#Open pollinated varieties

[tkingfisher]

This is possibly the most perfect tomato I have ever grown and given that I live in the land of humidity, erratic rainfall, leaf spot and blight, I feel as if I have gotten away with something.

Cultivar is “Kewalo,” developed at the University of Hawaii, tolerates heat and humidity, and is incredibly disease-resistant for an open-pollinated variety. They don’t quite have the flavor of, say, a Cherokee Purple, but they’re still tasty.

[xayasmrxsoftlyx]

Imagine...

Imagine you recently moved to the outskirts of a forest. The nature is beautiful and you do your part to keep it that way. You plant pollinator friendly flowers, rabbit friendly herbs, deer friendly bushes, you put out bird feeders, hummingbird feeders, squirrel feeders (though honestly, it's just extra bird feeders with less specific seeds since you noticed the birds didn't always eat the variety equally). Hell, you even changed out your lawn from traditional grass to clover and native wild flowers to use less water. You've been putting in a lot of effort to keep things nice for nature-- it's certainly been noticed, too.

In fact, you've no idea of the amount of eyes watching your beauty preserve nature's beauty- and to them you are nature's finest beauty. Looking at your plush body care for, tend to, and love the very things that feed their lives' essence; it's a sight that cannot be beat. At first, it was a competition amongst the forest. Who was yours? Who you belonged to? Now, now they understand that just like you work so hard to aid all of them, they can all share, love, tend to, and care for you, as well.

Imagine the first you meet, unbeknownst to you, is planned- it's all planned. You're sitting outside on a blanket, book in hand, just enjoying some rare free time when you hear a loud buzzing. It sounds as if a humming bird were flying right beside your ear. Yet, when you look up, it's certainly not that far from the truth despite not being completely correct in concept.

He's shorter than you, but not by much, barely hovering a foot off the ground. He hides half his body behind your oak tree- the one with all your feeders on it. He's got brilliant colors and jerks almost completely behind the tree when your eyes meet. (He's supposed to be speaking to you but when his eyes met your own shining gaze, he couldn't help but grow shy.) Your sweet, comforting scent has wafted in the air, stirred up in part by his own rapidly fluttering wings. He's buzzing with anxiety and adrenaline, the need to prove and show you his skills battling with his fear of your rejection. Now that he's gotten so close to those plump cheeks, he needs to kiss. Now that he's seen how soft and warm you are he needs to get closer; he needs to feel how soft and plush you are as he clings to your chubby form from his own anxiety.

Imagine you softly call out to him, voice sounding like both the sweetest lullaby to soothe his racing heart and mind and also just like home- like the sound he'd come come to with a nest full of little hatchlings and your warmth shared. It's that thought that spurs him into action, faster than you could reasonably expect. After all, the speed he can achieve gets to nearly the same as a traditional hummingbird.

He's higher in the air than you'd ever think he'd go, he shoots down, nearly towards you- no, definitely towards you, nearly at you the speed of which creates a loud chirp and you hear the sweet melody of whistles erupt from him as he's closer to you. As he hovers before you, dance still pumping adrenaline through him, he's more than proud of the awed expression you've been unable to shake. When you close your book and set it down to completely give him your full attention, he preens at your acceptance. You may not fully understand your own consent to his courtship, but the primal, feral instinct within him is more than satisfied with your open attraction and silent acceptance of him into your space- your life. He lingers by you for a moment and when he doesn't hide or fly away from you, it indicates he's comfortable enough with you. You smile and begin to speak.

Imagine you still keep your voice soft, welcoming for him. It's so, so sweet of you to care so much for him already- such a precious, soft, sweet mate you are already without hardly trying. You introduce yourself to him- you give him your name! As you do so, he flits around you with little twirls and swoops in his own excitement. Instinctually, you hold your hand out to shake. He grabs it instantaneously within his own soft, warm grasp. He holds your hand, enjoying how his hands are still just a smidge bigger than your own little, pudgy ones; even if it's barely noticeable to you, he can tell. You give the shared grasp a shake but he doesn't release you, instead he uses it to hover closer to you. (He's tempted to swoop into your outreached arm and cuddle into your side, he's strongly resisting that temptation. The mantra in his head is "not now, don't do it, not now...")

You smell like the flowers you plant, the earthiness of fresh watered soil, and there's a warmth beneath it all he can't place. It's enchanting, nearly hypnotizing. (Fuck, the other's are going to drool over your scent later when they get closer- maybe even over him if it's strong enough lingering on him after he meets you.) When he finally releases, he gives you his own name breathlessly with a giant blush upon his cheeks. His feathers puff up around him in his embarrassment before he dashes off towards the forest. As he does so, he pauses to look back at you every few yards. Instead of following you like he's silently urging and beckoning you to do, you smile, little puffy cheeks rounding adorably as you tell him "see you soon!" (fuck- his heart is going as fast as his wings and that cannot be healthy)

Imagine you start seeing Calypte more often. In fact, you start meeting him in your garden at least twice a week. After your first week, you begin to bring him fruit to eat, since you didn't quite think he drank from the hummingbird feeder like his look alike. The first time he ate the orange so ravenously for you that you never stopped. He knows that in nature, if he were true to his counterpart, he wouldn't be building the nest- you would. He knows in nature his counterparts instinct wouldn't be to linger after copulation, but he supposes that side of him is entirely the human part.

