i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
As I scour the internet for recipes on Akebia shoots, the thin, curling new vines that sprout each spring from last year’s now woody growth, the only thing that I can find is anecdotal evidence of the Japanese eating it as fresh greens, especially in …
Daylily flower buds are currently in season and the hot weather made me crave something fragrant as to awaken the appetite. While it might seem counter-intuitive, a Thai green curry is a creative way to use up the buds I collected from the garden. These …
I have two Akebia (Akebia Quinata) in my garden, one on either side of the gate to the back. It’s a lovely vine (although I have no idea why it’s called “chocolate” as it neither smells nor tastes like cocoa.) Drought tolerant, it’s hardy from …
I’m on a hosta shoot binge because they’ve started to unfurl in my garden, and while you can eat them up until they reach about 7 – 8 inches and fully uncurl, they become progressively more bitter and tough, rather than sweet and tender. This …
I’m currently reveling in the hosta shoots that are coming up–another two weeks and they’ll be too tough and bitter to eat and then I’ll have to wait until the flower buds come in. Right now they’re deliciously tender and mild, perfect for skewering and …
It’s spring and my hostas are starting to come up. This means hosta shoots galore. With a flavor and texture like artichokes, they are absolutely delicious as tempura, which is what I made today for lunch. You might feel weird eating something you’d thought of …
One of the plants I was super excited to get my hands on this year was Crocus Cartwrightianus, otherwise known as Cartwright’s crocus or wild saffron. It’s widely accepted as the wild ancestor of our modern saffron, before it mutated into the sterile triploid form …
Sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus), also called Jerusalem Artichokes, are one of those love-it-hate-it type of plants. However, it is one of the only starch sources perennial in all zones. The reason it gets a bad rap is the same reason it’s so hardy–it get invasive, fast. …
I tried to come up with a clever pun for the title of this post, but failed miserably. It’s sad because this is such an awesome plant that I managed to get a hold of here in the United States. Japanese Spikenard (Aralia Cordata), also …
I hate ornamentals that have no utility other than looking pretty. I’m sorry, but in the event of the zombie apocalypse, everything on my property better have a use so that myself and my family can survive, and tulips and daffodils definitely won’t help on …