bottle gourd vines every season, this year, he went a little crazy.  Click here to see the gorgeous vines in his garden and learn about why his friends will be happy to receive these auspicious little gourds.

To dry the gourds for ornamental purposes, he harvested them at maturity.  These are miniature gourds, so they are tiny, but mature.  In the photos above, you see them as they look freshly cut from the vine.  He is stringing them to dry for seeds.  These are just the seedstock, not the ones he will dry for gifting.  

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In the photo below, he has taken mature gourds and scraped off the outer peel with a sharp knife.  This is not a necessary step, but makes for a cleaner appearance.  Some of the gourds on the vine looked pretty jacked up with spots and other imperfections, but scraping the peel leaves them all pretty as can be as you can see in the photo below.  After scraping off the peel, he will sun dry them outdoors (bringing them in if it rains!!!).  It takes about a month to fully dry out.  My father actually used a food dehydrator during rainy days and at night to speed the process.  The few gourds in the batch that were not at full maturity when harvested shriveled a bit, and were left a little wrinkly.  Try to wait until the gourds are at full maturity before harvesting.  

The little gourds were dried on a woven tray as you see below.  The lighter ones were scraped first before drying.  The darker ones were not scraped and left to dry as is.   As you can see, they are just as lovely.  For a smoother appearance, the unscraped gourds can be lightly sanded for a smoother and more finished appearance, but as far as protecting the gourd, this is also an unnecessary step.  The ones my father really liked, he also painted with a light lacquer for a little shine.  If you try growing these little gourds, I'd love to know how it goes!