The need to preen and nest for you, the need to stay by your side, the need for you attention, for your care, for your love. That is surely, entirely his humanity. After all, hybrids are different from their animal inspiration. They're an interesting amalgamation of all the best parts of both. That's why they were created, why they were designed, right? Before the humanity and ethics caught up to it all, anyway. His parents acted very human after all, it just depended on genetics. However you.... you brought the humanity out of him. You bring the humanity out of him. It thrills him, makes him feel alive, and he can not get enough of it- of you.

[gynandromorph]

another nofna style emulation strip... i haven't drawn anything about Legend's HIOT treatment, even though it is kind of important, mostly because... no fight scenes, lots of tiny letters and twisting roots, and its contingency on other events happening first (like it'd be weird to draw her going to HIOT before even drawing the strip with the voice in it). at the same time, most of the information here? totally just restated information already known by the audience--

Resolve looks small compared to JS, but she's actually quite large... they're just very different heights.

(technically you could also call Remitting Dr. Remitting because she is also qualified to treat patients......) The Rationale member is an african savanna hare.

i want to say that Resolve's an interesting character, in that i don't really have strong opinions about her, which usually means They're Complicated, but i'm kind of meh about her. she's just very Normal. eventually i will write a follow-up strip with her and Remitting post-JS-treatment where her relationship to her patients and work is elaborated upon a little. she is almost 46 years old and she has outlived generations of patients -- for short-lived rodents, probably generations in the double digits. she gets to see from admission to death the results of her work, or lack thereof. i wouldn't say that she has a sense of superiority, as i think she tries to cultivate an open-mindedness, but she has so much experience, she can be quick to solidify her thoughts on matters, and she is not easily swayed by dissenting opinions from younger individuals when she knows her opinion will outlive theirs by her mere act of Continuing to Exist.

as demonstrated in Glyptography, it seems that some HIPAA-alike doesn't exist in this society, and HIOT members are free to comment on any patients in their care. still, with a more legally binding case of committal, i decided that there would be one "lead" individual who had legal guardianship over a patient, and, consequently, the final word on their treatment. Parabola described HIOT in a variety of ways, along with its functions, which included "cataloging anomalies" and "behavior oversight." he also noted that cataloging or investigating behaviors was more of an "early" stage of HIOT, whereas modern HIOT ascribes meaning to the findings and formulates legal conclusions (along with, presumably, still monitoring and controlling anomalous behavior). i treated the admission of patients as fairly common, then, perhaps one of HIOT's main purposes at this point, where members would contend with the fact that there was just an endless stream of new people to treat -- their work didn't seem to change anything about the root of the problems they're tending to.

JS failed her metanoia proposal due to incompletion. what she had while sparring with Machinations, was mostly all she still had by the time she was expected to turn in a thesis, albeit she could spell entire words now. her proctor was willing to pass her with a low grade because it WAS undeniable, even if devoid of apparent purpose.

Remitting and Resolve are, like Misgivings, wearing Guthriea capensis, hidden flower, as corsages. Resolve is wearing a female flower, and Remitting is wearing a male flower. it grows hidden under its own leaves, and its nectar is very bitter, driving most pollinators away. i could have used the same flower that smoothie wore, but i Did Not Feel Like It. the Rationale hare is wearing pale everlasting flowers (Helichrysum pallidum). i figured they would all wear the same corsages? but i don't think we've seen a Rationale member clothed... Maybe the wolf official from Syconium, but that's ambiguous. I had Legend wear a rather formal and pricey mantle, because this is a very humiliating situation for her, and I feel she'd dress up to the 9s to compensate for this loss of face. her corsage is large mountain ink flowers (Cycnium racemosum), a semi-parasitic plant which primarily uses sedges and long grasses as hosts. these flowers turn dark like ink when damaged -- hence their name. they can grow very large, up to multiple feet tall, and she has the long stem threaded through the front of her mantle. her paws are covered in abrasions, not dirt, and her claws have been worn down almost to the quicks due to excessive digging and scratching at surfaces like tree bark.

anyway i think that's all i have to say about this one it's not my most interesting strip. it facilitates later strips like legend asking Resolve about false memories or accessing HIOT documents to pass time and developing her thesis with this new knowledge.

