Chaos Garden in September 2014

The chaos garden has onions in bloom (I am letting them go to seed so there will be more next summer),

Cone flowers going to seed (more flowers for next year’s garden), the new rosemary growing tall, lemon balm coming back from old roots, and so many other plants that have found their way to the patch.

But I spent the most time photographing a red spotted purple butterfly posing near the hydrangea. It posed on a leave near the hydrangea for several minutes - tired from an afternoon of cool breezes, opening and closing its wings, moving its proboscis.

After it fluttered away I noticed how much the news leaves on the hydrangea had been browsed by the deer even at this time of year when there should be plenty of other food for them.

Veggie Beauty

Over the past month - I have been noticing the beauty in fruits and vegetables while I prepare meals. I’ve collected some of my favorite ‘closer looks.’

The spiral of white veins around a seed in a ‘seedless’ watermelon

The raised ridges in a freshly cut cross section of a leek

A cross section of a banana pepper

And the 10x magnification of the seeds

A cherry tomato cut in half

A cucumber cross section (I have to many of them waiting at home that I should try a couple of slices on my eyes before cutting up the rest for a salad or smoothie)

The red ridges of an onion (10x magnification)

A beet leaf with its bright red veins through its green - it was tender enough to put in a salad rather than a stir fry.

CSA Week 4

I managed to have empty crispers by the time I picked up the 4th week share from the Gorman Produce Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Drying most of the parsley (cutting it up coarsely with kitchen scissors and just leaving it out on a cookie sheet for a couple of days…now it is stored away for use in other cooking) and making collard green chips (same technique as kale chips) cleared the overflow condition within 24 hours of picking up the share!  Then I alternated between salads and stir fries and green smoothies to finish off everything except the beets - which I used for the special treat: Fruit Beety (see picture in yesterday’s post, recipe in CSA Week 3 post)

There is a shift in week 4 - it not as overwhelmingly leafy green! Can you find all the items on the list in the picture below?** (Hint: I chose the kale rather than chard or turnips). The cucumbers will make excellent smoothies with plain yogurt and pineapple salsa (and maybe I’ll use some leek too). The lettuce and cucumber are the only two items that are not candidates for stir fry. I’m trying to decide whether to use the kale for chips…or save some leaves for stir fry and salad - there’s really enough for all three!

** Starting at the upper left and moving clockwise: red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, kale (lower right), summer and zucchini squash, garlic, carrots, and leeks.

Microscope Project: Onion Skin Abstracts

I was preparing lunch yesterday - cutting up a red onion - when I realized that thin pieces of onion would be good subjects for the microscope. My goal was to do something artsy rather than scientific. See the results in the slide show below.

The outmost layer was very dry and stiff but I put a small piece on a slide. It looked like a brilliant pink stone wall under the microscope.

The next layer of the onion was more flexible but still not quite soft enough to be edible. I cut some small pieces. They looked various shades of deep purple, reddish and then clear. They dried out a bit before I got them under the microscope and I discovered that the bubbles made them just as interesting as the cell structures.

When I was dicing the onion - one of the major layers fell away and a think membrane - without color - was visible. I put several pieces of it on slides and tried some dyes/food coloring to get the green, yellow, orange, and purple images.