What am I up to?
And why?
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How much do I love potatoes? Just look at this happy punim. They’d be on top of my desert island foods list, any time.
If you let them ripen, you can, theoretically, use . . . CONTINUE READING → Potatoes, mon amour  4 comments - (Comments are closed)  animalia, feral trivia, potatoes, tubers, Uncategorized, vegetabilia  desert island foods, earthworms, feral, harvest, potatoes, toads, tubers, zoo “Herr: Es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß,” said Rainer Maria Rilke in his widely celebrated poem Autumn Day. Which translates into English as “Lord, it is time. The summer was very big.” Having estimated the size of summer, Rilke then instructed the Lord to lay His shadow on the sundials, to let the winds go loose on the meadows, to command the last fruits to be full, and, last but not least, to make some wine. Scholars of literature still argue why the great German poet felt so bossy on that fall day. Perhaps he was — just like me — a little sick of air conditioning driving up his electric bill (over $200 a month compared to the regular $60 during the rest of the year) and reaching for the bottle?.. Frankly, I do not know. And I do not expect you, kind reader, to solve either this riddle or any of the aforementioned end-of-summer exigencies for me. I merely ask you to look at this photo — the last one of the season — and to offer a conjecture about its nature. What are we? . . . CONTINUE READING → One last photo quiz of the summer… Oh hello. Sorry to keep everyone in the dark about the results of the last photo quiz. It was a tough one — and radically different on the scale of scientific magnitude as well as photographic magnification.
Discovered by British scientists and patented as Fruitflow, this substance “can help maintain a healthy blood circulation by preventing blood from clotting, according to clinical trials.” (Source: Tomato seeds are the healthy alternative to aspirin) So, I’ve always thought that the seedy slimy core of a tomato is its most delicious part and, therefore, have always been skeptical of any recipes instructing you to discard the seeds (I have no objections . . . CONTINUE READING → A tomato seed a day… 2 comments - (Comments are closed) feral trivia, pretty pixels, tomatoes, vegetabilia fruitflow, harvest, heart, photo quiz, tomatoes
It was correctly identified as a member of the nightshade (or potato or Solanaceae) family that also includes Mandragora (mandrake), belladonna (deadly nightshade), Lycium barbarum (Wolfberry), Physalis philadelphica (Tomatillo) , Physalis peruviana (Cape gooseberry flower), Capsicum (paprika, chili pepper), Solanum (potato, tomato, eggplant), Nicotiana (tobacco), and Petunia. Just like any normal family, a healthy balance of pretty, functional and toxic…
However, nobody recognized it as an eggplant, so there is no official winner this time around. Ironically, the plant itself did not produce winning results either… Something ate all of its leaves, leaving it looking rather sad. . . . CONTINUE READING → Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Japanese Eggplant Flower Comments are closed animalia, eggplant, feral trivia, harvest, insects, pretty pixels, vegetabilia agapostemon, eggplant, photo quiz This photo quiz comes courtesy of my friends Kapa, who generously allowed me to re-post it, and Murzik, who generously alerted me to Kapa’s original posting of this stunning image. What am I? You probably don’t want me to limit your fantasy with any hints here, do you? Ok, ok, here’s one: sometimes you eat them and sometimes you don’t. But at the end of this fun game I’ll tell you why you might want to reconsider discarding them, even when a recipe instructs you to. To say that I’m impressed with *husband*, the winner of my previous photo ID challenge, would be a gross understatement. How did he do it? I still don’t know. But yes, it was indeed Oka Hijiki (also spelled Okahijiki), aka Seaweed Mustard, aka Saltwort, aka Salsola Komarovii — a close relative of common tumbleweed. Have you not heard of it? Neither have I, until my Japanese seed shopping spree this year. When read its description on Kitazawa Seed website, I knew I had to have it: Also known as “seaweed on land,” this variety is considered to be one of the healthiest greens eaten in Japan. Loaded with vitamins, it is usually sold in Japanese markets in very small packets. Oka hijiki is used in many Japanese dishes and is excellent simply steamed for a few minutes and eaten with mustard or vinegar. I’ll dedicate a separate post to it soon but now let’s turn our attention to the new quiz: What am I? 12 comments - (Comments are closed) feral trivia, herbs, leafy greens, pretty pixels, vegetabilia kitazawa, mustard, oka hijiki, photo quiz, photos, salsola, seaweed Enough kidding around: no silly out-of-focus abstractions or pretty flowers — this quiz is for serious horticulturalists. What am I? Is there a clue? Yes. Supposedly, this green is considered one of the healthiest foods in… Hmmm, no, that might make it too simple. Here’s your clue: think Wild Wild West and Far Far East. Click here to find out the answer. *** The subject of the last photo quiz was quickly identified by many as an allium and correctly by Murzik as a flowering leek. Here it is, with less zoom:
One final thing. The feral gardener encountered a strange blogger’s block last week which hindered the completion of a few posts I’ve been working on; the garden, thankfully, was unaffected by . . . CONTINUE READING → Monday quiz
Since we’re talking fancy botanical terms, I will have you know that okra belongs to the Malvaceae (or Mallow) family that also includes such plants as hibiscus, jute, cotton, cocoa, cola nut, and most notably, baobab. Now you surely realize why this flower looked so familiar… This particular variety is called Tokyo Gokaku. According to Kitazawa Seed’s website that I ordered it from, “This extra early Japanese okra produces 3″ long, dark green pentagonal pods. The tender, high quality fruit is short and round and has excellent flavor.” Here’s the photo of its fruit that I just took, about 10 days since the flowering:
10 comments - (Comments are closed) feral trivia, flowers, pretty pixels, vegetabilia gadgets, Japanese, kitchen, okra, photo quiz, photos, trivia I just got back after another weekend of intensely gratifying physical labor in the garden… And only have energy for a quick photo quiz question. But don’t worry, this is a good one! Clue: it’s a vegetable. What am I? The flower is really beautiful but don’t ask your florist to use it in your next centerpiece arrangement… It opens in the morning and wilts by the afternoon, giving way to its developing fruit — that I am eagerly anticipating. (Almost as eagerly as I am awaiting your guesses!) *** The next photo has no connection to our trivia game and contains no clues whatsoever to the flower in question. However, it shows you the fruit of my labor today. I finished this set of steps with some fine wood chips, and now they are a sheer pleasure to ascend as well as to descend.
2 comments - (Comments are closed) feral trivia, pretty pixels architecture, mulch, photo quiz, photos, steps, trivial pursuit |
 
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And that’s why I saved the best for last. I’m talking about the latest photo quiz, of course. Those green cherry-sized tomato-like berries, as correctly identified by both Kristik and Husband, are the proper fruit of the potato plant. Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are basically brothers (or sisters); so, if you confused them in the quiz, it was for a good reason. Just make sure not to confuse them in real life: potato berries, according to my sources, are poisonous and contain toxic compounds glycoalkaloids, that affect the nervous system and can cause weakness and confusion. (Wait, am I sure I haven’t been eating them? Because that would explain a lot…) These toxins are also present in other nightshades, like tomato and eggplant, especially in their foliage, and also in the potato tubers that have turned green due to photosynthesis. Wikipedia assures, however, that potato poisoning is quite a rare occurrence.
Congratulations to Anna who figured out the mystery! The image in question is a tomato seed under the microscope. The photo comes from The International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge 2010 via my biologist friend Kapa (who originally came up with this quiz). The outer, translucent, sphere of the seed is filled with a special gel that contains a substance which, according to Kapa, “we will all probably be consuming in large amounts 20 years from now.”
The time has arrived to reveal the vegetable behind the flower of our penultimate photo quiz from a few weeks ago. It was an eggplant, a Japanese Choryoku hybrid, to be exact. Here it is again, photographed flirting with a different bug, our old friend Agapostemon.
To be honest, I’ve had more luck photographing leeks than growing them. Somehow, they never get to be as plump and thick as at the market… I’ll be using one tonight to make a chard and potato stew, sans flower, obviously. The stalk feel quite hard though…
Well, the last photo quiz was over faster than you can say Abelmoschus esculentus. Or look up its definition on wikipedia. I admit, I was stunned by both such a quick correct response and its Latin name. Normal people (those who didn’t guess it right away) know this vegetable as okra or gumbo.
I read recently that you have to pick okra within a week after the pods are formed; otherwise 
I feel very happy about this project and just wanted to share my stair master pride. And now I must crash for it is late and I am exhausted after all the mulching,
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