[artechoceneexplorer]

Herbs and Spices of Teyvat: A glimpse of the edible flora of the Continent

Teyvat is home to an incredible diversity of flora, given the variety of climates that can be found across it, and a significant portion of them have been used by the people of each region to build their cultures, through the unique flavours they give to their local cuisine.

Here's the plants that haven't had close-ups yet, the Small Lamp Grass, the Snapdragon, the Marcotte and the Sweet Flower:

The Small Lamp Grass (Lucetta luminatus) is a hedge native to the forests of Mondstadt, growing in the underbrush, away from clearings. Its most unique characteristics are its bioluminescent flowers, composed of a mostly closed, translucent calyx from which the blue light emitted from the bioluminescent bacteria inside the styles of the flowers passes through, attracting many insects towards it. To deter predators, it produces in its leaves allicin-like compounds, which are used to enhance flavors in local cuisine.

The Giant Palustrine Snapdragon (Megaanthirrhinum palustris) or just "Snapdragon" as called by the locals, is a giant riparian plant that can be found around the rivers and estuaries of Liyue and Mondstadt . Its giant flowers, the size of a grown man's head, combined with its large stature, makes this plant visible from hundreds of meters away. These flowers' sizes can be explained by their unusual pollinators, which are not insects, but much larger birds like finches and pigeons, who are strong enough to open the hinge of the flowers and access the pooled nectar inside, while being covered in pollen to pollinate the next flowers. Fishermen often use these flowers as an on the go snack, but their flowers, usually not whole, are used as garnish in many local dishes, despite being slightly bitter.

The Marcotte (Crassulojasminoides oloratus) is one of the most common plants of Fontaine, especially in the salty calcareous soils of the lowlands. Because of the salty conditions of the soil, this plant has adapted by storing it inside of its non reproductive tissues, mainly its leaves. Because of this, its leaves are used as dressing in plenty of dishes, alongside its flowers, which are used more for their scent, not only in cuisine, but in many other disciplines too.

The Sweet Flower (Glycophytum pervagatus) is one of if not the most ubiquitous herbaceous plant across the continent, being able to grow from the icy tundra of Snezhnaya, to the hot deserts of Sumeru, and even the isolated lands of Inazuma. This spurge has spread across the world, both because of its incredible physiological adaptations, their varied pollinator species, and most importantly, their relationship with man. Humans have cultivated this plant for centuries for its extremely sweet fruit, and its honey-like nectar that it secretes from its enlarged, petaliform nectarines, all of which can be turned into sugar. Because of extensive agriculture of this species, it is unknown the place of origin of it, but it is thought to be native to the seasonal plains of natlan, in which they had to adapt to harsh and fast changes in environmental conditions.

[katsukiizmoon]

╰┈➤ ꒰🍓💌🥛 ┊boba time ┊Mama’s Harvest ꒱

『♡』 pregnancy

Your fingers fiddle with the little flower bud in your hands and you use the back of your hand to wipe sweat from your forehead. The sun is beginning to beat down on you, drenching your skin in rays.

“Almost done?” Katsuki startles you, leaning over from behind where you kneel.

You bounce, dropping the flower and turning around to give him a glare.

“Yeah, jus’ gotta finish pollinating the squash or it’ll produce less..” You remind, returning to the task at hand.

He chuckles, rolling his eyes and begins making his way through the garden with a basket in hand. Leaves rustle and the tell-tale sound of stuff flopping to the ground let’s you know he’s harvesting.

“Babe..” He calls and you glance over in his direction.

“Hmmm?” You wonder, nearly finished with your chores.

“How many peppers did you plant?” Katsuki inquires and you freeze.

“Uhhh..” Your mind races for an answer and you begin counting on your fingers. Whispering to yourself and naming off varieties.

“We’re gonna drown in peppers, holy shit.” He jokes, rounding one of the rows with a massive basket filled with different pepper varieties.

Katsuki rushes you inside, complaining that you shouldn’t be in the heat for too long and you pout. Still, you do as told and go inside to make lunch and relax.

There’s a lot of pros to your husband being a pro hero. One, you don’t need to work. You can if you want to but you don’t. Katsuki gives you all the money you want and more, no questions asked.

He doesn’t push unrealistic expectations on you, either. You had a career for years of your relationship and for the first two years of being married.

But when Katsuki came behind you with red cheeks and shy eyes, saying he wanted s little one, it was time for a change. Pregnancy is hard on the body and both of you thought it would be best to have you home for at least the first three years of the little melons life.

You aren’t far along, either. But your husband is persistent.

You watch from the kitchen window as he grabs another basket and scissors, only to come back with an abundance of herbs and fruits. Nothing in life rivals these moments.

You turn, grabbing s large knife and a cutting board to begin slicing a bunch of green onion. The knife hits the bamboo with a satisfying “knock knock knock” and you sigh in content.

