Three Thoughts on a Thursday

I was doing some thinking today as I walked around and observed things.  Sometimes there are things to be seen if we'll open our eyes.  There are lessons to be learned, if we'll listen.  Often God educates you outside of the church doors.  

Pecan trees are the last trees on our property to bud out in the spring.  By this time, all the leaves have fallen.  When the kids were younger, I would rake up huge piles of leaves and they would run and jump in the leaves.  Such fun!  We grow up and stop jumping in leaf piles.  Why?  As I was thinking about that, my eyes saw something in the garden in the side yard.

What might be a little hard to see is a watermelon plant left over from the spring.  It is still living.  It is clinging to life with determination.  It has a will to live.  It will never produce watermelons.  Too late for that.  It doesn't worry about that.  It lives.  One day at a time.

What is not hard to see is the Lemon Queen Sunflower left over from the spring.  It's bright yellow contrasts mightily against the gloomy gray sky.  

It's bloom dispels the gloom, you might say.  It lights up the room.  In times of darkness and sorrow, that's what we should aspire to do.

A good friend of ours went out foraging for mushrooms and wanted to share some with us.  How nice!  He gave us three paper bags full of mushrooms.  Here is the top of a big cluster of oyster mushrooms that, following the rain, were growing all over a willow tree near the bayou.

Here are the gills on the underside.  The oyster mushrooms were heavy and clean and had a woodsy smell.  This afternoon Tricia made Rice dressing (Rice, ground meat, green onions, onions and a bunch of seasoning).  She quickly sautéed the oyster mushrooms and made an ad lib on the normal recipe.  She mixed the mushrooms in with the rice dressing.  You know what?  It worked!  It was delicious.  We cleaned our plates.

We've got a bunch left to eat.  I always like sautéing them with onions, garlic and heavy cream, but then again shoe leather would taste good, I'm sure, cooked with onions, garlic, and heavy cream.  Years back, I would've walked right by these in the woods or I would've kicked them off the tree and destroyed them.  Now I know better.  There is fresh food growing for free all around us, if we look and learn.  Thanks to our friend that shared the oysters with us!

In this world, it is easy to have a "woe is me" mindset, but I trust that things will get better.  Oh yeah, you say? "That's a one in a million shot."  What are the chances of that?  Slim to none?  Not so fast, my friend!

My eyes caught a strange sight on the patio.  We have a patio table with an expanded metal top.  It has those little openings.  We have a Laurel Oak tree in the front yard.  It has been shedding its leaves and the leaves fly over the roof and fall on the patio.  Look at how they fall and lodge themselves in the holes in the table-top.

I don't think I could stand over the table and make that happen if I tried all day.  Somehow some of the leaves defied the odds.  They didn't end up on the ground like all the other leaves from its tree.  No, these leaves achieved the impossible.  Who would we want to be like?  The leaves in the pile on the ground or the leaves standing tall?  Let's stand tall, come what may.

Blooms in the Garden in August

Spring evokes, at least in me, thoughts of brilliant green new leaves and multi-colored blooms around the garden and yard.  The late days of summer evoke thoughts of dull, tired, sun-baked landscape.  But that is not always so.  Let's take a look at some things that are blooming in the garden.  Below is a row of buckwheat that I planted.  Although I love buckwheat pancakes, we're not going to harvest this row.  Buckwheat is known for sending down deep roots that pull up minerals.  Now that they've bloomed, I'll cover them up as a 'green manure' and will hopefully see the benefits in the spring when I plant something over them.

Blooming Buckwheat

Next in the garden are some Arikara Sunflowers.  These are a native American heirloom.  I had originally planted them back in 2010.  I saved some seeds from the first harvest 9 years ago and planted about 20 of them this year.  I was amazed to find that after almost a decade of storage, I got 100% germination!  These sunflowers grow 10 feet tall and follow the sun.  I'll save more seeds this year.

Decade-old seeds and 100% germination!

The pollinators love these flowers.  It is hard to see, but in the photo below there is a bee in the center right of the flower in the foreground.  I'll likely harvest the heads before they dry and birds get them.  I don't want birds to get into a habit of coming into our garden to eat!

Last year I planted a row of zinnias in the holes of the cinderblock edging that borders the garden.  They grew tall and spindly as the soil was not too good in the cinderblocks.  I let the flowers dry on the heads last year and collected a BUNCH of seeds that I stored in an old vitamin container.  This year I planted a full row of zinnias between the blackeyed peas and the buckwheat.  The soil is rich and the zinnias are giving us a feast for our eyes.  Check out all the multi-colored blooms!:

Zinnias

Here is a muted pink one...

And a bright pink one lined with miniature yellow blooms around the center...

This row is really attracting the butterflies.  The zoom-in didn't work well, but in the photo below, you can pick out a big butterfly in the center left, about to land on a pink zinnia.

I've never been a real big fan of flowers in the garden, but I'm starting to enjoy them.  I always prefer growing things I can eat!  Without further ado, here is the beautiful flower of something you CAN eat - OKRA!

I planted them late this year due to the weather, but they are 8 feet tall now and I've been harvesting every day.  We will be harvesting lots and lots of okra for the next four months or until the freeze knocks them out. 

Have You Seen the Lemon Queen?

I broke with an age-old tradition that I've maintained for a long, long time.  This year I planted flowers in the garden.  GASP!  I don't dislike flowers.  I rather like them.  It is just that if I am going to grow something, I want to spent the time and energy growing things that we can eat.  Vegetables have beautiful flowers - the flowers of sweet peas and squash come to mind.

In going through my seed inventory this winter, I ran across a packet of Lemon Queen Sunflower Seeds that was included as a Free Item with my Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds order.  The seed was a couple of years old and so I was concerned the germination might not be good.  I figured I would plant it anyway and sowed it so that it bordered the Glass Gem Corn and Butternut Squash.  The Lemon Queen sunflowers grew and grew and grew.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you that some of the plants are 10 feet tall!

Lemon Queen Sunflowers 2018

The flowers keep coming and as you get closer to to them, you can see bees buzzing all around them.  The flowers are branching, meaning that there is not just one main flower on top.  The light yellow color of the lemon queen is a bit different from other sunflowers we've planted.

The light, but bright yellow of the sunflower contrasted against the red barn really stands out.

I must say that I have been a former flower skeptic, but I will likely plant these Lemon Queen Sunflowers again!  I even pulled a few and put them in a vase on the kitchen windowsill for Tricia to enjoy.

The next morning as the morning sun was filtering in the window, the flowers were still holding up well.  It is hard to be sluggish or unhappy looking at that bright yellow flower.

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  - Luke 12:27

Lemon Queen Sunflowers.  Yep, I'd recommend them - even in a vegetable garden...  I will attempt to save some seeds from the flowers.  I'll let you know if the seed saving was successful.