Nausea bubbles in your throat and you push it down, thinking about all good things.

The door creaks open and Katsuki places the woven baskets on the table. You hear footsteps before his large hands are on your lower tummy. His head comes to rest on top of yours, where the places a kiss and sighs.

“So, when should we tell ma?” He ponders.

The cutting stops and you set down the metal utensil, turning to face him. Your arms wrap around his shoulders where they lay purchase, tugging your body closer to his own.

“Mmm.. not sure m’ love. Whadd’you think?” You mirror his mindset, unsure of what the best option would be.

“Well you’re the one growing the baby, so I thought you’d wanna do it a certain way- I dunno people get sentimental about this shit.” Katsuki’s damp lips come to rest on your forehead for a moment.

“Well I can’t hide it much longer- fuck it why don we just invite them over for dinner to get some of these peppers? We can tell em then!” You propose, shooting a look at all the excess fruit and vegetables.

“Yeah, we can do that, I’ll tell ‘em. What time?”

Katsuki’s breaking away, using his hip to bump you over so he can take over cooking. You smack his shoulder and he flinches. It stings even when he’s got a dark grey shirt on, no match for your mood.

You scowl and grab another cutting board and a bell pepper. He opens his mouth to say something but you cut him off.

“Baby I’m pregnant not dying. I’m cutting the damn bell pepper. And mm eight, we’ll do that.”

Before long, all the colorful foods are cut and turned into a large dinner. Sitting in front of you is chicken legs smothered in seasonings and drizzled in gravy over mashed potatoes. Your stomach grumbles and you nearly sigh in relief when his parents walk in.

The conversation continues as normal until you’re met with a wave of nausea. Your face scrunches and despite attempting to hide it- his mother notices. His father isn’t paying any mind, looking at the massive side salad you’ve prepared.

Her eyes narrow and her mouth opens.

“So, uh-“ Katsuki begins, cherry eyes flicking over to meet your own.

“I’m pregnant.” You reveal and his mother slaps the shit out of katsuki on instinct.

It isn’t malicious, she’s practically bouncing. A wide grin wipes across her face and she looks toward her husband with a giggle.

“Fucking FINALLY!” She yells and katsuki looks at her incredulously.

“Don’t look at me like that Katsuki! I’ve been wanting grand babies for years now!” His mother scolds, looking at you with a bright smile.

Katsuki takes a breath, nice and slow to steady himself, while your mother prods with questions. You’re eating, talking about the ins and outs of pregnancy while his father pitches in warmly.

He grumbles in the corner, telling his mom to shut up, and makes faces at some of the things he didn’t expect.

“Yunno, with this asshole, I really craved sweets. But the hardest part of being pregnant with him was probably the hemorrhoids and kicking. God- the kicking was horrible.” His mother explains, stuffing a last bite of mashed potato in her mouth.

You giggle at your husbands angry and confused face from the side. He seems almost offended that pregnancy could be so horrible.

“Why was the kicking so bad?” He pokes, much more gentle than usual.

“Ahh.. it feels like butterflies at first, yunno? But you moved a lot-“ she grabs a sip of water, tilting her head towards him, and places the glass back down.

“-that’s fine and all at first. But you got stronger and it hurt, at one point you had your foot pressed against my ribs for two hours! You’d just kick and it was a constant mild uncomfortable feeling..”

The blonde to your right furrows his brows and takes a sip of his own water. The metal fork he was once using placed on the side of his dish.

“Well, that… makes sense.” Katsuki thinks out loud and looks over towards you.

The dinner ends with kisses and hugs. His mother says she’s coming over in a few days with a couple pregnancy life savers and demands to have copies of the ultrasounds.

Katsuki takes his time that night while you bathe. He massages your shoulders and back, up your ankles and thighs and kisses your tummy. You catch him whispering for the little melon to be sweet to you and nearly coo at the man.

The next day, he brings in a large notebook and grabs a pen. “Baby Food” is messily written at the top and you smile.

A kiss is placed to the top of his head, then a kiss to your lower stomach, like it’s becoming routine.

There’s something fond, simple, and beautiful about the way he falls into fatherhood without question.

[turtlesandfrogs]

Some seed companies worth checking out:

- Fedco Seeds, a co-op with reasonable prices and reliable seeds

- Territorial Seed, an Oregon-based seed company, cool tools too

- Johnny's, along with the top two, one of the main companies small farms order from in my area

- Kitazawa seeds, really interesting Asian vegetable seeds

- Strictly Medicinal seeds, good variety of herbs, flowers, and veg.

- Uprising Seeds, a really small company here in Washington that focuses on heirloom & open pollinated seed varieties, with a focus on plants that can thrive in organic settings & flavor.

- Southern Exposure: focused on warm climate growing, so I've never ordered from them, but I've heard good things

[probablyasocialecologist]

Silvopasture gives cows choice in where to be and what to eat, which Karolini Tenffen de Sousa, a postdoctoral fellow at Instituto de Zootecnia in Brazil who specializes in cattle behavior, says can improve their health. Cows can be in the shade when they want, drink water when they want, and graze when they want. “If they don’t experience stress their physiology will be good,” she said. According to a 2017 study from the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri, silvopasture can also extend the grazing season, so that it starts earlier in spring and lasts longer in fall compared to open pasture. Forage also grows better in silvopastures during the hottest times of the summer compared to open pasture, the study found. “The silvopastures are gold during droughts,” Chedzoy said. “The plants don’t wither and burn up like they do in the shadeless pastures.” Chedzoy says the cows’ diet of grass, forage and hay that he harvests in the summer means he doesn’t need to supplement his feed with protein meal or additional roughage the way many farmers do. And having the cows spread out across the forest all year long – instead of being stuck in a barn during the winter – means their waste doesn’t pollute the local watershed. And silvopasture allows for many layers of biodiversity compared to grasslands. They support a wider variety of bird species, more pollinators, bigger and more diverse mammals, and a much wider variety of plant life with more varied root systems. But it also requires careful management and daily rotation, as livestock can damage trees by trampling roots. This wear and tear can go unnoticed for years, and once the damage is visible, it can be too late to save those valuable trees. While research is still in early stages, Project Drawdown, a leading organization promoting climate solutions, has heralded silvopasture as an agricultural solution to the climate crisis due to hopes it can increase carbon sequestration through plants pulling carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, sinking it into soils, and holding it in their own biomass. Alix Contosta, a research assistant professor at University of New Hampshire who focuses on the relationship between land use and climate, says that her research has shown that carbon and nitrous oxide emissions were lower in silvopastures compared to areas that were clear cut or in treeless pasture, meaning cattle on silvopasture has lower emissions. In addition, most silvopastures, like Chedzoy’s, don’t require emissions-intensive fertilizers or feed that has to be grown and shipped to the farm, further reducing the impact on the climate.

[luxudus]

A Spectember art piece that took me most of the month to make. Showcasing a Batesian mimicry ring found in China some 7-10 million years in the future.

    The northern snakeheads have diversified into several families of amphibious fish that are all highly successful in the Chinese subtropics. Overall, they now possess primitive feet derived from their pectoral fin.     One such species is the Violet Deathhead (Rutrumaput pharmaphyrous). A species of semi-aquatic and semi-fossorial snakehead that uses its shovel head to dig up a wide variety of prey. What makes the Violet Deathhead stand out is its iconic purple, black, and orange patterning used to warn predators of its potent venom-tipped rays.     The Violet Deathhead's infamy would spread throughout China's ecosystem. Its colors became an iconic warning of certain death. Something so iconic it spawned a variety of mimic species, all possessing the same patterns to ward off predators.

    One of the first notable mimics isn't a snakehead or a fish altogether. But a sailfin lizard. Its ancestors rafted here from the Philippines during a particularly nasty southwest monsoon. They became so successful they spread across the entire continent.     This mimic species is known as the Shamfin Lizard (Zhonghydrosaurs purvexicauda). They are a species of arboreal herbivores with a slight tendency to feed on insects.     As their name implies, their tail takes on the same purple, black, and orange patterns used by the Violet Deathhead to present itself as such to trick predators. They even go as far as to develop fake eyespots on their back to match the model species' heads.

    With as much speciation also comes the weight of extinction. And it is no different in this ecosystem as well. During this period, many species of Cranes and herons had to migrate away from China or go extinct altogether. However, this opens a new niche for an unexpected group of birds to flourish.     The second mimic species is the prism-winged Stiltit (Hydorbaino porphypteros). They are a species of wading piscivores that descend from the white-browed tit warbler.     They retained their ancestors' coloration but now for a new purpose. It's now within their underwing and patterned in the likeness of the Violet Deathhead's sail.

    The third mimic species is the Mockfry Mawed Moth (Stekoprosteros mimeofry). They are species of flying pollinating moths that retain their proboscis into adulthood. They are surprisingly social and live in large flocks their whole lives. As their genus name suggests, their resting state has their forewings erected upward, unlike other moth species.     They possess similar colors and patterns to the Violet Deathhead but seem to mimic their species' young. The moths and fry are around the same size and live in large groups. Plus, Deathheads have their iconic coloring during their entire lives.

    The final mimic species mentioned isn't a vertebrate or even an animal. Instead, the Fool's Death (Coleus teleinephos) is a species of Eudicot flowering plant. The stem of the Fool's Death grows into an arc, with the upper stalk resting in the giant leaves of the plant's base.     The Fool's Death's signature green and purple leaves allow it to mimic the patterns of the Violet Deathhead. And since their ranges overlap the most of all the mimics. The Fool's Death is surprisingly the most effective at being a mimic as it gets avoided most of any of the mimicking species.

[flowerishness]

Anthurium (flamingo flower)

When is a petal not a petal? When it's a spathe. Petals evolved from leaves but the Anthurium's spathes got caught half way through the process. And why not? These modified leaves perform the same colorful function, alerting pollinators from a distance that the 'Flamingo Flower' restaurant is open for lunch. The flowers themselves are tiny and arranged in a spiral on the sticking-out part: the spadix.

Flamingo flowers can't survive a Vancouver winter outdoors so to see such a variety this late in the year, you have to go to a glass house. These photos were taken at the Blodel Conservatory and I reckon the flamingo flowers alone were worth the price of admission.

[desertdollranch]

It has become an annual tradition for me to help Antonia put together her farmer's market booth, where she sells all of the fruits, vegetables, and homemade goods that her family's community farm has produced over the past year. Every year, the harvest brings more and more goods. But this autumn, she has outgrown the farmer's market, and is now selling at a roadside stand!

Antonia is ten years old in 1978, when she is inspired by the American Indian Movement to help establish a community farm on land her family owns. It's been a huge success. It has strengthened bonds between friends and neighbors as they all care for each other and make sure that nobody goes hungry.

Whatever is left over after everyone is fed, is then sold at the roadside stand. Antonia is also supplementing with a few special handmade extras that help bring in a little more money. The money will help pay for everything needed to help Snow Mountain Farm grow bigger and better.

Antonia is so proud of what the fields and orchards have grown.

Just look at the size of some of these pumpkins!

Under the cut, Antonia will give you an up-close look at what she's selling....

Everything seen here was either made by me, harvested from the wild, or purchased. (See if you can guess which ones were handmade/bought/gathered!)

The gourd and squash harvest was abundant this year. Antonia managed to coax the garden into producing a few giant pumpkins.

Lots of other fruits thrived as well!

Pears are new this year.

Beautiful pink plums are also new.

Apples are a returning favorite. There are three varieties this year: sweet yellow apples, tart green apples, and a red striped variety that has its own unique flavor.

In the front row are apples, plums, chiles, and pears. On the shelf there are fresh flowers and packaged seeds, various fruit jams, honey, apple cider, dried ground herbs, potted herb seedlings, packaged seeds, and bottles of apple cider.

Up on the shelf there are several varieties of jam: rose petal, peach, grape, prickly pear, and strawberry. Next to them is honey that the farm's bees made from the local wildflowers. The apple cider is made from apples grown in the farm's orchard.

One particular farmer is very gifted in the art of raising flowers. Here you can buy fresh cut flowers, or seedlings for your own garden.

Fruit and vegetable seedlings or seeds are also for sale.

On the checkout counter, Antonia is selling popcorn and apple cider donuts. Directly below the donuts are cartons of eggs, which include white, brown, and speckled eggs.

Below the checkout counter is the small shelf offering some smaller items. In the plastic bags are freshly made tamales, which are like dumplings of meat, veggies, beans, or cheese mixed with a corn dough and steamed inside corn husks. To the right are two wheels of goat's milk cheese. In the middle are skeins of yarn dyed with natural sources, like prickly pear fruits and cabbage leaves. Next to those are bars of soap, in sagebrush or rose petal scent. And on the right end of the shelf are bagged pine nuts, gathered from the wild.

Below that is more produce! On the left, colored corn. In the crates there are potatoes, cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, peaches, and cauliflower.

Antonia is especially proud of the fancy colored corn she has grown. It's fun to open the ears and see what colors the kernels are!

Next to that are giant sunflowers. Above that are the pretty gourds and squashes.

On the bench are some lovely watermelons. And surrounding those are even more pumpkins and squash!

These, too, emerged in all sorts of different colors and shapes. Antonia lets the different varieties cross pollinate, so that the appearances of the resulting pumpkins are a surprise.

Thanks for stopping by! Here, take a sunflower home with you!

[winedarkthoughts]

on the subject of characters and critters:

jin:

jin thinks bats are adorable, even with their long claw-like fingers and thirst for blood. in fact, that part is a bonus. he can relate. he feels that bats are hugely misunderstood. sky puppies. moths are the same story: misunderstood, adorable, night sky friends. he also loves owls, thinks they’re elegant and fascinating. he’s the first to tell you that a group of owls is called a parliament. or that owl eye balls are completely immobile, that’s why they move their necks to be able to see around them. or that they have a special blood-pooling system that allows blood flow to their heads when their necks turn 270 degrees. or…well, you get the idea.

yoongi:

yoongi loves almost anything that can be found in a garden. he especially likes the pollinators and fertilizers, anything that will help his plants grow. pests, though, he cracks down on with an iron fist. he gathers them in droves and feeds them to his carnivorous plants, watching with pure delight as they squirm in the jaws of a venus fly trap. he’s been known to stand outside in the pouring rain just to save stray snails from being trampled on.

hoseok:

hobi loves the unloved. he’ll take them in without hesitation, clothing, feeding, and loving them unapologetically. critters, humans, creatures, it doesn’t matter to him. but he has a special inclination towards a few specifics. the rumors are true, he did spend a considerable amount of time in a psychiatric facility, and not a very well-maintained one. so he’s quite familiar with spiders and rats. they were the most frequent visitors to his cell. he’s partial to a ball python or hognose, and he can tame even the feistiest cobra. the crows, though. the crows are his most loyal friends, some would even call them his servants. there’s very little they wouldn’t do for him.

namjoon:

cats are his favorite, even the kind with eight eyes or black holes for mouths. they tend to flock to him, being the pillar of comfort that he is. he loves rodents and marsupials too. the trash goblins and ground tunnel dwellers. he’s been known to take them in at the drop of a hat, treating even the mangiest, scruffiest creature like a prized purebred show cat.

jimin:

obviously. jimin loves anything found in the sea, with a particular fondness for the depths. anything with bioluminescence or transparent camouflage or pressure equalizing bodies. anything with tentacles or teeth. anything frighteningly beautiful. he also finds leeches particularly interesting, though they are primarily found in freshwater (the lesser biome, in his opinion).

taehyung:

taehyung likes predators (of the apex variety). but he also loves the graceful strength of horses and deer, how they could kick the life out of you or impale you with an antler if they felt like it. like anything living, he itches to cut them open and see just what makes them tick.

jungkook:

jungkook can’t help but be friends with the decomposers, the worms and maggots and fungi that breaks down flesh. he likes the gentle creatures too, wants to protect them. he likes the anomalies, the ones others would call abominations or deformities.

[shithowdy]

Hi I saw your post about having 12 species of birds in your backyard so now I’m genuinely asking: what’s your advice for bird watching? And getting those birds into my backyard?

so i'm not what anyone would call a comprehensive resource but i can offer a few tips, yeah!

for making your yard attractive to birds:

birds do not like open space, as it makes them vulnerable to predators. they need lots of foliage to hide, so place any feeders or other features in places that aren't wide open. if you do not have a lot of plants in your yard, change that if you can!

diverse plants will also attract nectar-feeding birds and insect-eating birds, and are sort of your "natural" feeder setup. you can check if your area offers grants for pollinator gardens.

a non-stagnant or regularly-changed water feature (fountain, bird bath) is also very attractive to birds. in hotter climates, i would say it's an essential addition.

different types of feeders and food attract different types of birds. you can draw hummingbirds with nectar and bright flowers (they love fuchsia), most songbirds with black oil sunflower and safflower seeds, a whole variety with different suet, corvids with peanuts; doves and juncos and corvids prefer tray or ground feeding, little songbirds like something they can cling to, etc. research what kind attracts what you want to see, or make a diverse setup if you have the space. you can usually avoid feed that has millet, most birds will just hurl it everywhere.

don't feed birds bread; it's empty fluff and just fills them up. seed is boring but fine, they don't really have a concept of food being "boring"

clean your feeders every time you refill them (and change hummingbird feeders every few days regardless); there are several contagious avian diseases and you want to avoid outbreaks. your feeders will become known as foul and the uninfected will move on.

if you live in an area that has them, figure out a way to rodent-proof your feeders, like squirrel baffles. they'll destroy your whole setup and scare away all the birds (you can try to set up a special squirrel feeder, but they do not respect borders).

consider nest boxes! make sure they can be opened for cleaning, and don't have any harmful materials in their construction.

check if your town has a backyard birding store, like wild birds unlimited or a locally-owned equivalent. there will almost always be an old woman who may or may not work there willing to dispense advice about your local birds.

keep your cats indoors

for watchin them birds:

get the merlin app on your phone; it's kind of like Bird Shazam and can help you ID based on its song

if you want to get more serious, you can also get eBird and report your findings/keep a checklist

if you don't have a fancy zoom lens camera, get a pair of binoculars! they're good to have even if you do. you can even take pics through them with your phone.

the best time to watch birds is from about sunrise to late morning

don't interact with the birds, save for outlier circumstances (rescue, one lands on you, etc)

yard-watching and trail-watching are pretty different when it comes to ethics and how much humans and birds should be interacting. in general it's frowned upon to feed birds in wilderness areas to attract them, whereas urban birds are already accustomed to human presence. it's also frowned upon to play mating songs to attract birds.

don't go off-trail trying to find birds you can hear. it's dangerous for you and upsetting to them.

your area might have local birding meetups, or online groups where people report sightings and good spots.

there's uhhh probably a lot more i'm forgetting to add but i think this covers the basics!

[tomorrowsgardennc]

remember that purple galaxy cherry tomato that was all over the news this past winter?? the cherry tomato genetically modified with snapdragons to be very high in... some fancy words that are healthy for you??

i got to try it today, and take some home with me!

there's legit no taste... and they struggled growing alongside many other tried and true varieties because of the drought our area has had. but if i didn't taste it alongside other tomatoes in the same garden, i would've assumed i had covid again - that's how little taste it had. which i guess is better than a nasty taste???

the tomatoes i got to take home were open-pollinated, so now i am EXTRA excited to save these seeds and see how they turn out next year - both in color and if there's actually a taste or not.

[startedwithaseed]

Lettuce!

The first time i encountered lettuce plants going to seed i thought they looked like little palm trees... I was really surprised at how thick and sturdy the stems become when they are left to live out their full life cycle, especially if lots of the bottom leaves are stripped to reveal this woody stem. This is one of the joys of seed saving for me, seeing plants transform (often into relatively monstrous proportions!) and getting to appreciate the plant in a totally different way.

I didn't know at the time that lettuce was comparatively easy to save seed from, with the plants being mostly self fertile with perfect flowers, so there is minimal chance of crossing. The official advice is still to leave several meters between varieties, especially in hotter climates (where insects are more active/abundant? I have no idea), but if that would stop you saving your own lettuce seed for your own use, I say ignore the advice! I had been enjoying the benefits of saved lettuce seed, with the saved Cocarde seed being the most reliable germination in my fortnightly salad sowings that I was overseeing, often out performing much newer, bought in seed. Since I found out it could be achieved without complicated isolation netting and fears of cross pollination, I'd been dying to try it for myself. Just one plant can produce up to 10 grams of seed (that's around 8000 seed!) so it is the gift that keeps on giving. I also feel that most organic lettuce varieties are open pollinated and not hybrids, another plus for ease of mind when seed saving from this crop.

There are 3 main types of lettuces cultivated in the UK-

Romaine or cos lettuces, which form tight heads with long leaves, a typical example being little gem

Head lettuces, which again form heads but can be looser, and include smoother butter head types and more frilly batavia types

Leaf lettuces, which don't form heads and are often more frilly. an example is lollo rossa

They are all within the Lactuca sativa species so could all technically cross with eachother.

Lettuce are surprisingly hardy plants and such a mainstay for UK market gardeners, selling them as whole heads, and as part of mixed salad bags -which I believe are the highest value product for growers, although I have no recollection of where I heard that so can't fact check it! It makes sense in that it is high turnover, and many successions can be grown in a season. I personally find it hard to get too over excited about lettuce, preferring the more showy fruiting crops, and things that can be cooked and preserved in a variety of exciting ways. And seeing that it is often the veg that goes the most to waste (people love to buy mixed salad bags in shops because they look so appealing, but often fail to get round to eating them before they go slimy), it's hard to see it as the most sustainable crop. However I have made a deal with myself to get over my trepidation and finally experiment with lettuce soup this season!

As the stalks elongate and these beautiful heads start forming, the plants will want some kind of support if they are standing alone as this one is, we do have some that seem to be fairing quite well supported by tomato plants either side! I think it is quite common for several plants to die off at this stage, so select more than you think you'll need. Removing lower leaves can help to reduce the risk of rotting/moldy leaves/ slug damage leading to disease.

(A beast of a slug found hanging out under the module trays)

Watch out for flower buds starting to form, when open they almost look like little dandelion flowers, and in fact there method of distribution is the same with fluffy tops forming at full maturity.

It won't be long after flowering (about 2 weeks) that those seeds are mature, however flowers appear at varying times on the same plant so there are different methods of getting as much good, mature seed off the plant as possible. A good method for wetter UK conditions would be digging up the whole plant, roots and all, bagging the roots to stop soil dropping in with the seeds, and in a well ventilated, dry area , hanging the plant upside down in a paper bag (could be a potato sack or similar, just check for holes and turn it inside out so it's clean on the inside). Do this when about 50% of the seed are mature some will continue to mature on the plant and drop into the bag, ensuring a fairly good yield. Alternatively you can always just hand harvest mature seed from the plant as and when they come, with the main stem of the lettuce generally producing the best seed. They are mature when they easily separate from the plant.

Make sure the seed is completely dry before storing in a cool, dark, dry place.

These are just my musings from observations and my experience, as an enthusiast not a professional. My recommendations for deeper dives from the experts -

The seed growers podcast focused on lettuce seed production with Frank Morton

diyseed.org has beautiful videos going into detail on the seed saving process of most vegetables you could think of

realseeds.co.uk are an open pollinated seed company that encourage and have lots of resources on saving seed